I don’t think your particular case would have any creep as it’s not mechanically leveraged in any real way.
If you were to print something like a cupholder for a stroller or bike where it’s holding something up with some weight while in the heat is where you would notice it especially with repeated impact. Most likely wouldn’t outright fail but under constant load you would notice it starting to bend a little. That said you can absolutely over engineer it to prevent that rather than switching materials which can be a huge pain depending on the printer.
I did my hydroponic tower in PETG but it honestly would’ve been ok in PLA since it’s just a static fixture. I’ve had a PLA badge on my car for 3 years in 110+ summers and similar to you I’ve only noticed fading on the raised white lettering.
empireOfLove@lemmy.one 1 year ago
It can survive fine when under no load. It probably fades color less than abs does actually. However When experiencing any kind of mechanical load - say, a tablet squeezing at the edges for a friction fit - it fails rapidly at elevated temperatures.
nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Yup, and any interior vehicle parts I’ve done that have any loads have yielded after any kind of sunny week or so.
Massively oversized parts can last a bit longer, but they just have very low yield temperatures.
empireOfLove@lemmy.one 1 year ago
That’s exactly how I know. Made some very nice interior car parts and experimented with the 3 plastics. PLA failed in a day, PETG made it a week before it sagged too much to be usable, but ABS is still going.
nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 1 year ago
Yeah, I haven’t bitten the bullet and tried abs yet, mostly because I’m not ready to setup ventilation and better temp control.
Asa seems to be another option, but I’ve been having too much fun printing TPU parts to bother.