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I recently ripped a piece off of a nitro RC car I have. Seeing as I cannot find a direct replacement at the moment, I modeled it and it seems easy to 3d print.

My main concern is how heat resistant the replacement will be - this is a combined structural/exhaust heat deflector piece.

I've previously known about 30-40% steel infused PLA, but looking at the reviews/overviews everyone states there is no structural advantage to steel/metal infused PLA.

That being said, are there any benefits at all, aside from styling? Temperature resistance, conductivity, stiffness, toughness?

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't have data, but it seems unlikely there would be major structural advantages, and likely disadvantages. The only likely advantage I can see is heat transfer rate, and I'm not sure it'd be enough to make a difference. If you have particular heat deflection needs you should probably determine the temperatures (and other harsh conditions) involved and ask a new question about what kind of materials would be suitable and whether you're looking to print something yourself or have it professionally done. $\endgroup$
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Jun 6, 2022 at 10:26

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As far as I know, the only mechanical gain from metal-bearing filament is that it is the basis for printing metal parts with a filament printer.

This works similarly to Metal Injection Molding: the part is printed with filament containing as large a percentage as practical of the chosen metal (usually stainless steel, bronze, or copper), with a suitable shrink factor applied to the dimensions; the plastic is then baked out in a vacuum oven, followed by a temperature increase to the sintering temperature of the incorporated metal to fuse the metal particles into a solid part.

This can produce parts with similar levels of accuracy to as-cast investment casting, but in shapes that would not be possible (for instance, hollow spaces that don't connect to the surface of the part) and in materials (stainless steel) that are difficult to cast, never mind investment cast.

Notable here is that in this case, the metal inclusion does nothing for mechanical properties of the part as printed, but rather is the final part; the plastic only serves as a carrier to allow the metal to be delivered by a common 3D printer.

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The only advantage is the look (debatable, the copper infused filament I tried just looks like vaguely copper coloured plastic) and weight. It weighs more so if your model has a need for weight it's one way of achieving it, although there are other ways.

Personally I think it's worse than normal filament because it's actually not as strong. If you have 30 percent metal powder, then that means you have 30 percent LESS plastic to fuse together. So while it's fine for non complex parts, it struggles to print many others. So you need to design your model with the filament in mind. This is applicable to wood infused filament as well.

So structurally it's quite a big disadvantage, not an advantage.

Electrically it's not conductive, or at least not enough to be useful, I tried electroplating a model and after 2 hours there's wasn't a trace of it plating.

For an exhaust I wouldn't recommend any PLA. They deform under any sort of heat.

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