Material Highlight: PEEK and Carbon PEEK
Material selection is one of the most important choices you make when designing a part or product. Material contributes to crucial factors like part function, cost, and lead time. In other words, you want to be sure to get it right.
In today’s blog, we’ll conduct a deep dive into PEEK and Carbon PEEK so you can better determine if these materials are right for your application.
What Are PEEK and Carbon PEEK? 
PEEK, or polyetheretherketone, is a semi-crystalline plastic that offers high chemical resistance and can maintain its mechanical properties at high temperatures. It has a melting point of 343 degrees Celsius and a continuous use temperature of 250 degrees Celsius. PEEK has an ultimate tensile strength of between 86 and 89 MPa and a tensile modulus of 3.3-3.4 GPa.
Carbon PEEK is a carbon fiber reinforced version of PEEK known for its exceptional strength. It has an ultimate tensile strength of 138 MPa and a tensile modulus of 14 GPa. Carbon PEEK has a melting point of 343 degrees Celsius and a continuous use temperature of 240 degrees Celsius. However, it has a higher heat deflection temperature than PEEK (280 degrees Celsius compared to 150 degrees Celsius).
PEEK and Carbon PEEK are both high-performance plastics that can be used in additive or subtractive manufacturing. Whether or not they are the best material for your manufacturing needs, however, is largely dependent on your application.
Using PEEK or Carbon PEEK for Your Application
PEEK and Carbon PEEK are excellent materials for parts that will be exposed to extreme environments or corrosive chemicals. We’ve had great success using these materials when 3D printing for the oil and gas industry here in Houston, for instance.
That said, these materials aren’t exactly cheap, so your part should have a demonstrated need for a high level of chemical and heat resistance to justify the cost.
Luckily, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) provides a more cost-effective option for manufacturing PEEK and Carbon PEEK parts than traditional CNC machining.
Manufacturing PEEK and Carbon PEEK: FDM vs. CNC Machining
Using CNC machining to manufacture PEEK or Carbon PEEK parts is a high-cost process involving lengthy lead times. Because suppliers don’t typically stock these materials on their shelves, they must have it made to order based on the part’s size, which increases the upfront cost and lead time for customers before machining even begins. For low-volume orders in particular, the cost per part is rarely justified.
The solution to this problem is FDM. Unlike subtractive manufacturing methods that begin with a large piece of material, FDM is an additive manufacturing process that uses only the amount of material required. When sourcing PEEK or Carbon PEEK for FDM, we can purchase the exact quantity of material without having to special-order it to meet the same kind of size criteria that CNC machining requires. And since there’s no need to rely on custom material orders, lead times for materials are considerably shorter.
FDM is also a much faster process than CNC machining. With no lengthy setups required, we can 3D print PEEK and Carbon PEEK parts on demand in a matter of days instead of weeks, which also results in lower labor costs.
Curious if 3D printing PEEK or Carbon PEEK is right for your next part? When you reach out to Alchemy Industrial, we’ll always guide you to the right material for your budget, timeline, and application. Contact us today for an honest recommendation that you can trust.
