3D printing

Heat is what kills a printed part.

Start with one of these questions

• Which filament does this part need?

  “My part has to sit in a hot car and not snap. Which filament do I buy?”

  Chosen from what the part has to survive — heat, impact, sunlight, moisture — rather than from a material's general reputation. Including why "stronger" is two questions with two different answers.

  Choose by requirement

• Can my printer actually run it?

  “I want to print ASA. Can my printer do it, or do I need to buy something first?”

  Four independent limits decide this, and the nozzle temperature is often not the one that stops you. How to check each against the filament's datasheet, and what a hardened nozzle does and does not solve.

  Check the four limits

• What layer height can I actually use?

  “What layer height works with my nozzle, and is a 0.6mm one worth fitting?”

  Your usable range is set by the nozzle fitted, and your slicer may enforce a lower ceiling than the rule you remember. What changing either costs in time, strength and minimum feature size.

  Find your usable range

• Heat is what usually kills a printed part, not force. In Prusa Polymers' own ISO 75 testing, PLA's heat deflection temperature is 55C, PETG's is 68C, ASA's is 93C at 0.45 MPa, PC Blend's is 113C and PA11 carbon fiber's is 192C. A PLA part left in a parked car or on a sunny windowsill is operating near its limit.
• "Stronger" is two different questions with two different answers. Measured by the same lab under ISO 527-1 and ISO 179-1, PLA is the stiffer material (2.3 GPa tensile modulus against PETG's 1.5) and yields higher (51 MPa against 47). But in an unnotched Charpy impact test PETG does not break at all, while PLA breaks at 13 kJ/m2. If your part gets dropped or flexed, the stiffer material is the wrong pick.
• Your printer has four separate limits, and the nozzle temperature is often not the one that stops you. Creality rates the Ender-3 V3 SE at 260C nozzle but only 100C bed. Prusament's ASA datasheet asks for a 110±5C bed. The nozzle could reach ASA's temperature; the bed cannot, so the machine cannot run it as shipped.
• An all-metal hotend does not mean the printer can handle every filament. The Prusa MK4S has an all-metal hotend rated to 290C and ships with a brass 0.4mm nozzle. Prusament's PA11 Carbon Fiber datasheet states that a hardened nozzle is necessary. Temperature capability and abrasion resistance are independent — carbon fiber, glass fiber, Bronzefill and glow-in-the-dark filaments wear brass regardless of how hot the hotend gets.
• A bigger nozzle can make a stronger part. In Prusa's own testing, objects printed with a 0.6mm nozzle absorbed up to 25.6% more energy than the same objects at 0.4mm, and 0.25mm objects absorbed 3.6% less. Layer height is capped by nozzle diameter — Prusa's guidance is to stay below 80%, so roughly 0.32mm on a 0.4mm nozzle and 0.48mm on a 0.6mm.