Clear ABS Filament

Is there a reason no one offers clear ABS filament? I know you can get clear ABS in sheets, is there something about it that makes it harder to manufacture as filament?

Good question and one I would like to know as well.

It's available for RepRap, some of the Chinese suppliers are offering it. Not tried it myself but it should work fine.

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

I found one hit (about the only one for clear abs filament) that said the ABS described as clear from a Chinese supplier turned out to be natural opaque. There is a supplier in Australia who also offers "natural/clear" It seems that to them, clear means "not colored" rather than transparent.

IanJohnson Wrote:
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> I found one hit (about the only one for clear abs
> filament) that said the ABS described as clear
> from a Chinese supplier turned out to be natural
> opaque. There is a supplier in Australia who
> also offers "natural/clear" It seems that to
> them, clear means "not colored" rather than
> transparent.
Yep, and I have read that the "clear" turns yellowy when printing not anything clear.

I don't know of clear ABS but you can get clear poly-carbonate here.


-Nick

I thought clear ABS would be cool because the glossy acetone finish could mean extra clarity, especially for a single walled print. If it turns yellow when you extrude it, then that wouldn't be so good.

Did some googling and found some information on processing TOYOLAC transparent ABS. Presumably other brands are fairly similar. The yellowing is a result of too high an extrusion temperature or holding the material hot for too long. Extrude at between 230C and 250C and as quickly as possible through an extruder with a short melt zone and it might work.

It may be easier to use a naturally transparent plastic where possible. PolyCarbonate is also soluble in acetone so it may respond well to an acetone dip.

I'm not sure that ABS comes truly clear in any natural form or any processed form. The rubber component, butadiene, almost ensures it. Two of its main components do though - Polystyrene (the polymer of styrene - the S in ABS) and Acrylic - the A in ABS. If you boost those 2 components percentages, you can fake clarity a bit though at the cost of impact resistance and flexibility. A lot of pictures you will see on Google pictures of "clear ABS" is really acrylic, there is something lost in the translation.

Why no one in RepRap supplier produces PS or Acrylic as filaments is a mystery to me. HIPS - High Impact Polystyrene doesn't come in a clear form though, it looks very similar to ABS but is more brittle like glass. PS has a great feature for plastics - it doesn't degrade in a heated barrel, very rare for a plastic. You could leave it in the barrel cooking at 220° C all day long and have no carbon deposits and no burnt plastic smell.

The only plastics that I have used that come in a clear form are clarified PP (polypropylene - a clarified version of PP (not normal Homo-polymer or Co-polymer versions), PS (polystyrene), polyesters (like PET), PLA (a special low temp bio-bioplastic version of polyester), PC (polycarbonate like Lexan), Acrylic (like lucite or plexiglass), or Vinyl. Other plastics can look almost clear, if processed extremely thin like regular PP, PE (polyethylenes like LDPE, HDPE, LLDPE, etc.) but are at best milky instead of clear.

You can indeed have clear ABS - you just have to reduce the size of the butadiene phase distributed through the SAN matrix so that light isn't scattered by it. Unfortunately, reducing the size of the butadiene regions also destroys the impact resistance that the butadiene provides.

As such, 'clear ABS' is actually MABS - methyl methacrylate butadiene styrene. The methyl methacrylate's index of refraction is closer to that of the butadiene than SAN, so the material looks clear.

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[haveblue.org]

Hello, Everyone who may interest on transparent or clear ABS filament. Now there is a good news.

You can buy transparent or somebody called clear ABS from http://www.repraper.com. Both 1.75mm and 3.0mm are available now.

For more details, you can find it through the following two link.
ABS transparent 3.0mm, http://www.repraper.com/goods.php?id=182
ABS transparent 1.7mm, http://www.repraper.com/goods.php?id=181

Here I attached one photo.

3DPrinterGear in Australia has a sample of clear ABS which looks pretty good. He is planning to start selling it in a couple of weeks.

Clear ABS at 3DPrinterGear

Ohio based builder who carries clear ABS 3mm:

[www.ic3dprinters.com]
[stores.ebay.com]

I'm printing with repraper's now, it prints fine and is clear.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2013 11:03AM by srPowdercoating.

I bought some of the repraper clear ABS, but mine doesn't print well. When printing at 200degC (normal temp for their other coloured filaments) it struggles to melt and the extruder skips, it seems to be better at higher temps (215-220degC) but at these temps it seems to set white rather than clear (it looks clear for the second or so before it cools). If I set it any higher my printer cuts out as the extruder is limited to 225degC (of course I could change this in firmware, but I've never needed to go over 205degC before).

What temp did you print at for the result pictured above?

Thanks
SLAM-ER

I print all my ABS at 220c. I Have had no trouble with this filament, I am printing with it now.

A couple people have asked for a picture of something else printed in this.

Nice examples!

I'm going to buy a roll!

You a bot?

This topic is about clear ABS, not PLA.

Shameless advertisement.





james luis Wrote:
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> This is luis james from China , I can supply you
> with PLA filament and pellet . nature works or not
> .... if you need contact me now

Hey guys, I bought some clear ABS filament from www.filamentenmeer.nl it is the exact same repraper filament that srPowdercoating is using, here are a few examples of two tests, one test I made myself, it is a 25x25mm square which has 5mm wide strips that get higher with 0.325mm each step to test the translucent qualities of the clear ABS.

The other parts are parts for my MendelMax 1.5 that I am currently building and printing.

I notice it sticks much better than any other ABS that has color and has practically no warping and no delamination.
It is the happiest ABS I've ever used.

All parts are printed using 0.325mm layer height and 0.4 infill with 3 min/max layers solid.
I noticed that the infills ruin the translucent properties, the 5-layer high (thus 5 solid layers), test has the best translucent quality because it's practically solid.
I have yet to do a square block with 100% infill to see if my findings are correct, however I am not a fan of using 100% infill, since it is a waste of material, UNLESS you want to print a small window for a scale model or something and you are used to printing with ABS and dont want to have to switch to PLA and have to recalibrate your whole printer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2013 08:10AM by Ohmarinus.

Wow, nice to see good results. I just noticed Amazon selling some and had to see if it was real. Sure enough reprapist.com is selling it as well. It will be all over the place soon, I'm sure.

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