Desktop PC-ABS prints hold their own against a Stratasys Fortus 450mc. Igor of My Tech Fun ran a structured destruction test comparing Polymaker PC-ABS, printed on a Prusa Core One L and a Bambu Labs H2D, against parts ordered from a commercial bureau running Stratasys proprietary PC-ABS filament. The process gap is significant: Polymaker runs at 280C in a 60-65C chamber, Stratasys runs at 325C with a 95C chamber, and the industrial machine takes more than double the print time.
The results split cleanly. Industrial parts win on dimensional accuracy. Desktop parts win on surface appearance. On mechanical performance, the gap is small and does not consistently favor the industrial system. PC-ABS itself earns its cost premium over plain PC or ABS by combining impact resistance and durability, but it requires a heated enclosure regardless of which machine you use.
The full video is worth watching not for the conclusion, which the title spoils, but for how Igor structures the comparison: part by part, test by test, with the Stratasys machine caught on film. Igor ran this same methodology previously against consumer ABS, and the PC-ABS follow-up adds the temperature differential angle as a variable worth tracking. If you are deciding whether to invest in an enclosure and a spool of Polymaker PC-ABS instead of outsourcing to industrial FDM, this is the data set to examine.
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