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The plastics our Tamiyas are made from

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Just out of curiosity, does anybody know what various plastics Tamiyas are built from? Being a tactile person, I'm very familiar with the "feel" of the different plastics but don't really know their make up. For instance : the typical, (ABS?) hard, but precisely molded shiney plastic that makes up a Hornet gearbox. It's durable in that application but can shatter somewhat in others, like a Hot Shot steering knuckle. Then there's the more flexible tough plastic that makes up a Lunch Box's front A-arms. Not as precise as the hard shiney stuff but it can take a beating. The two-piece WT-01 suspension arms also seem to use this stuff and can twist like a pretzel without snapping. I've seen a third, less often used fiber-filled plastic that's strong and rigid. My DF-03 lower arms were made of the stuff. For the TXT-2 Agrios, I think Tamiya switched to this for the axle guards/link mounts over the standard plastic used here in the TXT-1. Over the years of trimming plastic parts one notices all these little differences.

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If you look on the individual sprues and on the chassis or hard bodies themselves, typically there is a code that indicates the type of plastic used. You'll see things like >ABS<, >PC<, >PS<, >PA<, etc. You'll find a lot of ABS on the entry-level kits, more glass-filled PA (polyamide) on the intermediate kits (PA-GF), and carbon-filled/carbon reinforced polyamide on the high end race kits (PA-CF). There are some other softer plastics used for battery straps, bumpers, and body posts, but I haven't looked at those too closely. The materials are chosen depending on the application. It makes sense to use softer materials for bumpers and body posts, and it makes sense to use carbon-reinforced polyamide for racing applications (suspension arms, uprights, steering knuckles). If you Google plastic codes and look at the stampings on your parts, you'll get some insight into properties which will lead to why it was chosen for that part of the chassis. Hope that helps a little.

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Upping this interesting thread because I was wondering if anyone knows precisely what soft, flexible material the bumpers and body posts are made from ?

I'm currently trying to print bumpers for M-05, think I might go with the harder TPU (95A or so), but maybe this is not the optimal/original material ?

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22 minutes ago, Vertigo35 said:

Upping this interesting thread because I was wondering if anyone knows precisely what soft, flexible material the bumpers and body posts are made from ?

I'm currently trying to print bumpers for M-05, think I might go with the harder TPU (95A or so), but maybe this is not the optimal/original material ?

On those parts trees for the TT02, its listed as >PA<, which is Polyamide plastic, commonly called Nylon also.

-RC Perspective

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Part of the challenge here too, is that in the world of plastics (and specifically injection molded plastics...), there can be a bunch of other things added to the mix that will not be noted in the product name.  So 3 products labeled as "ABS", may actually have notably different properties.  Also worth noting, is that a material that good in one application (i.e. injection molding), may NOT be the right material if the production method is changed.  The properties of (and what you can do with) the material are not always equivalent across injection molding, 3D printing, and CNC machining.

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