Heat Treated PLA

[DaveB]

I've been using MakerGeeks "Raptor" PLA. Aside from the ~$15 premium per Kg Roll over their standard PLA prices, I really, really like it. Give/take some growing pains, MG has been a reliable supplier so far. I've located but not yet tried Proto Pasta's HTPLA v3, (Heat Treated PLA) which seems to have similar specs.

Does anyone else have relevant experience / opinions on these materials or others that are similar?

[curious aardvark]

so do you heat treat the raptor stuff ?

[DaveB]

so do you heat treat the raptor stuff ?

Yes. The MG Raptor PLA is "annealed" by heating the finished part to 100C for 5-10 minutes. Some folks use an oven to heat the piece, I just drop mine in boiling water as the temperature is exact, and the piece will ~float which reduces stress/warping.

I've read that heat treating this material causes it to "crystalize" and dramatically strengthen. Once annealed, the Raptor PLA material is food and dishwasher safe. I can vouch for the dishwasher aspect, annealed parts are unaffected by multiple cycles through our dishwasher. Makergeeks are not real "specification" oriented, so actual numbers aren't provided. (The proto pasta folks do get into this process with more detail.)

There is a video on the Makergeeks website in the Raptor PLA section of some guy setting off explosives next to finished pieces. He does this for both un-annealed and annealed prints of the same pieces. The annealed ones survive, the un-annealed ones don't.
Here is a link: https://youtu.be/EmsgT5oMG2E

All the strength stuff aside, I really like how the Raptor stuff prints. I would really like to find some alternative mfg's. materials that perform as well.