Have you ever wondered why certain brands of 3D Printer Filament are dirt cheap, and others seem more expensive?
Are they all the same?
Does the expensive stuff really outperform the cheap stuff?
If it’s all the same polymer… why does it matter which company makes it?
We are here today to clarify a few of those points, and help you make the right decision about filament for your 3D Printing application
Does the Quality of Your Filament Matter?
Short answer… Yes!!!!!
The quality of your filament will directly affect the quality of your 3D Prints.
Your Mantis 3D Printer feeds plastic filament to the “hot tip” using a dual gear extruder. The speed at which your extruder feeds filament is critically important to the quality of your prints!
Too much or too little filament being delivered would pose massive problems!
Our machines are finely tuned with the correct feeds/speeds to enable optimal printing when using 1.75mm Plastic filament… but if all that’s the case… why does quality matter?
Isn’t all “1.75mm filament” the same? Short answer… No, it’s not!
The Devil is in the Details
Plastic filament is extruded using massive, industrial machines. Each manufacturer has developed their own process and recipe for extruding filament.
What goes into their "filament recipe” is up to them, with very little regulation.
Quality manufacturers ensure the polymers they’re extruding are optimal for consistent 3D Printing performance!
The budget manufacturers…. not so much. They care more about the cost of their recipe than the actual printing performance.
Another major factor is the Tolerance the manufacturer holds as they extrude filament.
Quality filament manufacturers are able to produce very close tolerance filament!
In layman’s terms… the diameter of your 1.75mm filament is very precise and consistent along the entire length of your spool.
This means our dual-gear extruder will deliver filament to the hot tip at the correct consistent rate, because the diameter of the filament is consistent.
Budget filament manufactures may cut corners in their extrusion process to maintain a low price point…
For example, they might setup their machines to extrude more filament per hour… but at the cost of looser tolerances, and more variation in filament diameter along the length of the spool. This variation in diameter lead to variation in filament delivery, and negatively affects the quality of your 3D Prints.
Even the Packaging & Shelf Life matters!
One often overlooked aspect of 3D Printer filament is how it’s packaged, and how recently it was manufactured.
Plastic 3D Printer filament is extremely susceptible to changes in moisture level!!!
For example, leaving your filament outside in the rain overnight would be catastrophic for the filament, and performance of your 3D Printer.
Additionally, polymer filament instantly begins degrading once it is extruded. Storing in an oxygen free environment helps prevent rapid degredation, and will allow maximum shelf life.
Quality 3D Printer filament manufacturers will extrude filament on a regular basis, selling customers “fresh made” filament.
They will package their high-quality filament with desiccant bags to keep moisture out of the filament, as well as vacuum-seal their filament to ensure it arrives with the highest quality and longest shelf-life possible.
Cheap filament brands will produce massive quantities of filament at once!!! It can sit on a warehouse shelf for months, or even years! It is often ship in a cardboard box, with no protection from moisture or the ambient environment.
The Bottom Line?
It truly pays to invest in the good stuff!!!
If you care about the quality of your 3D Prints, invest in a quality 3D Printer filament!
It will yield better performance, more consistent prints, and better overall quality.
We recommend using Overature brand PLA filament, as we have found it’s an excellent value for the money. It’s high quality and affordable. It’s what we choose to run on our own fleet printers, and we ship one full spool of Overture PLA filament with every printer we ship!
Best of luck as your 3D Printing journey continues, and we hope we helped clarify why the quality of your 3D printer filament matters!