Recommendation for HIPS filament with 2.85 mm diameter?

[AlexM]

Hello there,

I have a question for those of you who have a FDM printer which runs with 2.85 mm diameter filament.

There is a printing material called HIPS, which stands for High Impact Polystyrene. It is basically the same kind of material that is used for model kits, and therefore can be glued with typical model glue.

Over the years I tried HIPS filament from various manufactures, and experienced quite some differences. Some are harder, some are softer. For me, the most important characteristic is how well the printed layers adhere together during and of course after printing. Some filaments proved to be rather weak in that regard.

For my 1.75 mm diameter printer, I use HIPS filament for Fiberlogy, and I like it very much. But unfortunately, Fiberlogy doesn’t produce HIPS with 2.85 mm diameter.

So I wonder which brand of HIPS filament with 2.85 mm diameter you can recommend.

 

Cheers

Alex

[wunwinglow]

On 10/29/2023 at 10:28 PM, AlexM said:

Hello there,

I have a question for those of you who have a FDM printer which runs with 2.85 mm diameter filament.

There is a printing material called HIPS, which stands for High Impact Polystyrene. It is basically the same kind of material that is used for model kits, and therefore can be glued with typical model glue.

Over the years I tried HIPS filament from various manufactures, and experienced quite some differences. Some are harder, some are softer. For me, the most important characteristic is how well the printed layers adhere together during and of course after printing. Some filaments proved to be rather weak in that regard.

For my 1.75 mm diameter printer, I use HIPS filament for Fiberlogy, and I like it very much. But unfortunately, Fiberlogy doesn’t produce HIPS with 2.85 mm diameter.

So I wonder which brand of HIPS filament with 2.85 mm diameter you can recommend.

 

Cheers

Alex

I get mine from www.123-3d.co.uk , excellent service, no commercial links, just a happy customer.  Their HIPS is my standard, works really well on my little Ender 3. Currently working up a Hawker P 1121, slowly.......

Edited November 6, 2023 by wunwinglow
spleelingg...

[AlexM]

Thanks for that tip. But apparently, they don't ship outside the UK.

 

I just ordered some HIPS from so far unkonwn brands: Orbi-Tech, Kimya and Kodak. I'll test them to see how they perform.

 

Cheers

Alex

[Iain]

On 11/6/2023 at 1:31 PM, wunwinglow said:

I get mine from www.123-3d.co.uk

 

Thanks Tim!

 

My current stash of 1.75mm HIPS came via Amazon UK at an extremely good price - brand was 'S SIENOC' and have had excellent results - don't know if they also do 2.85mm.

 

Sadly that source dried up here post Brexit (was shipped from Germany IIRC) - so 123-3d.co.uk look like they will be my go-to in future, the prices look good.

 

Iain

 

[Out2gtcha]

Good to know for future reference.

 

I've got a really nice, and quite fast liquid resin 12k printer atm, (actually two of them)  and next year I'm going to invest in a very large platform FDM printer to go along with my resin printer so I can print out some Mandalorian armor parts.

I'll definitely be needing some advice on filaments when I get there.

[Iain]

The two technologies complement each other perfectly IMHO Brian - and FDM printing with HIPS for larger items just works so well on so many levels.

 

Iain

 

 

[AlexM]

Hello there,

here is a little comparison of various HIPS filaments with 2.85 mm diameter with the following settings:
•    Printer: Ultimaker 3
•    Printing speed: 60 mm/s
•    Printing temperature: 250°
•    Printing plate temperature: 95 °
•    Printing plate: glass with adhesive spray from 3d Jake

 

At first, I printed a part that might be the rear of a fuselage. From left to right, I used following brands:
•    Kodak, white
•    Kimya, light grey
•    Orbi-Tech, medium grey
•    e-Sun, silver grey
•    eins3D, black

 

 

 

Here is the Kodak part. I generally like grey or silver colored filaments, that will show some noticeable color contrast when sanding, so see where the part needs more attention (and 3d-printed parts with that way of technology will always need sanding if the parts should be used for modeling). Unfortunately, as far as I can see, there are no grey HIPS filaments from Kodak. The others I found on the internet are colorful like red and blue. Besides this, the part turned out good:

ttps://imgur.com/S6sl7YS

https://imgur.com/S6sl7YShttps://imgur.com/S6sl7YS

Next, there is the Kimya part. The filament “feels” soft on the spool. The printed part has a nice dull finish, and turned out good:

 

The Orbi-Tech turned out good, too, and has a rather satin finish:

 

The same can be said about the e-Sun part. It feels a bit harder than the other filaments:

 

 

The black eins3D part also turned out well. It feels similar “soft” like the Kimya one. I got it for a very good price (10 €):

 

So all in all, this part turned out good with all tested filaments.

[AlexM]

Let’s see how the materials perform whit a wing-section. This part is way more difficult to print, since on all parts, the area at the leading and especially trailing edge, where the meet the printing plate, had a tendency to warp/lift upwards. To improve adhesion on the printing plate, the parts were printed with so called brim, meaning a thin additional layer around the actual part that is automatically created in the printing software.

 

 

Additional the lifting at the leading and trailing edge, there is a crack on the Kodak part. This probably is a tension crack that can appear when the printed parts are cooling down from 250° and thereby shrinking a bit. So, cracks are not good on a wing…

 

 

The Kimya part has lifting at the usual areas, but no cracks:

 

 

The same can be said about the Orbi-Tech part. The e-Sun part, on the other hand, has two, maybe even three slight cracks:

 

 

The eins3D part has no cracks, but the most lifting/warping at the trailing/leading edge.

 

Later, I printed the wing part with lower printing speed, hoping to prevent cracks (no pictures). Strangely, now there appeared cracks on the Kimy and eins3D part.

 

So all in all, the Orbi-Tech filament performed best on this test. Keep in mind that the results can vary a lot, depending on the printer and settings. The problem of warping/lifting when printing high thin parts remains

 

Cheers
Alex

 

 

[wunwinglow]

Great tests! Can I suggest using a PEI bed, without anything other than the occasional wash with slightly soapy water, solved all my adhesion issues at a stroke. Bed temp 90 C. Also, printing in an enclosure solved all my structural issues, as it keeps the air around the print at a much more stable, and elevated temperature, so shrinkage is reduced, internal stress is less and the model is less likely to delaminate. I found running the extruder on the hotter end of the range for HIPS made the adhesion between layers much better. Turn off the nozzle cooling fan as well, not needed for HIPS.

 

Have fun!

[AlexM]

On 12/15/2023 at 10:02 PM, wunwinglow said:

Great tests! Can I suggest using a PEI bed, without anything other than the occasional wash with slightly soapy water, solved all my adhesion issues at a stroke. Bed temp 90 C. Also, printing in an enclosure solved all my structural issues, as it keeps the air around the print at a much more stable, and elevated temperature, so shrinkage is reduced, internal stress is less and the model is less likely to delaminate. I found running the extruder on the hotter end of the range for HIPS made the adhesion between layers much better. Turn off the nozzle cooling fan as well, not needed for HIPS.

 

Have fun!

 

Thanks for the advice. Yes, an enclosure is highly recommendet. On my Ultimaker printer with an open upper side and an open front, just closing the front with some plastic sheet makes a huge differnce.

 

Apparently, there are several different PEI beds out there, some rough, some smoother. Can you recommend a specific brand

 

Cheers

Alex