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filaments:pet

PET - Polyethylene Terephthalate

PET is a common material often found in rigid bottles for low-temperature goods such as peanut butter or sports drinks. It is the most readily accessible semi-crystalline polymer and is therefore difficult to print. Recent development of filled (CF/GF) PET filaments have resolved much of the printability issues inherent to pure PET.

Advantages

  • Reasonable value for temperature resistance
  • Broad color variety
  • Filled PET printable with low (even no!) chamber temperatures

Disadvantages

  • Requires post-processing (annealing) for best performance
  • Pure PET is difficult to work with
  • Extremely hygroscopic - requires filament dryer with higher than normal temperature (80C) and drybox

Variants

Standard guidance on additives applies to an extreme degree.

Annealing

Information on PET(-GF/-CF) specific annealing here.

Placeholder: We recommend 120C annealing, which produces parts good to ~100C. Higher temperatures are more difficult to process PET parts with, but yield parts with greater temperature resistance.

Make sure you calibrate your printer to the post-processed product (post annealing). Generally, you can expect approximately 1% shrink. This will cause undersized holes in your parts, so calibration is crucial when printing assemblies.

Vendors

With recent popularity in PET, several vendors are offering products. Despite identical labeling, experiences have varied between brands.

Note that vendors may change their suppliers, additives, and overall quality without notice. This page may become outdated - if this occurs, please update this page.

Product Notes
Phaetus aeForce PET-GF High quality filled PET
Fusrock PET-GF High quality filled PET
Qidi PET-CF High quality filled PET
Raise3D PET-GF/-CF High quality filled PET
Bambu PET-CF Tends to melt instead of annealing, expensive
Siraya Tech PET-CF Lower CF content (10%) than others, sensitive to annealing temperatures
Siddement PET-CF Abnormally low temperatures for PET (-50C) compared to others, poor results when annealing/calibrating
Polymaker PET-CF Somewhat flexible, generates dust - abnormally low temperatures compared to others. Printing issues have been observed with 0.6mm nozzles.

Although each of these filaments have been tested with similar observations, it is currently theorized that Phaetus, Fusrock, Qidi, and Raise 3D are currently selling the same product.

Baseline Printing Recommendations

These numbers are provided as a baseline, and need adjustment and calibration for your specific printer/filament/color combination.

Variant Hotend Temperature Heatbed Temperature Chamber Temperature Optimistic Usable Temperature Drying Temperature
PET ? ? ? ?
PET-GF/-CF 300-320C 80C None 100C1) 80-100C

Other notes

PET has powerful adhesion to PEI sheets. It is highly recommended to use an interface material like PVA (generic glue-stick) or other products to prevent PEI sheet damage.

1)
Depends on annealing procedure
filaments/pet.txt · Last modified: 2025/01/30 13:05 by kubuxu