R&D Filament Batches

R&D batches are small-scale filament batches.  All new materials must undergo an R&D batch before being quoted for production runs.

The goals of an R&D are: (in order of priority)

  1. Dial in production settings, speeds, and techniques
  2. Push the limits of the material - Used to calculate pricing for future production runs
  3.  Produce usable spools that can be used for 3D printing tests

What you need

  1. Raw Material (Resin)
    We require at least 12kgs of resin and a maximum of 25kgs*.  25kgs is recommended.  You may provide the resin yourself, or you can ask us to source it for you.  If we source it for you, the raw material costs will be added to the cost of the R&D batch.
    [*for some low-dessity materials such as Nylon and PolyPropelene, we require less raw material.  We will not accept any more than 20,000 cm^3]
  2. Material SDS
    We require a Ssafety Data Sheet (SDS/MSDS) for all materials.  This is non-negotiable.
  3. Material TDS
    We require a Technical Data Sheet (TDS) for all materials, which shows things like material properties, melt temperatures, melt-flow index, etc.  This is non-negotiable.
  4. Processing Recommendations
    Sometimes, processing recommendations or processing guidelines are given in the Technical Data Sheet.  We specifically look for drying requirements and recommended screw temperatures for either Injection Molding or Extrusion.  This is not required, but this dramatically lowers the scrap rate.  If we do not have this info, we need to figure it out on our own, which takes longer and increases scrap

Cost

$750 flat rate (for most materials).  R&D batches are a flat fee, regardless of how much usable filament is produced.  For most materials, this is $750.  Special materials may cost more if they are abrasive, require abnormal drying, emit harmful VOCs, etc.  All R&D batches must be paid in advance.  There will be no refunds after an R&D batch has been completed.

Best Effort

We will give every R&D batch our absolute best effort, but we cannot guarantee that every material can be made into usable filament.  It's very rare that we run a batch that produces NO usable filament, but it is still possible.  There will be no refunds in the event that we are unable to make filament with the provided material.  We do a lot of homework before running R&D batches, and we will let you know in advance if we notice any red flags that might cause an issue.

Expect 7-10kgs scrap during this batch.  The goal of an R&D batch is NOT to maximize usable filament, the goal is to optimize production speeds and temperatures to achieve the lowest cost for future production runs

Spool Grading

Every material is different. We sort every individual spool during an R&D batch on a scale from A-F.  The scale is somewhat arbitrary, and highly subjective.  For example "Good" for PLA and "Good" for Flexible TPU are quite different.  For materials like PLA, ABS, PETG, etc, it's very easy to hold tight tolerances and have very low ovality.  For soft materials like TPU or high temp materials like PC, it may be more challenging to hold tight tolerances and have low ovality.

For most materials, we shoot for B-Grade or higher.  For some exotic, experimental, or uncommon materials, it's common to end up mostly in the C-Grade range.

  • A Grade - Outstanding.  Reserved for spools that exceed expectations, very uncommon.
  • B Grade - Good
  • C Grade - Printable, but may be challenging
  • D Grade - Salvagable.  May be printable under the right settings, but expect to have challenges
  • F Grade - Scrap, not printable.

Data and Anlytics

Per-spool and Batch analytics can be provided upon request.  Each spool comes with a serial number and QR code.  When scanned, the QR code shows granular tolerance data, date, time, ovality, and other datapoints.  Batch data is a summary for the entire batch, such as tolerance, ovality, time-per-spool, QA status, etc.

We do not share sensitive production data such as temperature profiles, speeds, screw geometry, die geometry, filter stackup, pressure, melt-flow, drying method/times, cooling methods, resonance times, etc.

Confidentiality and Optional Community Testing

By default, all R&D batches are treated as confidential.

Upon request, we can send out some of the spools from your R&D batch to the 3D printing community for free 3D printing testing.  The goal of this is to test the material on a variety of machines and help formulate recommended printing settings such as nozzle temperature, speed, bed/chamber, drying, and bed adhesion.  There are many local people who enjoy testing new and exclusive filaments, especially from an R&D batch.  We recommend allowing an open-beta, which is visible to the public on our discord server under the "#beta-testers" channel.  This allows community members to talk to each other, collaborate on printing settings, share their findings on what does/doesn't work, etc.  Alternatively, we can arrange a closed-beta which is not visible to the public, and each tester works independently without knowing who else is testing materials.

If you opt to do open-beta or closed-beta testing with members of the 3D printing community, we cannot guarantee confidentiality.  You are welcome to contact each person individually to sign and NDA's if necessary.  However, it's harder to find people willing to test for free if NDAs are required because many people enjoy sharing their findings.

Turnaround

Turnarounds are often long, ranging from 6-10 weeks.  We run R&D batches on our production machinery, so it takes some time to carve out a day to run an R&D batch.

Variants + Ladder Studies

Ladder Studies are where one base material is used, but there are multiple variants with one property being changed slightly.  For example, a ladder study can be performed to see how much filler can reliably be added to filament before it starts to become too brittle or show signs of degradation.  We can not split a standard R&D batch into smaller runs to perform a ladder study, but we may be able to optimize some of the process and remove some redundancies.   Please request a manual quote for any ladder studies, and let us know how many different variants you would like to test.

We highly recommend against testing colors for R&D batches.  It adds another layer of complexity and may dramatically increase scrap rate.