I have been running Nylon 12 GF at a 70% refresh now successfully for almost a year now. However the cost of material and the amount that needs to go in the trash makes it very hard for this to be a viable production option so this week I have dedicated to Nylon 12 testing and cost comparisons.
My inititial thoughts on the material differences… Nylon 12 to me has a less “finished look to it”. Rough around the edges and a grittier feel make it easier to scuff. Definitely lighter and more plastic feeling. Whereas the Nylon 12 GF is more refined around the edges with almost a polished looking sheen to it when blasted and Dyed the same. The Nylon 12 GF is heavier with more of a “stone” feel to it versus plastic.
That has me leaning towards continuing to prefer Nylon 12 GF for end use parts (minus the price tags and waste) but lets get into the major question…
I have been loading PreForm chambers in both materials and using the new PreForm Print Report feature to try and get a cost difference between the two and at different refresh rates. According to this, Nylon 12 has looked like a huge cost savings.
The problem I just noticed was that if I bump both Nylon 12 and Nylon 12 GF to a 70% refresh… there was still a big cost savings according to the report… even with the two costing just a few dollars off per Kg…
Then… I just changed the cost per Kg to the same for both and both at 70% refresh…and there is still a big cost savings in Nylon 12?
What am I missing here…?
Both set at the same cost and refresh
Same Print job and cost report for both
I mean looking at that… it is because the print layers and powder to sintered ratios/stats are different between the two…but why? More Surface armor…?
What am I screwing up here or not getting in my head?
Also, side question…how accurate have you found powder estimates to be on PreForm?