PA11 (Polyamide 11)

Engineering considerations

• Ductility advantage: if the application undergoes dynamic loading, repeated assembly/disassembly, or impact, PA11 is preferred over PA12. For static structural loading, PA12 is usually sufficient and cheaper.
• Living hinge design: minimum hinge thickness 0.4 mm, minimum bend radius 0.8 mm for ≥10,000 flex cycles. Test at -20°C if cold-temperature flex is required — PA11 remains ductile at low temperature.
• Powder parameters: PA11 requires sintering temperature ~2–3°C lower than PA12 on the same system. Build chamber temperature ~165–168°C vs PA12 ~170°C. Calibrate before running production PA11 builds.
• Bio-claim: PA11 uses >80% bio-based carbon content (renewable castor oil feedstock). Suitable for companies under bio-preferred purchasing programmes (USDA BioPreferred etc.).
• Inter-batch variability: stichel-2017-pa11 round-robin study showed 15–30% coefficient of variation (CV) for elongation across laboratories using nominally identical SLS processes. Test each production batch.
• Post-processing: vapour smoothing works well for PA11. Dyeing achieves deeper colour penetration than PA12 in some formulations.
• Thermal performance: PA11 HDT is similar to PA12 — both limited to ~60–80°C continuous service with load. For higher temperatures, switch to PEEK or high-performance PA (PA46, PPA).