Has anyone already experimented with mixing high temperature resin?
The material is far too brittle for us. Our temperature requirements are only 150 Celsius maximum so I thought about mixing the resin with more flexible resins to lower the maximum temperature and increase flexibility.
I’ve tested clear and rigid resin at 150C already. Clear is very flexible at that temperature and Rigid is doing a good job, however it is prone to cracking when there is a little bit of stress due to other components in the assembly.
I’m now printing several mixtures (50/50 and 80/20):
High temp + Clear
High temp + Rigid
High temp + Durable
High temp + Black
The clear and durable 50/50 are most interesting so far, still having a bit of flex at 150C and not being brittle as pure HT resin. but it’s very preliminary. I’m going to print a lot of tensile bars and test them on a force bench on elevated temperatures.
If anyone experimented with this, please let me know! 
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Been having lots of fun.
90/10 and 80/20 HT/Black make parts after curing that don’t break that easily. I put them at 170C for a while and they weren’t as soft as normal resin. However, letting them cool down while bending would have them bent… Just like most plastics at higher temperatures. I’m pretty happy so far. Time will tell if they degrade or not.
So next step will be adding glass fill fibers to add just a little bit of rigidity at higher temperatures(again, just like we do with injection molded parts). I hope the particles are small enough so they don’t settle easily.
I’m watching your progress with great interested. I’m on a mission to get a combination that can handle moderately high temperatures (80C - 100C) and that will survive a drop test. Higher temps will be a bonus for me. So far I’ve played with:
Black & Tough: Parts are somewhat stronger and marginally less brittle than Black only but still far to brittle for end use and don’t survive a drop test. Beautiful dark blue appearance though and detail is stunning.
Grey Pro & Tough: Also nice strong parts but still too brittle to pass a drop test. At 60 degrees the parts soften quite a bit so not suitable for functional parts. Pity. BTW, I get lots of failed prints with Grey Pro but mixing it with Tough seems to solve that problem.
Rigid & Durable: The most promising so far, the only combination that survives a drop test. Unfortunately parts start to get soft at 60C so not ideal for functional parts either.
The trick for me is to decide what settings to use. So far I’ve printed with the settings of the “base” resin and the prints came out fine. But settling for Form Wash and Form Cure settings in the middle may not bring out the best in either material. I don’t know.
I’ve also been considering experimenting with fibers since some 3rd party resins contain chopped glass or carbon and they claim it works. But won’t it scratch the resin tray?
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Thanks for sharing!
I didn’t have time to play more unfortunately.
I found chopped glass fiber 0.2mm which I hope can try soon. I don’t know if it scratches the surface(I guess the particles in rigid resin are much, much smaller) but if it does I’ll be going to designing my own tray with replaceable FEP layer.
Sorry to resurrect this thread but I’m very curious to know if you found a good combination of high temp but less brittle.
Perhaps a resin has come out in the last 5 years that fills that gap? I’ve been looking at the Rigid 10K and Flame Retardant options.
Hi @theschap,
Thanks for getting in touch. Rigid 10K and Flame Retardant resins could both be good options depending on your application. You can compare the material datasheets for each resin to get a sense of their properties.