<p>With the right material, you could print the gear and then sinter it, resulting in actual metal gears. However, 80 % metal-filled PLA is at the lowest border to achieve this, and a lot of that technology is patented.</p>
<h2>Filamet<sup>TM</sup></h2>
<p>Filamet<sup>TM</sup> is a <a href="https://shop.thevirtualfoundry.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Virtual Foundry</a> product that contains around <strong>80-92 %</strong> metal powder of 100-400 µm particle size, suspended in a carrier. The carrier material is supposedly PLA or at least functionally similar. The resulting filament is highly abrasive, requiring stainless steel<sup>1</sup> to print more than short sections. The high metal content also gives the material a <em>memory</em> of its spooled-up shape. This demands extra special treatment during printing to prevent snapping the filament in the shape of a pre-heater to get it spooled off properly. The same company also offers similar products for ceramics. After printing, the models are burned-out and sintered in an oven at very high temperatures. This sintering is done in a crucible filled with carbon and alumina, burning out the PLA carrier while retaining the shape. Their material-making process is <a href="https://thevirtualfoundry.com/2019/11/21/the-virtual-foundry-wins-a-patent-for-the-process-used-to-produce-its-extrudable-plastic-infused-materials/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">patented</a> <a href="https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2018/0193912.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(patent itself)</a> and covers all their metal, ceramic, and glass materials.</p>
<p><sub>1 - or something even more hardy, like an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210707122849/http://olssonruby.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Olsson Ruby</a> by <a href="https://3dverkstan.se/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3DVerkstan</a></sub></p>
<h2>MetalX<sup>TM</sup></h2>
<p>The MetalX<sup>TM</sup> system by <a href="https://markforged.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Markforged</a> uses a special printer and proprietary <em>Bound Powder Metal Filament</em> that contains an unknown plastic binder. A lot of this machine and surrounding peripheries are <a href="https://markforged.com/patents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">patented</a> and information spare. Among others, their <a href="https://patents.justia.com/patent/10076875" rel="nofollow noreferrer">method of creating composite filaments</a> and their <a href="https://patents.justia.com/patent/10377083" rel="nofollow noreferrer">binder material, support material &amp; sintering process</a> are only described in patents. From their advertisement I could deduce the following process: The MetalX printer prints the item with unknown print settings, resulting in a raw item containing metal and the binder. After wash-cleaning using a liquid known as Opteon<sup>TM</sup> SF79 <a href="https://www.opteon.de/-/media/files/opteon/opteon-sf79-cleaning-fluid.pdf?rev=082d2f050b3440e8b47f8dd9b58324a9" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Datasheet)</a> to remove the specialty binder, the sintering happens in a free oven at 1300 °C, leaving behind a metal product. Free oven means here, that the printed part is not embedded in a filled crucible like with Filamet<sup>TM</sup>.</p>
<hr />
<p><sub>Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with either Virtual Foundry, Markforged, 3DVerkstan, any of their products or affiliates.</sub></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T10:48:17.853Z
2022-01-12T10:48:17.853Z
Trish
<p>At a guess, copper really isn't that strong so you're likely to see minimal improvements, if any.</p>
<p>The PLA carrier plastic is still PLA, with a low melting point.</p>
<p>The copper won't &quot;fuse&quot; with the PLA, it will still be flakes of metal embedded in a tiny pocket inside of a plastic structure.</p>
<p>However this is all speculation, and your best option for an answer is to print some gears and methodically test them against plain PLA, and perhaps a metal gear if you can.  Try and use identical setups/bearings/pressures and times.</p>
<p>Perhaps a high torque and a high-speed test, in both lubricated and unlubed, for PLA, copper-PLA, and a straight metal gear? That would be 12 tests in all and clear out all questions.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T07:26:14.977Z
I agree with the general idea, but there have been PLAs that contain metal powder that after printing could be burnt out in a sand oven, leaving behind an object from only the metal powder... we had a question about t[hat](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/6623/) - FilaMet(TM) contains close to 90 % metal powder, and then the PLA carrier is sintered out.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T10:01:52.867Z
The trick is to fuse the copper, burning of the binder. Markforged has built their company based on printers that print metal filament with a binder to sinter printed objects later in ovens to create metallic parts. I think there should be a separation between metal filaments that can be printed at home (usually for esthetics or magnetic properties and printing to create metal parts, the latter is usually not something you do at home.
0scar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T10:51:50.033Z
@0scar you just threw me the perfect bone to make an answer based on the Markforged MetalX as well as Filamet! Incidently, Filamet is the lowest bar to metal printing and could (arguably) be done at home.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T13:42:28.553Z
Likely the only potentially interesting properties are thermal. Since 80% of the mass (or is that volume?) is copper you'd expect the printed part to have heat capacity closer to copper (much lower than PLA) but maybe also thermal conductance closer to copper (much higher than PLA). Whether this is a net gain or net loss for the application of gears, I'm not sure.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T18:17:08.330Z
@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE It would also add mass...
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T20:55:07.243Z
@Trish: Good catch.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-12T21:48:18.117Z
Simple math example: a solid gear in PLA weighs 10 grams and has a density of 1.25 g/cm³. A solid copper gear of same volume weighs 71 grams and has a density of 8.98 g/cm³ - about 7.2 times. This has *lots* of impacts on the properties of the machine.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-10T20:40:18.527Z
2022-01-12T07:17:04.140Z
2022-01-12T07:17:04.140Z
Criggie
<p>I am currently printing PLA infused with 80% copper powder. So far I mainly used it because it looks and feels really nice and post-processing is almost limitless, however recently I have thought that metal-like filaments might actually be a good idea for gears (in case I don't want to use polycarbonate or carbon fiber PLA).</p>
<p>I have been researching about the material properties of copper-infused PLA and found a few studies about the &quot;strength&quot;, however, those seem to have exclusively focussed on how much weight can be suspended on a hook where it showed pretty good results. The only other info I found was an unsourced &quot;it is more brittle&quot;, however the objects I printed so far do not feel more brittle.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any experience with spur gears printed from copper-infused PLA? Are there any advantages over regular PLA? Any downsides (I could imagine higher abrasiveness is not really helpful)?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-16T08:44:13.700Z
You do not "feel" brittleness until you have smacked the part with a hammer lol
AzulShiva
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-16T08:49:01.467Z
feel, seem, appeared, made the impression. Use whatever word makes you happy and conveys "some initial tests did not make it seem all too brittle".
Yanick Salzmann
<filament><print-material><print-strength><filled-pla>
Copper-infused PLA for spur gears
Yanick Salzmann
# Copper-infused PLA for spur gears

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-10)

I am currently printing PLA infused with 80% copper powder. So far I mainly used it because it looks and feels really nice and post-processing is almost limitless, however recently I have thought that metal-like filaments might actually be a good idea for gears (in case I don't want to use polycarbonate or carbon fiber PLA).

I have been researching about the material properties of copper-infused PLA and found a few studies about the "strength", however, those seem to have exclusively focussed on how much weight can be suspended on a hook where it showed pretty good results. The only other info I found was an unsourced "it is more brittle", however the objects I printed so far do not feel more brittle.

Does anyone have any experience with spur gears printed from copper-infused PLA? Are there any advantages over regular PLA? Any downsides (I could imagine higher abrasiveness is not really helpful)?

**Tags:** filament, print-material, print-strength, filled-pla

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You do not "feel" brittleness until you have smacked the part with a hammer lol  
> **username_0**: feel, seem, appeared, made the impression. Use whatever word makes you happy and conveys "some initial tests did not make it seem all too brittle".  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-01-12. Score: 2

With the right material, you could print the gear and then sinter it, resulting in actual metal gears. However, 80 % metal-filled PLA is at the lowest border to achieve this, and a lot of that technology is patented.

## FilametTM

FilametTM is a [Virtual Foundry](https://shop.thevirtualfoundry.com/) product that contains around **80-92 %** metal powder of 100-400 µm particle size, suspended in a carrier. The carrier material is supposedly PLA or at least functionally similar. The resulting filament is highly abrasive, requiring stainless steel1 to print more than short sections. The high metal content also gives the material a *memory* of its spooled-up shape. This demands extra special treatment during printing to prevent snapping the filament in the shape of a pre-heater to get it spooled off properly. The same company also offers similar products for ceramics. After printing, the models are burned-out and sintered in an oven at very high temperatures. This sintering is done in a crucible filled with carbon and alumina, burning out the PLA carrier while retaining the shape. Their material-making process is [patented](https://thevirtualfoundry.com/2019/11/21/the-virtual-foundry-wins-a-patent-for-the-process-used-to-produce-its-extrudable-plastic-infused-materials/) [(patent itself)](https://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2018/0193912.html) and covers all their metal, ceramic, and glass materials.

1 - or something even more hardy, like an [Olsson Ruby](https://web.archive.org/web/20210707122849/http://olssonruby.com/) by [3DVerkstan](https://3dverkstan.se/)

## MetalXTM

The MetalXTM system by [Markforged](https://markforged.com/) uses a special printer and proprietary *Bound Powder Metal Filament* that contains an unknown plastic binder. A lot of this machine and surrounding peripheries are [patented](https://markforged.com/patents) and information spare. Among others, their [method of creating composite filaments](https://patents.justia.com/patent/10076875) and their [binder material, support material & sintering process](https://patents.justia.com/patent/10377083) are only described in patents. From their advertisement I could deduce the following process: The MetalX printer prints the item with unknown print settings, resulting in a raw item containing metal and the binder. After wash-cleaning using a liquid known as OpteonTM SF79 [(Datasheet)](https://www.opteon.de/-/media/files/opteon/opteon-sf79-cleaning-fluid.pdf?rev=082d2f050b3440e8b47f8dd9b58324a9) to remove the specialty binder, the sintering happens in a free oven at 1300 °C, leaving behind a metal product. Free oven means here, that the printed part is not embedded in a filled crucible like with FilametTM.

---

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with either Virtual Foundry, Markforged, 3DVerkstan, any of their products or affiliates.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-01-10. Score: 1

At a guess, copper really isn't that strong so you're likely to see minimal improvements, if any.

The PLA carrier plastic is still PLA, with a low melting point.

The copper won't "fuse" with the PLA, it will still be flakes of metal embedded in a tiny pocket inside of a plastic structure.

However this is all speculation, and your best option for an answer is to print some gears and methodically test them against plain PLA, and perhaps a metal gear if you can. Try and use identical setups/bearings/pressures and times.

Perhaps a high torque and a high-speed test, in both lubricated and unlubed, for PLA, copper-PLA, and a straight metal gear? That would be 12 tests in all and clear out all questions.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: I agree with the general idea, but there have been PLAs that contain metal powder that after printing could be burnt out in a sand oven, leaving behind an object from only the metal powder... we had a question about t[hat](https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/a/6623/) - FilaMet(TM) contains close to 90 % metal powder, and then the PLA carrier is sintered out.  
> **username_4**: The trick is to fuse the copper, burning of the binder. Markforged has built their company based on printers that print metal filament with a binder to sinter printed objects later in ovens to create metallic parts. I think there should be a separation between metal filaments that can be printed at home (usually for esthetics or magnetic properties and printing to create metal parts, the latter is usually not something you do at home.  
> **username_2**: @username_4 you just threw me the perfect bone to make an answer based on the Markforged MetalX as well as Filamet! Incidently, Filamet is the lowest bar to metal printing and could (arguably) be done at home.  
> **username_5**: Likely the only potentially interesting properties are thermal. Since 80% of the mass (or is that volume?) is copper you'd expect the printed part to have heat capacity closer to copper (much lower than PLA) but maybe also thermal conductance closer to copper (much higher than PLA). Whether this is a net gain or net loss for the application of gears, I'm not sure.  
> **username_2**: @username_5 It would also add mass...  
> **username_5**: @username_2: Good catch.  
> **username_2**: Simple math example: a solid gear in PLA weighs 10 grams and has a density of 1.25 g/cm³. A solid copper gear of same volume weighs 71 grams and has a density of 8.98 g/cm³ - about 7.2 times. This has *lots* of impacts on the properties of the machine.  

---

