High Strength parts

[Danimal300]

I have been researching printing functional parts, and there are some conflicting results out there. It seems that everyone has a different definition of "strong", but my definition is something that can repeatedly absorb impacts or deflections without breaking or permanently distorting.

I am looking at building some quadcopter parts, and plan on refining the design to make them as light as possible, while still being able to take the abuse of hard landings and general flexing from hard acceleration. This will be a process, but I want to start with the right materials and methods so I can zero in on what makes parts strong and lightweight.

So far I have come up with polycarbonate as my material of choice, but that means that I am going to need to upgrade my printer hot end. I have an FT-5. Are there other filaments out there that can come close to the strength of PC? Are there additional printing methods or ideas that I can incorporate into the design that will improve the strength of the parts? I have seen some ideas for inserting backing materials, or creating voids within the parts and filling them with epoxy or other materials.

Last question: What are some good options for hot ends that are designed for PC? I know that there was an Airwolf one for ~$300, but I doubt that it is leaps and bounds ahead of other options because it looks like a normal print head with probably a better heater and a thermistor that can withstand the higher temps. Maybe there is more to it, but is looks an awful lot like their other offerings but has higher temp specs. I know that I need 300 - 315 to work with PC, so anything that can work reliably within that range would be great.

[curious aardvark]

Not just your hotend. You'll nedd avery hot build plate, enclosed build volume and some sort ofmiracle build surface.

Have a look at ninjateks armadillo, it's a high density polyurethane and feels like hardened nylon. They also claim it's easy to print. It's stiff, ridiculously tough and not massively dense.failing that try innofil's Pro 1

A versatile material and easily the best filament for hassle freeprecision printing i've yet tried.