HTPLA – Medium Gray Carbon Fibre Composite

Our most popular exotic material, Proto-pasta Carbon Fibre Composite HTPLA is a combination of milled carbon Fibres and high-performance PLA. Resulting 3D prints made with Protopasta Carbon Fibre HTPLA are demonstrably more rigid, providing excellent structural strength and layer adhesion with very low warpage. The embedded carbon provides a beautiful light matte gray finish with a slight sheen, resulting in 3D prints with exceptional accuracy, finish, and performance!

Carbon Fiber HTPLA combines engineering-grade performance with the ease and environmental-friendliness of PLA printing. This is a “super-material” with incredible stiffness so parts hold their shape.

HTPLA filament with 15% chopped carbon fibers.

This filament is abrasive due to carbon fibers. Prolonged use may result in accelerated nozzle wear. Try a wear resistant nozzle for less regular maintenance.

Adaptable to most PLA-compatible printers. Heated bed recommended for process ease, quality, and reliability, but not required. Printer should allow 3rd party filament, parameter adjustment, and nozzle replacement. Specialized machine adaptation and maintenance may be required for Proto-pasta materials particularly in continued use of abrasive materials.

Features

• Easy to print
• Improved toughness compared to Carbon fiber PLA
• Maintains properties of 120 °C or more (when heat treated)
• Less warping and distortion than ABS
• Improved surface hardness for less wear in abrasive environments
• Fabulous structural strength
• Excellent layer adhesion
• Durable
• No heated bed required
• Usable on most PLA-compatible printers

Tech specifications

Tips&Tricks

Printing with ProtoPasta Carbon Fiber HTPLA is very similar to printing in standard PLA -it does not require a heated bed. Use a standard build surface preparation like tape or glue stick. This filament has improved toughness for less breaking (when handling) and easier processing over the Original Carbon Fiber PLA.

Applications
This filament is perfect for printing items that do not bend, such as: frames, supports, propellers, and tools (drone builders and RC Hobbyists love this stuff).

How to do “Heat Treatment”
Bake your parts into a oven until you see a change from translucent to opaque. There is an obvious visual change indicating the improved performance! Good results were achieved in a lab oven at 110 °C for an hour or less. We recommend leaving the supports on your parts, placing them on a non-radiating surface (like glass, ceramic, or composite), and letting them cool in the oven to minimize distortion. Parts can be baked at a lower temperature (though must be above 60 °C for any change to occur) for a longer time with less risk of unwanted deformation.

TIP!
When you anneal a material like PLA materials it means that the plastic will continue to harden when exposed to low but consistent heat. Annealing will cause any 3d printed objects to temper, making it significantly less brittle and extremely tough. If done correctly, annealed parts will be resistant to warping, and maintain its original shape and structure.
However it may slightly shrink, so any critically-sized prints may be scaled up slightly by about 2 to 2.5% to make sure it will still fit any adjoining parts.
Due to all the different types of hot-end it’s extremely difficult to give a temperature advice. Please consider these tips, provided by the manufacturer, as a starting point to find the temperatures that work well in your setup. You may have to adjust the temperature settings slightly based on your type of printer.

For more about how to print HTPLA, consider the Protopasta getting started guide.

Please consider all product details before purchase and use.