PC: full cost overview

Specs

Typical price

~$45.00/kg

Print temperature

260–300 °C

Bed temperature

100–120 °C

Enclosed chamber

Recommended

Food-safe

No

Difficulty

★★★★★

How to print well in PC

Polycarbonate is the toughest engineering plastic you can print on FDM — survives 110 °C+ before deforming (vs 95 °C for ABS, 75 °C for PETG, 50 °C for PLA), and is one of the highest-impact-resistance materials available. But it's also one of the hardest to print: nozzle 280-310 °C (ideally 300+), bed 100-120 °C, active heated chamber almost mandatory (passive can work on small parts but warping is constant). Zero cooling (0-10%) — fan above this causes severe delamination. Extreme adhesion needed: PVA glue, Magigoo PA, or printing on Garolite (G10). PC slowly absorbs moisture — dry storage and pre-drying (50 °C for 8 h) before each print to avoid bubbling. Hardened nozzle mandatory for PC-CF or PC-FR blends.

Typical cost in practice

PC in the US runs $45-65/kg from brands like eSun ePC, Polymaker PolyMax PC and Prusament, and $80-120/kg for PC-CF (with carbon fiber). For a 60 g functional PC part, filament cost is $2.70-3.90 — among the most expensive after PEEK-likes. Use PC only where ambient temperature demands it (motor housings, internal automotive parts, industrial lighting fixtures) or where impact resistance is critical (equipment protection, light armor parts). Without an actively heated chamber (P1S/X1C passive only reach 50 °C, insufficient), the part will warp — only run PC on H2D or Q1 Pro with active chamber heat.

Sample calculation

For a 50 g part on a Bambu Lab A1, 6 h print time and 8% failure rate. Currency follows your selection at the top.

• Filament$2.25
• Energy$0.14
• Amortization$0.15
• Failures (8%)$0.20
• Unit Cost$2.74
• Final Consumer Price (3× / 6% / 2%)$11.93