Nylon

One of the challenging aspects of using Nylon is the need for a special storage system. Unlike other filaments, you cannot keep the filament spool exposed to the air for extended periods of time. Nylon easily absorbs moisture from the environment. Printing the moist filament will result in print quality issues like a foggy rough surfaces or even tiny holes or bubbles on the exterior. These printing issues can also significantly decrease the strength and performance of the printed parts. The typical solution for this issue is to remove the Nylon spools from the printer once you are done, and store the spools in an air-tight container along with some desiccants to remove the moisture from within. If you do not want to constantly mount and remove your filament spool, there are also commercially available storage containers that will keep the filament dry, while allowing it to feed out of a hole in the container.

Some high-temperature Nylons are prone to warping due to the large temperature change between the extruded plastic and the ambient environment. Heated beds can reduce the warping to a some extent, but using a printer that has a heated chamber or enclosure would be the ideal solution. Keeping the air around your part at a temperature of about 45 ºC will help eliminate warping by reducing this temperature variation. If your printer doesn’t include a heated chamber and you aren’t able to add an enclosure, there are other tips that you can use to help prevent warping. Our Print Quality Guide has an entire section devoted to this issue which summarizes other common techniques: How to Prevent Warping.