Materials
Filament
Also known as: filamento · filament · carrete · bobina · spool · 1.75 mm
Short definition
Filament is the plastic thread wound on a spool that feeds FDM-type printers, normally 1.75 mm in diameter.
Full definition
There are two diameters on the market, 1.75 mm and 2.85 mm, and today the vast majority of home machines use the former. The diameter tolerance the manufacturer declares — typically ±0.02 to ±0.05 mm — matters more than it seems: a 3 % variation in diameter changes extruded volume by 6 %, and that shows up as banding on the part wall. A standard spool holds 1 kg of material plus 150 to 250 g of empty spool, a figure to subtract if you weigh the spool to work out what is left.
Related terms
- PLAPLA is a plant-derived thermoplastic, the most used filament in home 3D printing thanks to how easily it prints and how little it warps.
- DensityA printing material's density, in grams per cubic centimetre, is the figure that turns the volume reported by the slicer into grams and, from there, into money.
- HygroscopicA hygroscopic material is one that absorbs moisture from the air; in a filament, that water turns to steam inside the nozzle and ruins the print.
Materials
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