Baking prints

[Son of a gun-ner]

Well, now I'm very intrigued. It looks like 3D Printing has opened a whole new view of plastics.
Originally I thought this an April fool, but now I've read the last two links, there does look to be some merit to this. I think that maybe the chap doing the tests in the first post, needed to try his experiment with different oven temps, plus, we don't know if he rushed the cooling, or printed the test pieces at the right temp.
So, I'm now going to stay open minded on this, even though I'm worried about the layer bonding.

[Son of a gun-ner]

Well Mr Front, I still doubt it, but the reason I'm going to be open minded is because not all plastics are the same, and some may be effected differently by various temps, and we bake paintwork to make it harder. And paint is after all, a type of plastic.

I think part of this idea came from paint baking, which hardens the paint. But doesn't work for all types.
As for calling it annealing, if heating and slowly cooling the plastic to make it less brittle actually works, then it should be called so.

Edit for this. Another reason I'm going to keep open minded, they keep changing plastic formulas these days to suit printers, it must be hard to keep track.
And it wasn't that long ago when it was discovered they could "grow" metal and form structurally superior forms, which was perfect for forming the turbines in aircraft engines, making them more reliable and safer. Who saw that technological advancement coming.