ep29030
Member
I have been playing around with resin mixes for a couple of months. It started with a desire to make items that aren’t so brittle. I noticed that dropping a small part on the concrete floor in my shop always resulted in a broken part. To me, this is unacceptable, and especially so if I ever want to put it in someone else’s hands. So, I started looking for resins that offer more flexibility. I’m usually looking at the “Elongation at Break” value for the resin. Some resins have as little as 5-8% elongation. I found a resin with about 80% elongation: 3D Materials Superfast Superflex Clear. Not cheap at $50 per Kg. I printed a couple of parts with the straight resin. Wow! I could bend the part back on itself, squeeze it together, etc. Crazy flexible. I saw some other people talk about mixes where they added 15-20%, I started by adding 10% Superflex (by volume) to my main resin, Anycubic High Speed resin. Added a slight amount of flexibility to the part. Increased the Superflex to 20% - perfection! Some flex in my parts. I can drop these parts on my concrete floor and they bounce—no breakage.
Another important consideration here: Superflex has recommended UV exposure in the 1.8-3 second range. This is similar to the 2.0 second setting for the High Speed Resin. So the two resins have similar exposure ranges, which means I don’t need to experiment to find a compromise exposure.
Color: mixing resins can be a hassle if you want a specific color. Some resins have limited color options. I now look for add-in resins that come in clear, so the main resin carries the part color. Superflex comes in Clear (as do some other flexible resins from other companies).
I’ve recently found a high-temperature resistant resin that works well with Superflex: Yousu Black High Tempature resin. I did a 20% add-in of Superflex with it, and get some flexibility in my parts. Not quite as good as High Speed Resin, but definitely improved. Probably going to bump it up to 25-30% Superflex. But I threw some parts in a 250F oven for 30 minutes and they came out fine—no warping at all. So the heat resistance seems to hold even in the mixture.
Another important consideration here: Superflex has recommended UV exposure in the 1.8-3 second range. This is similar to the 2.0 second setting for the High Speed Resin. So the two resins have similar exposure ranges, which means I don’t need to experiment to find a compromise exposure.
Color: mixing resins can be a hassle if you want a specific color. Some resins have limited color options. I now look for add-in resins that come in clear, so the main resin carries the part color. Superflex comes in Clear (as do some other flexible resins from other companies).
I’ve recently found a high-temperature resistant resin that works well with Superflex: Yousu Black High Tempature resin. I did a 20% add-in of Superflex with it, and get some flexibility in my parts. Not quite as good as High Speed Resin, but definitely improved. Probably going to bump it up to 25-30% Superflex. But I threw some parts in a 250F oven for 30 minutes and they came out fine—no warping at all. So the heat resistance seems to hold even in the mixture.
