Why does PETG survive impacts that crack PLA?
PLA is stiff but brittle: it has almost no give, so an impact concentrates at one layer boundary and the part splits there. PETG is a glycol-modified PET, which makes the polymer chain more flexible, so the same impact is spread through the wall and the part flexes instead of cracking. That flexibility also gives PETG stronger layer-to-layer bonding and better resistance to moisture and to many common chemicals than PLA. It is not a high-temperature material - for parts held above roughly 70 °C, ABS or PC is the right grade.
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