I emailed CreatBot support about the crystallization issue: glad to help you After printing is completed, you can take out the model and put it into a thermostat for annealing. After annealing, you can get the crystallized state. Best Regards， Kevin
The discoloration is due to the crystal structure of the PEEK material, it's a semi-crystalline polymer and due to the nature of how FFF/FDM printing works you get uneven heat across the part leading to non-continuous crystal structures. If you anneal it in an oven then you could get a fully crystalized part which will have way better temp resistance and layer adhesion.
Found a forum where someone posted photos of prints in PEEK from this machine. Same issue, this is the cheapest printer capable of using PEEK, but it's amorphous PEEK not crystalline
It's poly ether ether ketone not poly ethereth erketone The discoloration might be caused by oxidation or thermal degradation but definitely not uneven curing. PEEK, as basically all FDM filaments, is not being cured at all (unlike resin in SLA machines)
The difference in color is most likely due to cristsllinity. PEEK is highly semi-cristalline when annealed and tends to cristallize in areas of higher heat input, e.g. small areas of the print or close to the bed
CF Nylon is notorious for destroying brass nozzles so if the printer has one then no but if you have a steel nozzle go for it (edit:The best nozzle from my personal experience is a ruby or diamond nozzle , it handles even CF PEEK like a champ )
PEEK version is about $2000 which is relatively cheap... about 50% of what most of the PEEK-capable printers I see cost. You can probably build a custom rig for that.... so it's not a bad starter for high-temp printing based on that alone. I would like to see some actual product testing to see how the printed PEEK parts hold up considering this printer's max temp is about 20c below the max printing temp for PEEK. Some plastics get much better layer adhesion at higher-than-typical printing temps.
I emailed CreatBot support about the crystallization issue:
glad to help you
After printing is completed, you can take out the model and put it into a thermostat for annealing. After annealing, you can get the crystallized state.
Best Regards，
Kevin
The discoloration is due to the crystal structure of the PEEK material, it's a semi-crystalline polymer and due to the nature of how FFF/FDM printing works you get uneven heat across the part leading to non-continuous crystal structures. If you anneal it in an oven then you could get a fully crystalized part which will have way better temp resistance and layer adhesion.
Yeah that wasn't a good print.
Found a forum where someone posted photos of prints in PEEK from this machine.
Same issue, this is the cheapest printer capable of using PEEK, but it's amorphous PEEK not crystalline
Perhaps if you insulated the chamber you'd get better results
Can the chamber heat be set higher?
The max is 70C for the peek model
Nice video. I am trying to decide between Creatbot F160, F430 and Intamsys Funmat HT, it will help me to choose
It's poly ether ether ketone not poly ethereth erketone
The discoloration might be caused by oxidation or thermal degradation but definitely not uneven curing. PEEK, as basically all FDM filaments, is not being cured at all (unlike resin in SLA machines)
The difference in color is most likely due to cristsllinity. PEEK is highly semi-cristalline when annealed and tends to cristallize in areas of higher heat input, e.g. small areas of the print or close to the bed
Is the F160 (PEEK version) suitable for printing CF Nylon out of the box, or is a nozzle swap necessary first?
CF Nylon is notorious for destroying brass nozzles so if the printer has one then no but if you have a steel nozzle go for it (edit:The best nozzle from my personal experience is a ruby or diamond nozzle , it handles even CF PEEK like a champ )
Do you know how to change the hot end/extruder head???
How much is it
seems to be 1300$, but if you wanna print peek it will cost quite a bit cause of the filament cost.
PEEK version is about $2000 which is relatively cheap... about 50% of what most of the PEEK-capable printers I see cost.
You can probably build a custom rig for that.... so it's not a bad starter for high-temp printing based on that alone.
I would like to see some actual product testing to see how the printed PEEK parts hold up considering this printer's max temp is about 20c below the max printing temp for PEEK. Some plastics get much better layer adhesion at higher-than-typical printing temps.
The PEEK version is more like $2500, pretty cheap for PEEK capabilities