A Fuse 1+ shop about to reorder powder got stuck on one question. Stay with standard Nylon 12, or move to Nylon 12 Tough? On paper Tough looked cheaper to run. They asked the Formlabs forum what it’s like in practice.
Is Nylon 12 Tough cheaper to run?
Not always. The spec sheet says yes, but one operator who runs it on all three of their machines says the savings shrink once you’re cleaning parts. Formlabs lists a 20% refresh rate for Tough and says it’s over 50% more ductile. The store price is $1,099 for 10 kg.
Here’s what that operator (hperez) reported. Full builds take about 3 hours longer than standard Nylon 12. The Surface Armor is much stronger, so a build can take 3x as long to clean. And because so much powder ends up stuck in that armor, they can’t actually run at 20%; they run out of recycled powder first. They also run negative bed offsets on every machine because Tough runs hot, and they see more surface defects. Even so, they run Tough on all three printers because they need parts that bend before they break.
What about heat?
That’s the number to look at before you quote outdoor parts. Formlabs lists a heat deflection temperature for Tough of 46 °C at 1.8 MPa and 161 °C at 0.45 MPa. The shop compared 46 °C with 87 °C for standard Nylon 12 and worried about a hot summer day. A Formlabs rep pointed them to the company’s weathering white paper.
Any setup gotchas?
Two. Tough needs powder aging before its first print, and it only runs on the Fuse 1+ 30W.
So which should you stock?
Price per kilo won’t tell you much here. Run one full chamber of a real customer part in each and time the depowdering with a stopwatch. If Tough’s ductility wins you snap-fit and hinge work, that labor is worth it. If your parts sit near anything hot, keep standard Nylon 12 on the shelf.
Related on the Solvi blog: PA11 vs PA12 on MJF: When Is PA11 Worth Running?; MJF vs SLS Parts: What Should a Bureau Tell Customers?; SLS Nylon Yellowing: Why White Parts Turn Yellow.
Sources: Formlabs forum “Nylon 12 Standard Vs Tough” thread; Formlabs Nylon 12 Tough Powder page.