Based on what you’ve described, if heat is a major concern for your parts, I would recommend sticking with Nylon 12 GF. Nylon 12 Tough offers improved toughness and impact resistance, but doesn’t perform as well under constant mechanical load and heat, especially in high-temperature environments like desert racing vehicles. Nylon 12 Tough is more likely to sag under those conditions compared to Nylon 12 GF, which has better heat tolerance and stability.
If you’d like to run a test build with Nylon 12 Tough to compare its performance with your existing material, our team can help you set that up before making any material switches. Just let us know!
Hoping Nylon 12 can do the job as the cost of Nylon 12 GF at the needed 70% refresh rate to run it successfully and waste of powder from the overflowing Sift going in the trash… is no longer a viable option for our production parts.
Hi @LEADNAV Nylon 12, Nylon 12 Tough, and Nylon 12 all have great heat resistance with each having an HDT over 150°C which should be more than enough for the application.
Nylon 12 GF is the stiffest of the 3 options, but is less strong in tension than regular Nylon 12 or Nylon 12 tough because of the glass filler. The glass filler also helps with dimensional stability vs standard Nylon 12. The extra stiffness is good for rigidity, but less will cause a lot of stress if used to make a spring mechanism, which can lead to failures.
Nylon 12 Tough is about twice as tough as Nylon 12 GF, but only half as stiff. It also has improved dimensional stability vs standard Nylon 12. The lower stiffness and higher ductility make it the best at making compliant mechanisms like a spring.
It seems like this is an application where impact strength, compliance, and dimensional accuracy are the most important factors, so I would recommend Nylon 12 Tough. Hopefully this is helpful!
I see that overall the HDT is very good but at the lower end it appears “Tough” softens a lot sooner than the rest?
Ocassionally we hit a sustained 190-200 degrees inside of a race car in the desert heat combined with a 900-1000 horsepower motor up against the dash. Or the part is mounted to a metal cage that can bake in the sun all day and feel like a cast iron skillet to the touch…
While these are typically “cases” for items being printed, so the object it is around keeps its composure and shape… I don’t know at what point these materials would be acceptable…
As in this example… I feel the iPad would hold a “softening” SLS printed case in its shape but at what point does it soften enough to matter and/or those bolt holes give out is the question.
Not printed but a good example of our all billet aluminum housing in which we hope to integrate SLS into a Hybrid…and some of the conditions we expose them to alongside our GPS software application
We keep the backs of the case open and vented either by air, once the vehicle is up to speed or with a blower fan in dash. But yes while sitting, either waiting or broke down… the iPad will time out for safety but this quickly cools off within a few minutes.
