What Is FEP Film Used For? FEP Film 3D Printer

FEP film is a type of polyester film that has been manufactured to be used as a protective layer for other materials. It can provide protection from many different types of environmental factors such as physical damage, water and moisture, chemicals, and more.

FEP film is an excellent choice for all sorts of applications including food packaging and transportation, medical devices and instruments, electronics assembly, military equipment accessories, and more.

One great thing about the FEP film is that it’s translucent so you can see through it without any problems! You may want to think about using this type of material if your product needs some sort of protection but you still want the customer or user to be able to see what they’re buying or using.

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What is FEP film used for? Resin printer fep sheet

The FEP film is a double-layered and transparent foil that is used in the rack attached to the resin tank.

The FEP film creates a clean way for UV light to cure liquid resin while printing.

Why is F E P film used?

The FEP film prevents the liquid resin in the flask from coming into direct contact with the nozzle of the 3D printer.

This reduces the possibility of clogging.

Also, when using a resin pump to transfer liquid resin from one container to another, it keeps air pockets from being introduced into the liquid resin.

Where can I find the F E P film?

Resin Suppliers carry a wide variety of sizes and thicknesses in the FEP film used in 3D printing so you’ll need to know your size requirements when ordering from them. T

The most common one is 100mm x 100mm x 0.25mm with a 2-micron thickness.

How do I use FEP film?

FEP film is reusable and can be used over and over again until it becomes too dirty or worn to continue its job effectively. It’s best to put a fresh sheet of the film before each print so the quality of the print is not affected.

1. Peel off the release liner from one side of the film, exposing its sticky adhesive for use on your printed 3D objects.

The release liner should remain on the other side while printing, protecting that side from damage during printing.

2. Place your resin tank with liquid resin inside onto your 3D printer and feed in the FEP sheet through your printer’s opening while it prints out your material just like any other object. Be sure to use a cutter knife to cleanly and precisely cut around your object for the best results.

How do I clean the F E P film? Prints sticking to fep sheet

When storing or reusing FEP film, it’s recommended that you keep them stored flat inside a sealed container to help prevent dust and dirt from affecting its quality of performance.

When dirty, it is suggested that you wipe off with an IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wet wipe before washing with water and soap or dishwashing liquid.

Since FEP is an inert and non-stick surface, there’s no need to worry about smells or residue left behind on your objects after printing as all those things will wash off naturally right away without leaving any mark whatsoever on your printed 3D objects.

Is F E P film recyclable?

Since the FEP is a non-stick surface, it should not be washed with alcohol or acetone to preserve its reusable quality for as long as possible.

You can dispose of the used sheet once it’s dirtied beyond reuse by tearing off the dirty side and disposing of it in the trash.

The other side which has been protected by the release liner should remain clean because it hasn’t made direct contact with other surfaces ever before so it can be reused again just like new! Be sure to store properly sealed inside a container until next use.

FEP VS non-FEP film?

FEP stands for Foil E-Pad and this is a special material used in e-cigarettes, it’s also known as a heating foil, heat film. It was invented specially for the application of e-cigarette. The non-FEP (not Foil E-pad) film/heating sheet is made from Polyethylene (HDPE) which is widely used in the industry.

The FEP film was invented for the e-cigarette with higher cost performance.

FEP film has better chemical stability than non-FEP, especially to high levels of Nicotine liquid/e-liquid. Because it’s not easy to produce Nicotine liquid with high purity(<1000PPM), most of the e-liquid supply in the market is high-level Nicotine liquid (>1000PPM), When nicotine with higher purity contact to FEP film, it will change color from white/yellowish to green.

In this way, you can easily identify the liquid with low quality and low purity levels when you use non-FEP film.

In the electroplating process, FEP film has better conductivity than non-FEP, it’s more suitable for high wattage atomizer or sub-ohm coil.

Because of the higher service temperature range(120-180 degrees), FEP is more suitable for extreme condition mod with high wattage.

Cre: films

F E P film is imported material and has better quality than non-FEP film, even more, stable chemical performance.

FEP film is a fragile material and easily break during the process of cutting & converting, therefore most e-cigarette factories use a blade knife to cut it into smaller sizes for the easier conversion process.

However, the blade knife will make physical damage on its edge (especially the sharp corner) which has an impact on heat resistance performance.

Because FEP film has good heat insulation, sharp damage will lower the heat insulation efficiency and cause hot points at the damaged corner which may cause hot spots or even burnout during vaping process.

Best FEP filaments printing

Last week I posted about brittle materials for 3D printing, items that are difficult to print with, mainly because they’re not strong enough. One of the main problems is that PLA and ABS have a tendency to break apart at their weakest points instead of folding or bending there.

This problem is also called Z-wobble. However, there are a few other FEP filaments that do not have the same weakness.

FEP film replacement has a very high glass transition temperature, at 257°C, which is only slightly less than ABS’ 260°C.

This means FEP can print heat-resistant objects. It’s also chemically resistant to mineral acids and alkalis, a property that makes it an excellent replacement for PTFE tape or gaskets in chemical industries.

This makes it a very interesting material to experiment with.

FEP can be used to print gears and moving objects.

The only drawback is that it’s much stickier than other materials when printing, which means you need a heated build plate for best results. There are different brands available from various sellers on eBay or Amazon.

I have been printing with DAS FILAMENT FEP (Solid) and it proved to be a very good material. It’s available in many different colors and spools of 1kg for around €35,95. The only downside is that the surface will start to show signs of wear after 4-5 layers + supports, but you can easily fix this by applying a thin layer of glue to the surface.

Cre: zortrax

DAS Filament FEP Solid in various colors

Another good material I have been using is Taulman 3D T-Glase, which has the same features as FEP but has one drawback: it’s much more brittle than regular filaments. I have printed moving gears and parts of a clock with it, but you need to be very careful when handling the print. I have not been able to get T-Glase in 1KG spools yet, so I am using 0.5 Kg ones from DAS Filament which only cost €11,95.

Finally, there is also ColorFabb XT in both a regular and a transparent version, but I have not been using this material yet.

Conclusion

FEP film is a versatile, reliable material for many different use cases. It can be used as heat-shrink tubing to seal insulation gaps in electrical wiring and cable installations.

The same properties make it an excellent insulator of high voltage cables.

In the medical field, this type of plastic film may be found on surgical gowns or sterile drapes to protect against infection during surgery.

You should know that there are other types of films available with similar functions, but each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks to consider when selecting one over another for your specific needs. We hope you’ve learned from our blog post what FEP film is made out of and how it can benefit you!

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