Filaments you want to see/Problems with current filaments

Hi everyone,
I just started my senior year at a major research university studying materials science and engineering. As part of our graduation requirement, we have to complete a capstone project that brings together the knowledge we’ve gained. My team is really interested in working with materials for additive manufacturing because it’s a huge, emerging field. I’ve personally been really excited about the possibility of 3D printing with composites since I heard about the Mark One a couple years ago. The team has a pretty wide range of skills and access to most of the labs in our department which include characterization and chemistry labs.

So, I was wondering what this community is really looking for in a filament material that isn’t currently out there (in terms of properties). My original idea was working with either PLA or ABS and creating a process to add in a ceramic filler to improve their melting temperature. However, this would seemingly run up against the maximum temperature of the tool head of most 3D printers. My other idea was to utilize carbon but the product description notes that this type of material damages the tool head which indicates that it’s already available (as my cursory google search showed :frowning: ).

Thanks for any input.
-Skyline

There are a ton of filler style filaments out there already, ceramic, metal, wood, carbon… Composites are interesting, but I’m not sure how you would do it with plastic. Much of the strength comes from the fabric and the woven fibers. That’s hard to reproduce with plastics.

The obvious targets are things like bed adhesion with stronger materials. We all want everything to print with the ease of PLA but be as strong as Nylon. Taulman has done a lot in this direction though.

I am interested in seeing what your group comes up with, so please post if you do find interesting things to research. Targets to consider would be bed adhesion and release, shrinking/warping. Materials that aren’t available like Delrin. Maybe making things like Polycarbonate easier to use.

I have been using Colorfabb’s co-polyester filaments that use Eastman’s Amphora 1800, 3300, & 5300 co-polymers because my projects need high strength and high heat resistance while maintaining high detail printing. My printing is more geared to industrial prototyping and production, so strength, heat resistance, accuracy, and aesthetics are at the top of the shopping list. Ease of print and print bed release are probably second on the list.

A MIM type metal filament has still not been done yet. though there are some working on it. This is not the same as metal filled filaments. these prints would be designed to go into a de-binder furnace and then a sintering furnace to make 99% metal parts.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1093108121/sinterhard-metal-filled-filaments-for-3d-printing