1. ABS
ABS is one of the most common thermoplastic materials with good mechanical properties, excellent impact strength, high heat resistance and good machinability.
ABS has low density and is very suitable for lightweight applications. ABS parts processed by CNC are usually used as prototypes before injection mass production.
Material properties:
Typical density: 1.00-1.05 g/cm3
2. Nylon
Nylon, also known as polyamide (PA), is a thermoplastic that is often used in engineering applications because of its excellent mechanical properties, good impact strength, high chemical resistance and wear resistance. But it is easy to absorb water and moisture.
Nylon 6 and 66 are the most commonly used brands in CNC processing.
Material properties:
Typical density: 1.14 g/cm3
3. Polycarbonate
Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic plastic with high toughness, good machinability and excellent impact strength (superior to ABS). It can be colored, but is usually optically transparent, making it ideal for a wide range of applications, including fluid devices or automotive glass.
Material properties:
Typical density: 1.20-1.22 g/cm3
4. POM
POM is generally known as Delrin, which is the engineering thermoplastic with the highest mechanical processing performance among plastics.
POM (Delrin) is usually the best choice for CNC machining of plastic parts requiring high precision, high stiffness, low friction, excellent high-temperature dimensional stability and extremely low water absorption.
Material properties:
Typical density: 1.40-1.42 g/cm3
5. PTFE (Teflon)
PTFE, commonly known as Teflon, is an engineering thermoplastic with excellent chemical resistance and heat resistance and the lowest friction coefficient of any known solid.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) is one of the few plastics that can withstand operating temperatures above 200 ℃ and is an excellent electrical insulator. However, it has purely mechanical properties and is often used as a lining or insert in components.
Material properties:
Typical density: 2.2 g/cm3
6. HDPE
High density polyethylene (HDPE) is a thermoplastic with high strength to weight ratio, high impact strength and good weather resistance.
HDPE is a lightweight thermoplastic, suitable for outdoor use and pipelines. Like ABS, it is often used to create prototypes before injection molding.
Material properties:
Typical density: 0.93-0.97 g/cm 3
7. PEEK
PEEK is a high-performance engineering thermoplastic with excellent mechanical properties, thermal stability in a very wide temperature range and excellent resistance to most chemicals.
PEEK is often used to replace metal parts because of its high strength weight ratio. Medical grades are also available, making PEEK suitable for biomedical applications.
Material properties:
Typical density: 1.32 g/cm 3
