Duann, a community member of 3D printing marketplace Shapeways, decided to fire test five of the most popular 3D printing materials offered by the service provider. The experiment wasn’t especially empirical or anything, but who needs science when you have a blowtorch?
The flame test was performed on five of Shapeways core 3D printing materials, including metallic plastic Alumide, UV-cured Frosted Detail Plastic and Basic Detail Plastic resins, full-color gypsum, and white nylon. The purpose of the torching was to see how easily each material would catch fire and for how long each would burn.
The first material to melt was the Alumide, which turned into a molten puddle pretty quickly, although the flame itself didn’t seem to be generating a lot of heat. The two UV-cured resins burned the brightest, and according to Duann, they also produced what he called a “terrible odor”. The sandstone material burned briefly, but the Shapeways designer suggests what burned in the full-color piece print was the super glue material used to seal it. Once that coating burned though, the gypsum would not stay alight. The nylon burned when exposed to the torch and did melt quite a bit, but did not stay lit for very long.
Each material was printed with identical geometries; however, Duann believes that the same materials with varied geometries may burn differently. This is because material that has a flammable top coating is going to burn longer and create more heat if there is more surface area to burn.
The final results speak for themselves. These 3D printing materials are not fire proof, so don’t 3D print things that are exposed to fire. Unless the purpose is to set them on fire, then, I would suggest that you use the Alumide. Although, please, if you’re setting things on fire, only do it in a safe environment, with ample airflow and protection, and only do it for science.
Here is a video of the complete flame test:
As for Duann, he is apparently Shapeways’ new Pyro-In-Chief and plans future tests with new materials and alternate geometries. Entirely for science.
