PLA or ABS? Choose your ideal filament.
Albeit there are many new types of filaments flooding the FDM 3D Printing market, apart from a few exceptions they are predominantly the variants of PLA and ABS with a small twist in the composition of the materials.
And there arises the question for everyone slicing their model and have to make an ultimate choice between PLA and ABS. Maybe it isn’t a big deal when you are printing something for fun but makes a huge difference if your print is going to be functional or showcasing it as a miniature model.
Intricacy, strength, quality and many more factors come into consideration while choosing the filament. So, how to choose?
We have listed some of the factors you can take into consideration while choosing between PLA and ABS,
1. Strength:
In terms of physical strength, ABS has a clear edge over PLA as the material is industrial grade while PLA is made out of corn starch. ABS has high impact resistance and high temperature resistance which makes it ideal for printing models that are functional and movable.
When it comes to any physical object, people generally measure its quality mainly by it’s durability.
As you would have guessed, ABS has higher durability and a better lifetime when compared to PLA. With better physical strength and material composition, ABS tends to have a longer lifetime compared to PLA. This is one of the major reasons why ABS is preffered for end use applications while PLA is only applied for rapid prototyping where the shape and structure is important than the actual functionality.
Though PLA cannot match the strength of ABS, PLA is easy to print as opposed to ABS.
2. Shrinkage:
This is one of the most important but overshadowed factor that should be taken into consideration. Especially if you are printing parts that are going to be interconnected or movable, shrinkage can be a major deal breaker.
But if you are printing in PLA, you may not worry as there is very little to no shrinkage. In contrast, ABS shrinks to a considerable amount which may prove not to be the desired print that you intended to get out of your 3D Printer.
How to avoid shrinkage in ABS?
Well, you can’t avoid shrinkage, the answer is No. But we may have an alternative to that. Our 3D design experts recommend adding tolerance to your 3D models while designing them which helps in obtaining your desired model with correct dimensions in spite of shrinkage. But if you are downloading anything from the internet, make sure you that the design is tried, tested and 3D Print ready.
3. Ease of Use:
In this case, PLA is far better in comparison to ABS. For ABS, there are many additional factors that must be taken into consideration. PLA can be printed at normal temperatures while ABS requires fairly high temperatures and a heated bed. ABS is also prone to warping due to temperature variations, leveling and adhesion problems.
PLA is also non toxic while ABS emits fumes that are toxic but won’t affect one unless they are prone to continuous exposure to the material while printing.
But PLA is more prone to clogging, so loading and unloading the filament must be done carefully and the nozzle must be cleaned regularly to avoid severe damage.
4. Post Processing:
One of the major disadvantages of a PLA print is that sanding won’t prove to be effective and PLA is also not soluble in many solvents. On the other hand, ABS is ideal for sanding and also dissolves in solvents like acetone. Since it has better rigidity and toughness, ABS holds well during post processing without any wear and tear.
But majorly, post processing is done in FDM prints for removing the support and support leftovers from the main model. This can be easily achieved in dual extrusion 3D Printers where you can use special support filaments like PVA and HIPS which are soluble in water and special solvents like Delemoine which results in minimum to no post processing required for the main models.
5. Applications:
Though both PLA and ABS are plastics, ABS is predominantly used for printing end use products, functional prototypes, high resistance and moving parts whereas PLA is mainly used for printing domestic products like toys, pen stands, photo frames and prototypes with less functionality.
But many composites of PLA like wood, metal and flexible are used according to the requirements in industries too.
Ran out of filaments? Fret not, check out our long list of filaments ranging from ABS, PLA to Nylon and carbon fiber.
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