PLA/PHA Filament help

Hi all, I've been testing out various new filaments (exotic and others), and came across some PLA/PHA Mixed filament from MeltInk over on Amazon.com; I had a bad experience with the first roll of material, and thankfully the company sent me a replacement free of charge (after I returned the original to Amazon) -- as well as some standard PLA colored samples -- but I'm still having a frustrating time with the prints.

I've tried anywhere from 180c up to 220c on the extruder temps; the problem is the higher I go in temp, the more brittle the prints become, and it seems like the infill isn't quite "infilling" properly. I've managed, at 180c, to get a DECENT print... but the overall structure is still fairly brittle and much easier to snap in places than any standard PLA material I've used to print.

200c
Attachment 8941

190c
Attachment 8942

180c
Attachment 8943


As you can see closely, there seem to be gaps in the infill sections, and the overall prints become more brittle and chalky the higher the temp. I don't think I can go less than 180c though and still get the filament to melt; what do you all think could be the issue with this filament? Anyone else have hands on experience with PLA/PHA?

Hi,
I once bought some PLA/PHA from colorfabb. It's not a bad product (except for the price perhaps). Didn't have the issues you have at least.

Regarding the issues you seem to have ... the mechanical properties certainly point to a material of poor quality but to me the infill holes you experience are probably also due to :
1/ possibly underextrusion due to bad diameter.
2/ most certainly too fast speed
3/ possibly not enough overlap of infill on external shells.

Agreed with Lambda. I also use Meltink, but I have my speeds way slow. I never go much past 45mm/s and have had great success.
I think I tried it yesterday at 60mm/s and it worked great, but it looked like stringing was happening a little more, so I upped my retract settings, much better now.