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  • Author Author: Attila Tőkés
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Multicomp Pro 3D Printer Filaments Review

Attila Tőkés

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RoadTest: Review Multicomp Pro 3D Printer Filaments, PLA and PETG

Author: Attila Tőkés

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Workshop Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: 3D printer filaments from other well known manufacturers

What were the biggest problems encountered?: just the common 3D printing problems

Detailed Review:

  
Hello Element14 Community! Slight smile

This is my final review for Multicomp Pro 3D Printer Filaments road test.
  
For this RoadTest I got the following spools of filaments to test:
  
- Multicomp PRO MP005454 - Silk PLA - Gold (available in 3 colors)
 
- Multicomp MC011473 - PETG - Blue / Solid Blue (available in 12 colors)
 
- Multicomp MC011440 - ABS - Natural (available in 15 colors)
  
(*note that the PETG and ABS filaments are listed as MULTICOMP brand on the website, but are labeled MULTICOMP PRO on the packaging)
 
image image image
  
Before getting into the details, let's start with what are expectations when I'm looking for 3D printer filaments:
- Quality - good and consistent quality
- Manufacturer - I usually prefer well known manufacturers over re-brands - for re-branded filaments I like too know the actual manufacturer of the filament
- Value for Money - I expect filaments to be reasonably priced (similar to products from other manufacturers)
  
Multicomp PRO and their 3D filaments?

Multicomp / Multicomp PRO are Avnet / Farnell / Newark's in house brands. As most house brands they try to offer good quality products at reasonable prices. Many of their products are re-brands, which is probably the case with their 3D printer filaments.

Based on the colors listed in the datasheets (some with pretty artistic names), and the "Made in China" label from the spools, I would guess these filaments are manufactured by eSun 3D  Sunglasses. eSun is a well known manufacturer from China, so I would expect a certain level of quality from re-branded Multicomp filaments too.
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Now let's get into some details...

image
The filaments came in white cardboard boxes. The boxes were a bit beaten up, but otherwise I was satisfied with the packaging. The vacuum sealed bags with the spools were intact, so the quality of the filaments should have been preserved.

I started the RoadTest with "calibrating" the filaments to my 3D printer (a Tevo Tarantula). Check out the details about the process in the following blog post:

   
After this I selected a couple of 3D models to test the filaments with. I ended up choosing the following models:

  • Test your 3D printer! v2, from ctrlV - a small model to test 3D printers and filaments - has a bunch of features like bridges, overhangs, text and other in a single model
      
  • 3D Benchy, by Creative Tools - you already know this one! Stuck out tongue winking eye it is probably the most printed 3D model in the world
      
  • Mascot Phil A Ment, by MatterHackers - a nice little astronaut
        
  • Lattice Cube 3D Printer Torture Test, by Lazerlord - a model with a lot of overhangs, and travel during the print (potentially leading to stringing)
        
  • Tolerance Test Version 2, from Maker's Muse - a model used to test the minimum clearance your printer / filament is capable to achieve - you can buy the model for $2 from the linked site
  
Along the Multicomp filaments, I also printed the models with a Metallic Green PLA filament from Filament PM. I also tried the small test model with white PETG from the same manufacturer, but as the spool was almost empty I was not able to print the larger models with it.

Multicomp PRO Silk PLA - Gold
The first material we will look at is the Silk PLA with a Gold color.
  
PLA (Polylactic acid) is the most common material used for 3D printing. It is easy to print and has reasonably good properties. From what I understand "Silk" for this filament just means the filament has a metallic color, but otherwise the material is ordinary PLA.
 
In my experience, the Multicomp Pro Silk PLA prints well, similar to other good quality PLA:
image
The 3D Benchy and the Astronaut printed very well:
image image
The 3D printer and the torture test came out acceptable. Some stringing artifacts are present, but that can mostly attributed to my printer:

image  image

I also printed a Maker's Muse's tolerance test, and could successfully unlock all but the 0.15mm arm:
 image 
Compared to the Metallic Green PLA from Filament PM, I would say the two materials perform about the same:
image 
Now, before looking at the price I would have said I'm impressed by the Multicomp Pro Silk PLA filament.
  
But, apparently this filament costs about 42 EUR for a spool of 1KG. This about 1.5-2.5x more that what I would normally pay for a 1KG spool of PLA. So, I would not really recommend the filament at this price, unless you're already shopping at Farnell / Newark and you don't really care about the price.
    
If I would have to guess (again Sunglasses), I would say the Multicomp Pro Silk PLA line is a re-branded version of the eSun ePLA-Silk Metal product line.
  
  
Multicomp PETG - Blue / Solid Blue
Next in the line is the PETG filament in Blue color (or Solid Blue as it appears it the datasheet).
  
PETG (Polyethylene terephthalate glycol) is a material that combines the advantages of PLA and ABS. It is supposed to be stronger and more temperature resistant compared to PLA, but easier to print than ABS.
  
PETG can also be a bit of headache to print, as the material tends to string and basically stick wherever it wants Stuck out tongue. In my experience is OK to be used with simple / structural parts (without too many sharp corners), but is not that good for models with high details, as printing those details can often be done only at relatively low speeds.
    
Unfortunately the Multicomp PETG filament did not managed to change my opinion about PETG. Here are some of the parts printed with the models:

image
The 3D printer and torture test models were successfully printed, but there is quite some stringing in the points where travels starts and ends:
image image
Note that this level stringing happens after tuning the retraction settings a bit.
The 3D Benchy and Astronaut models printed successfully:
image image
but I needed to re-print the Astronaut model once. On the first print there were some artifacts at some places when the printer needed to bride over the infill in a semi-circular pattern:
image
From what I have seen there were quite some direction changing at those points, and the filament did not stick. I (somewhat) fixed this by increasing the infill percentage, and reducing the printing speed.
  
Compared to the White PETG from Filament PM, the two materials are similar. However, I think the Filament PM still prints a bit better (even if the material I used is a couple of years old).
  
Here is the what the 3D printer test model looks like printed with the same settings:
  
image
The price of the Multicomp PETG around 33 EUR per 1Kg, which I would say is acceptable.
  
Judging from the "Solid <xyz>" color names, this material is a re-brand of eSun's PETG.
  
Multicomp ABS - Natural Color
When I received the RoadTest package, I was a bit surprised when I observed that one of the spools is a spool of ABS filament. ABS filaments are not mentioned in the RoadTest page, but  we decided to test it anyways.
  
ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) has good material properties, but can be relatively hard to print. As I remembered it wraps and had bed sticking and layer adhesion problems. That's why I switched to PETG a couple of years ago.
  
However printing  the with Multicomp ABS filament was a pleasant surprise:
image
The 3D Benchy and the Astronaut printed almost perfectly:
image image
The test prints are also not bad:
image image
The bed adhesion was good, but I made the mistake to print the 3D printer test model with a raft, so it ended up wrapping in one of the corners after the print was done.
  
I'm generally impressed by the filament. I would even consider start using ABS again.
  
The price of the filament is around 27 EUR, which means it is the cheapest of the three filaments, and I would recommend it for this price.
  
Looking at the colors from the datasheet, especially the ones like "Light Blue", "Peak Green" or "Pine Green", the best match from eSun seems to be the ABS+/ABS PRO product line. The also have plain ABS, but with other colors. So, I'm wondering if what Multicomp sells is ABS or ABS+...
  
Conclusions
  
Based on the tests I performed I think the Multicomp and Multicomp Pro 3D Printing Filaments offer good quality material for 3D printing.
  
Given the sightly higher price and (exclusive) availability on Farnell / Newark, I think the filaments are better suited for companies. In professional environments it can be quite cumbersome to convince the company to order stuff from new suppliers. But if the company already works with a supplier (like Farnell / Newark), it's usually not a big deal to order relatively low value stuff like 3D printer filaments. It is also quite likely for a company doing electronics to also have the need for 3D printing.
  
For hobby use, unless you're not already planning to order other stuff from Farnell / Newark, I would say online shops specialized in 3D printing offer better deals (even for filaments from well known brands).
  
Hope you enjoyed this review! Sunglasses
Learn more about Newark's information on Multicomp Pro's 3D Printer Filaments
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