What's new
What's new

Chemical Compatibility of FDM Matls vs Machine Coolant

JNieman

Titanium
Joined
Nov 12, 2011
Location
Greater St Louis Area
Has anyone come across any literature comparing various machine coolants/cutting fluids chemical compatibility with various 3d Printing materials?
Does anyone have any advise on how to quickly get some answers about that?

I'd like to investigate any issues with either dimensional changes, like swelling. I'm also curious about corrosion over time, if not cleaned off parts. Talking about time as in weeks, maybe months, not years.

I know the typical Loc Lines used for flooding coolant are Acetal. So that's obviously a stable-enough, non-reactive material.

Any other ideas?

Materials might be PLA, ABS, ASA, Nylon12, PC, PETG, and the like. Ultem is a consideration but I believe that'd be a-ok.
 
Nylon absorbs moisture and changes dimensions so that might not be a good choice if you are creating fixtures.

But what I don't know is - how quickly? I wasn't really planning on nylon for that reason, but I don't want to make assumptions without data. If it's a one-time-use fixture, and it's used up before the fixture goes out of acceptable limits, then it's ok.

Ideally, I could find a way to get decent info other than running the experiments myself. I understand if that's not 100% possible, but I'd like to eliminate what I can before trials :)
 
I printed a chip cover out of PLA about 3 weeks ago and so far so good. The part was a fit, form, function part though so I can't give you actual dimensions. The part seems like it has swollen a little, >2%, but it still snaps into place as it was designed to do. It hasn't delaminated that I can see yet but the part does feel less rigid. Remember PLA is supposed to absorb moisture just like nylon.
 








 
Back
Top