Although usually nylon (generally PA6) filament is pretty cheap, there are some more exotic variants out there, such as the PA12-based Lyten 3D graphene filament that comes in at a cool $150 for a 1 kg spool. Worse for [Dr. Igor Gaspar] here was that the company doesn’t ship to the EU, and didn’t respond to emails about obtaining a sample for testing. Fortunately he got a spool via a different route, so that he could test whether this is the strongest nylon filament or not.
The full name for this filament is PA1205, though it’s not certain what the ’05’ part stands for. PA12 is a less moisture-sensitive version of PA6, however. Among the manufacturer’s claims are that it’s the strongest nylon filament, as well as very lightweight and heat-resistant. Interestingly the datasheet recommends printing with an 0.6 mm nozzle, which is the only major deviation from typical nylon FDM filaments. Of course, printing with an 0.4 mm nozzle had to be tried.
With a standard PA-CF preset in Bambu Lab’s slicer the printing of test parts worked without issues, which was promising. With load testing the filament made a good showing compared to average PA filaments, though as with most fiber reinforced filaments it’s more brittle than the pure material. Compared to PA-CF this PA1205 was much less brittle than PA-CF, however. Overall it’s not a bad filament, but for the asking price it’s a tough ask.
“Interestingly the datasheet recommends printing with an 0.6 mm nozzle, which is the only major deviation from typical nylon FDM filaments.”
… No? This isn’t unusual at all. :/
If you put crap in filament like this garbage then you’re gonna want a larger diametre nozzle.
i really don’t understand the appeal in putting filler garbage like this into filament and claiming its “graphene”. it’s almost entirely pointless for little to no benefit and now you also have to deal with extra air filtration and other such nonsense unless you want lung cancer in 15-20 years from acute lung injury.
plastic cancer slop; that’s all “graphene” filaments are.
Do you have a source on the cancer risk? Graphene is pretty much the opposite of friable.
There are several published studies available. Here’s one from the NIH:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6669460/
I, personally, would never risk using graphene or carbon fiber embedded filament.
Graphene should be finer than nylon, there is no logical reason why they should recommend printing it with a 0.6 nozzle. In my opinion it’s just graphite with some graphene in it (if any) and probably that’s why.
I still don’t get why manufacturers insist on creating filament with something in it and put a steep price on it.
For example, carbon fiber filament was debunked last year by “I buit a thing” channel on YouTube. It offers no real benefit. But hey, if people like to buy expensive stuff for no reason, let them.
It makes a massive difference especially in flexible polymers like Nylon. Carbon fiber cures warping and creep the two biggest downsides of nylon. You’re just wrong
Carbon fiber PLA is pretty well useless, but for industrial applications carbon or glass filled nylons are invaluable. Unfilled nylons are too flexible in that role, and nothing else really fills that niche with any sort of temperature resistance.
I checked out “I built a thing”. The slew of additive filament articles on HaD is making sense now.
FWIW, no one uses CF PLA, and I would guess the owner of this YT channel knows this. It’s an easy premise for a sensationalist click-bait video.
The primary function of CF/GF additives is temperature deflection. In fact, most additive filaments will have reduced mechanical performance, lower layer adhesion strength, etc.
Additive filaments are not a scam. The way they are marketed is certainly misleading, they really aren’t applicable for the vast majority of use cases. However if you’re bolting 3D prints to engines, nothing other than PA-CF (other than $1k/roll exotic polymers) is going to hold up.
If you are USING 3d printed parts, you are doing it wrong anyway.
3d printing is for art and prototyping. (I’m not talking about fancy sintered metal parts)
Not entirely true.
I produce parts made to be used in an enterprise networking environment. I use PLA-CF, and it’s the perfect material for this application. I have access to (and frequently print) lots of other “better” materials, including PA12-CF, but for this one purpose, the PLA-CF is a better fit.
How is this possible? Because the PLA is stiffer, doesn’t creep (as much) over time with constant loading, is lighter, less costly, and much easier to print and post-process.
These are not theoretical, or lab/bench results. I tried multiple materials for my product, and the PLA-CF was the best, and NOT just because it was the cheapest, but that ended up being a nice bonus.
TL;DR – PLA-CF is NOT useless, if used properly for the right parts and application.
This stuff may be a rip-off as the graphene needs to be functionalized and present during polymerisation to give you the strongest possible material. This filament is probably best called a composite, in the same way a wall of bricks and mortar are.
Coating
https://phys.org/news/2026-03-laser-graphene-enables-molecule-thick.html