Polymaker PolyMide PA6-CF
Manufactured by Polymaker
Quick Summary
PolyMide PA6-CF is where desktop printing stops being a hobby material and starts being engineering. Carbon-filled nylon 6 prints at 280-300 °C, comes off the plate stiff and dimensionally stable, and makes gears, motor mounts, and jigs that survive being used rather than displayed. The price of that is a hardened nozzle, a real hotend, and a drying routine you cannot skip.
Print Settings That Work
Run the nozzle at 290 °C to start. The bed matters less than the surface: PA6-CF grips a garolite or PEI plate with a thin PVA layer, and struggles on bare glass. Keep part cooling off or very low; nylon needs the heat to bond, and cooling is what turns a stiff part into a delaminated one.
Drying is the whole game. 80 °C for 12 hours before printing, then keep the spool in a dry box while it feeds. A spool that has been open on a shelf overnight will hiss, foam, and produce parts with half the strength of a dry run. If the surface looks rough and the extruder sounds wet, stop and dry it rather than tuning temperatures.
Print Quality
Surfaces are matte black with the faint speckled texture carbon fibre always gives, and they hide layer lines well. Dimensional accuracy is good once the part is annealed, and the filled formulation warps noticeably less than unfilled nylon, which is the main reason to choose it over plain PA6.
Stiffness is the headline. Parts feel closer to injection moulded plastic than to a printed prototype. Layer adhesion is strong but not equal to the in-plane strength, so orient load paths along layers where you can.
Where It Falls Short
Everything about handling it is demanding. Brass nozzles are consumed. PTFE-lined hotends cannot reach temperature safely. Moisture ruins prints faster than any other material here. The carbon filling also trades away impact toughness: PA6-CF is stiff and can crack where unfilled CoPA would bend and recover.
Spools are 750 g and priced well above commodity filament, so failed prints hurt.
Verdict
If you need a printed part to do a mechanical job, PolyMide PA6-CF earns its cost and its hassle. Fit a hardened nozzle, buy a dryer, and treat it as an engineering material with a process rather than a spool you throw on the machine. For impact-heavy parts choose CoPA instead, and for anything that does not carry load, stay on PETG and save the money.
- Polymaker PolyMide PA6-CF vs polymide copa — CoPA is the tougher, more impact-resistant unfilled nylon; PA6-CF is far stiffer and holds its shape better under load, at the cost of brittleness and nozzle wear.
- Polymaker PolyMide PA6-CF vs prusament asa — ASA is easier to print and fine for outdoor housings; PA6-CF is in a different mechanical class for gears, mounts, and anything that carries force.
What temperature should I print PA6-CF at?
Polymaker specifies 280-300 °C at the nozzle. That rules out most stock PTFE-lined hotends, which degrade above roughly 250 °C. An all-metal hotend and a hardened steel or ruby nozzle are prerequisites, not upgrades.
How do I dry PolyMide PA6-CF?
Dry at 80 °C for 12 hours in an oven or dryer before printing, and keep the spool in a dry box while it runs. Nylon absorbs enough moisture in a few hours of open air to bubble and weaken parts.
Does PA6-CF wear out nozzles?
Yes, quickly. The chopped carbon fibre grinds a brass nozzle out of round within a few hundred grams. Fit a hardened steel, tungsten carbide, or ruby nozzle before the first print.
Should I anneal PA6-CF parts?
For load-bearing parts, yes. Polymaker suggests annealing at 80 °C for 6 hours, which relieves internal stress and raises the usable service temperature. Expect small dimensional changes, so test on a sacrificial part first.