Adhesion problems when printing with Taulman Nylon 680

[knightcase 1]

I am working on a project which requires printing with food safe Nylon. I am using Taulman Nylon 680. I have a Ultimaker 2 + Extended printer. I have tried multiple configurations and have found that my best prints results from using .2 mm layer, nozzle temp of 252 C, retraction disabled, print speeds of 40 to 50 mm/s and no fan. For the small parts, they are printing fine and I have had limited success on larger parts at partial fills (normally 20 to 40 %) My problem is occurs on large parts (i.e. a 75 mm diameter disc 8 mm thick) when using 100% fill and I can't find a configuration that keeps the Nylon adhering to the print bed. I have tried print bed temps from 65 C to 80 C. I have tried Kapton tape, glue and Kapton tape and glue combined but none of this is working. I’ve seen some posts on the internet recommending anything from sanding the build plate to using a piece of Poplar wood instead of the normal build plate but before I do anything else, I thought I would reach out to this forum to see if anyone has advise/recommendations. Any direction/support anyone can offer me on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[neotko 1,417]

Hi and welcome!

Sorry my answer won't help much. For food safe stuff I use Greentec Pla that holds up to 110 and has EU foodsafe certification. For this material I use a paper towel with window washer and a couple puffs of hairspray and I clean the glass with it before heating the bed.

Probably someone has some nylon experience, mine is limited to um nylon that works well with a raft as base (and worked also nice for me with hairspray applied with window washer).

Edited November 14, 2016 by Guest

[ohms 1]

I have not tried nylon 680, but I've tried all the other taulman nylons and I have good results with glass bed at 65 degrees with a couple of layers of gluestick. I also tried with garolite, but that actually had way too much adhesion it was almost impossible to remove the prints. Another nice solution was wolfbite nitro although that's not that cheap

[knightcase 1]

Thanks neotko and ohms. Talked to Taulman and they recommended reducing the fill to somewhere in the order of 60% as any higher does not add strength. That works fine for me. They also recommended using a HT print bed from Geckotek3d.com. Having said that, I see Ultimate has Advanced printing add-on for my machine which may help as well so probably going check that out first.

[SImona91 0]

On 11/14/2016 at 6:09 PM, knightcase said:

I am working on a project which requires printing with food safe Nylon. I am using Taulman Nylon 680. I have a Ultimaker 2 + Extended printer. I have tried multiple configurations and have found that my best prints results from using .2 mm layer, nozzle temp of 252 C, retraction disabled, print speeds of 40 to 50 mm/s and no fan. For the small parts, they are printing fine and I have had limited success on larger parts at partial fills (normally 20 to 40 %) My problem is occurs on large parts (i.e. a 75 mm diameter disc 8 mm thick) when using 100% fill and I can't find a configuration that keeps the Nylon adhering to the print bed. I have tried print bed temps from 65 C to 80 C. I have tried Kapton tape, glue and Kapton tape and glue combined but none of this is working. I’ve seen some posts on the internet recommending anything from sanding the build plate to using a piece of Poplar wood instead of the normal build plate but before I do anything else, I thought I would reach out to this forum to see if anyone has advise/recommendations. Any direction/support anyone can offer me on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, I am having some troubles in printing with nylon 680. It seems as the filament doen't have time to cool down, but just in the bottom part of my piece (it's a small cylinder with a flange to the bottom). Could you please suggest me which parameter should I fix? Thanks!!

[gr5 2,167]

What is the diameter of your cylinder @SImona91 ?  If it truly doesn't have time to cool down (it would have to be very small - maybe 1cm or smaller?) then you should print 2 or 3 of these objects side by side.  As it prints the layer of one cylinder the other 2 are cooling down.

 

Generally with nylon you want things very hot.  So heated bed at 100C or higher.  Enclose the printer.  Fan between 0 and 3% for UM3 and 0 to 30% for UM2.  But you might want to put the fan at the high end of that range (maybe even 5% fan for um3 and 40% for Um2).

 

The bigger problem with nylon is that it absorbs water right out of the air.  You have to keep it very dry.  And if you leave it out for a few days you may have to dry it again (I usually dry nylon filament on the heated bed at 110C for 2 to 6 hours).  If nylon gets moisture then when you print it will come out snowy white instead of clear and it will sizzle and pop as it prints.

[gr5 2,167]

If my advice isn't helpful please show a few photos of what you are talking about.  How big your part is and how it looks when printed.

[knightcase 1]

Howdy SLmona91 - Working with Nylon can be a real pain. The parameters that gr5 suggested will set you on the right path. However, even with the printer perfectly configured,  I struggled with this for quite some time until I witnessed first hand what was causing my prints to fail. I noticed a small piece of filament coming directly out of the print head was waving around in the air. Upon further investigation, I realized a very small draft was impacting my print quality (probably from a ceiling fan in my office) based on that finding, I purchased the advanced 3D printing kit and problem solved, the front enclosure kept the printing environment draft free which is critical. That combined with the adhesion paper that came with the kit insured my prints maintained a perfect print quality. I will warn you that if you use the adhesion paper, your print will definitely be stuck to the print bed and you may find it difficult to remove. I would suggest you get the advanced 3D printing kit if you don't already have it and then experiment with and without the adhesion paper. Also, as Taulman suggested in my original post, for larger prints with Nylon, I would never exceed 60% fill although it sounds like that's not the issue with your print.  Hope that helps.