PEEK or CFPEEK?
Short Answer: CFPEEK, if your application allows the carbon fiber infill.
Why? It's SO MUCH EASIER. The carbon fiber composite keeps the extremely-warpy polymer stable at 400ºC -- meaning you don't have parts tearing themselves up from the buildplate on your 3D printer. At least, not as much.
The surface quality is phenomenal, and layer adhesion can be better than regular PEEK -- however, it may not meet the certifications needed for some aerospace and medical applications.
PEEK has an impressive portfolio of certs -- from it's UL94-V0 FST rating, to biocompatibility and food-safe properties, to wear resistance comparable to titanium. It's 5x lighter than steel, and the same strength by volume. That's crazy strong!
However, PEEK is insanely difficult to print, with terrible bridging, massive warping, and many other challenge on larger parts.
With Carbon Fiber added, many of these challenges disappear entirely, and the process of printing CFPEEK and holding your final parts is amazing -- perfect surface finish, great dimensional accuracy, high temperature resistance, crazy chemical resistance, and of course -- strength. Lots of strength.
At Vision Miner, we specialize in Functional 3D printing, especially high-performance plastics like PEEK, ULTEM, PPSU, PPS, CFPA, and more.
If you're interested in using functional 3D printing and materials in your business, feel free to reach out, and we can help you make the right choice for your application.
Call 833-774-6863 or email contact@visionminer.com, and we're here to help!