Thursday, March 09, 2006

More post extrusion filament treatment...

Solvay lists the melting point of CAPA at 58-60 Celsius. I created a water bath of that temperature on my stove and dumped in the filament produced with yesterday's experiment.

The filament instantly became soft and pliable. Straightening it was no problem at all, though it did break at one of the weak points where the extrusion rate had slowed down when it was being extruded.

One error in yesterday's observations was apparently in reporting that CAPA floats. Today it sank immediately, which is in keeping with it's listed density. I am wondering now whether the "floating" behaviour that it exhibited yesterday had to do with its almost neutral buoyancy coupled with the fact that it was still attached to the extruder tip.

In terms of post extrusion "polishing" of the filament, a heated quenching bath seems to be a good way to go for now.

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