Polycarbonate (PC) filament guide
Polycarbonate is one of the strongest and most heat resistant materials you can run on a desktop FDM printer. It is also one of the most demanding. PC rewards you with parts that stay tough and hold their shape where PLA and PETG would soften, but only if your printer can reach the temperatures it needs and you keep it bone dry.
What PC is good at
Polycarbonate combines high tensile strength, genuine impact toughness, and excellent heat resistance in one material. Printed PC typically holds its shape to about 110 to 115°C depending on the grade, far beyond where PLA or PETG give up, which makes it a real engineering plastic rather than a novelty. It is also naturally close to transparent. For load-bearing parts that see heat, PC is often the answer when nothing lighter-duty will do.
The one thing not to get wrong
PC is hygroscopic. Some grades pick up enough moisture to cause bubbling, weak layers, and cloudy parts, so dry the spool before printing (75 to 85°C for 4 to 8 hours) and store it sealed with desiccant.
What it demands from your printer
PC needs heat, and a lot of it. Polycarbonate typically wants a hotend in the region of 250 to 290°C, with pure grades toward the top of that range, so you need an all-metal hotend, not one with a PTFE-lined throat. The bed runs hot too, commonly 90 to 120°C, and PC warps at least as aggressively as ABS, so an enclosure to hold ambient heat steady is effectively required. Print too cool or with too much part cooling and PC delaminates, splitting along its layers.
None of this is exotic if you already print ABS or ASA in an enclosure, but a basic open-frame printer with a stock hotend cannot do it. Check your printer's maximum temperatures before buying a spool.
Starting settings for pure PC, from the ranges manufacturers publish:
Ranges checked against manufacturer data from Bambu Lab, Prusament and Polymaker. Heat resistance is the heat deflection temperature at 0.45 MPa. Follow the range printed on your spool when it differs.
PC blends: most of the strength, less of the pain
If pure PC is more than you can print, blends exist for exactly that reason. PC-ABS, PC blended with PETG, and PC with carbon fiber trade a little of the peak performance for lower printing temperatures, less warping, or added stiffness. A blend is often the smarter first step into polycarbonate: you keep much of the heat resistance and toughness while dropping into a temperature range your printer can actually hit. Many PC filaments are modified to print lower, around 250 to 270°C. Check the product name and data sheet for PC-ABS or PC-PBT if you need to know whether it is a blend.
When to choose PC
Reach for polycarbonate when a part must be both strong and heat tolerant: parts near motors or electronics, tooling, or functional components exposed to heat that would soften PETG. Skip it when the part never sees heat, when you cannot dry and enclose it properly, or when a tougher nylon or a simple PETG would do the job for less hassle. Note that PC yellows under prolonged UV without a coating, so it is not an automatic outdoor pick despite its strength.
Compare current pricing on the PC listings, and see where it sits against easier engineering options in the PETG listings.
For the enclosure and warping know-how PC shares with other high-temperature materials, the ABS and ASA guide helps, and the Nylon guide covers the same moisture management PC needs.