Polycarbonate 3D Printing

Polycarbonate (PC) is a thermoplastic with excellent mechanical properties and some of the best temperature resistance of any common FDM 3D printing plastic. PC can be subjected to high levels of plastic deformation without breaking. It is useful for both end-use parts and functional prototypes in the medical and automotive industries.

Polycarbonate printing can be more difficult than other standard FDM plastics due to its high glass transition temperature. This means the print must be done at a far higher temperature than other standard plastics like PLA or ABS. PC is also a good electrical insulator wherein some grades of polycarbonate can be sterilized with various standard processes making it ideal for food or medical applications.

Standard polycarbonate has excellent mechanical properties that far exceed those of other popular high-strength plastics like ABS. This makes polycarbonate ideal for functional prototypes and manufacturing tools as well as end-use parts.

As the name suggests, PC-ABS plastic combines these two popular plastics to create a material that contains properties of both. It has the high strength and temperature resistance of polycarbonate while maintaining some of the flexibility of ABS. 3D printing in PC-ABS is ideal for end-use parts that need to be flexible and don’t need to focus on temperature resistance.

This version of PC is biocompatible under ISO 10993 USP class IV and can be either gamma- or EtO-sterilized. The ability to be sterilized, coupled with PC’s mechanical and thermal properties, makes this variant ideal for medical device prototyping and food packaging.