Jump to content

Printing with TPU95A?


Tiger91

Recommended Posts

Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

I just got TPU95A and have been working with it.  It seems to be OK for printing simple structures that require almost no jumping, but anything that is large, more complex than a cylinder, or requires support seems to cause ugly stringing that ruins the print and prevents layers from sticking to each other.

 

Is there a way around this?  Also, is there any way to have successful dual prints with this material and PLA/Nylon/etc?

 

Thanks

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    I think most have used NinjaFlex and others, so it may be that. I do not have experience with that specific filament meself. But I have printed a few dinosaurs with the NinjaFlex materials.

     

    Also, what printer and slicer are you using?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    8 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

    I think most have used NinjaFlex and others, so it may be that. I do not have experience with that specific filament meself. But I have printed a few dinosaurs with the NinjaFlex materials.

     

    Also, what printer and slicer are you using?

    I'm using the ultimaker 3 with the most current cura slicer. 

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    16 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

    I think it is a question of playing with temps and speed and retractions. And, no matter what, if you look at prints across the web, there seem to be more strings and such on elaborate shapes.

    My main issue is that the stringing prevents adhesion between layers - even simple shapes that are a few millimeters high.  I've come back to prints only to see them turn into silly string.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Maybe no real help, but i printed dual prints of TPU95A red with PLA as a sealing (was not airtight) on a UM3E successful. Quality rose as i dried the filament. And i tried to avoid supports by using 45°-60°ramps/overhangs and 8-corner holes. Printing a phone case was ok, but the material is too weak for that. All done with the UM-Profiles and a little tweaking.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    2 hours ago, Tiger91 said:

    My main issue is that the stringing prevents adhesion between layers - even simple shapes that are a few millimeters high.  I've come back to prints only to see them turn into silly string.

    On the flex materials I have used (NinjaTek) I had to crank the temp and lower the speed otherwise it would drag a noodle of filament around and not bond with the layer below.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    20 hours ago, dxp said:

    Maybe no real help, but i printed dual prints of TPU95A red with PLA as a sealing (was not airtight) on a UM3E successful. Quality rose as i dried the filament. And i tried to avoid supports by using 45°-60°ramps/overhangs and 8-corner holes. Printing a phone case was ok, but the material is too weak for that. All done with the UM-Profiles and a little tweaking.

    So you can't really use supports with TIPU?  I've been trying but have had no luck.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    3 hours ago, Tiger91 said:

    So you can't really use supports with TIPU?

    Well, i just avoided it. TPU as support would be a mess. Adhesion on PLA is maybe too good to use it as support material, never tried it that way.

    I got better results with dry filament (3-5hrs @ 90°C) and slow speeds. It all depends on the actual model.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    I tried UMs TPU for the first time last night.  Actually first time I've printed flexible material of any kind.

     

    I printed a Benchy that came out very well, and that is a reasonably complex model, but does not require supports.

     

    I also printed a phone case which came out very nicely as well.  According to Ultimaker's material guide (https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/49799-material-compatibility) TPU with PVA or Breakaway is considered experimental, so you may have to do a lot of fiddling to make it work.

     

    You have me curious, and as I have TPU and Breakaway currently loaded in my machine I may try a test tonight and see if it works out.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    I've made some tests with TPU 95, in my experience, with basic CURA settings, you need to stick to prints that are geometric shapes (or combinations), and avoid using it for support at all cost as well as make sure that there is the least retractions possible when you print.

     

    With standard settings, you will get some stringing, blobs of the stuff as it retracts and then extrudes again, and even can get a bit of burnt material for small parts as it stays in contact too long with the print head.

     

    What I've seen is that, with standard setting, the TPU melts and oozes out of the print head. It can last for a minute or two even after the print as finished, producing tiny hair thin strand of the stuff that goes everywhere.

     

    I'd need to run some more tests to see if it can be solved, but the printer is often busy with customer's projects.

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted (edited) · Printing with TPU95A?

     

    While I have not used the TPU 95 per se, I have used NinjaFlex and had no issues with organic or supported prints.

    The grey is PLA and the black is NinjaSemiFlex. One of my VERY early prints from a year ago.

    DinoCompare.thumb.jpg.7fdce88e8a562fabb64c6d2169e39696.jpg

    And all of these are flex (NinjaFlex natural and NinjaSemi-Flex Black and Cheeta Red) prints with many using PVA support. The flat stuff obviously not. But, I never got it as clean as a hard plastic.

    VariousFlexMaterials.thumb.jpg.d263a5bc81530431201935650b7c9fff.jpg

    That is even a column of cubes that are ball and joint tests I made.

    Here is a teeny lettering test with NinjaSemiFlex

    FlexTeenyLetteringTest.thumb.jpg.077fc367bfca00d4b9ee76d0b81b8440.jpg

    NinjaFlex with Matterhackers PVA

    NinjaFlexwithMHPVA.thumb.jpg.f65489b0a90060fb28c73e5607c10502.jpg

    NinjaSemiFlex with UM PVA

    NinjaFlexwithUMPVA.thumb.jpg.11c3714f880d19b61716e9db7ad61a02.jpg

    Painted SemiFlex, even the base for the dinos. Grey is still PLA. Spider is spray painted NinjaSemiFlex.

    PaintedFlex.thumb.jpg.d2d3d547b3c499ae699cbdb633138457.jpg

    Ball and joint before assembly

    BallAndJointFlex.thumb.jpg.bfd292352a12c9dc73004844eb2bd121.jpg

    And after assembly with other semiflex prints.

    VariousGeometryNinjaFlex.thumb.jpg.8001ab15542e38f35c581377cf5cfa55.jpg

     

     

    Edit: I found these.

    These are the profiles I developed all those eons ago to print these with:

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Draft.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex NoSprt Normal.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex NoSprt Draft.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex Fast.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex Draft.curaprofile

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Hi.curaprofile

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Fast.curaprofile

    Edited by kmanstudios
    • Like 2
    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Very nice. I'll remember your profiles if I ever get some ninjaflex. For now, I wouldn't trust UM TPU to try and print the dinosaur, my earlier tests suggests that it would be a mess. I'd need to fiddle with the settings when I have the time.

     

    Just had a thought: it might be a good idea to have a central repository where all the settings developed by the community are stored, so it would be easier to find for everyone.

     

    @SandervG What do you think? Could it be possible to create a repository of those curaprofiles somewhere on the site or even on the forums? We would need to get some sort of naming convention to make it quick and easy to find what one is searching, but I think it might be of great help.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    10 minutes ago, Brulti said:

    Very nice. I'll remember your profiles if I ever get some ninjaflex. For now, I wouldn't trust UM TPU to try and print the dinosaur, my earlier tests suggests that it would be a mess. I'd need to fiddle with the settings when I have the time.

    Why not try to see if what I cobbled together would work as Ninjatek's flex materials are some variant of TPU formulas. I am not sure what Cheetah is though.

    • Like 1
    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Good advice. I'll try and do that next week.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    On 2/17/2018 at 5:59 AM, kmanstudios said:

     

    While I have not used the TPU 95 per se, I have used NinjaFlex and had no issues with organic or supported prints.

    The grey is PLA and the black is NinjaSemiFlex. One of my VERY early prints from a year ago.

    DinoCompare.thumb.jpg.7fdce88e8a562fabb64c6d2169e39696.jpg

    And all of these are flex (NinjaFlex natural and NinjaSemi-Flex Black and Cheeta Red) prints with many using PVA support. The flat stuff obviously not. But, I never got it as clean as a hard plastic.

    VariousFlexMaterials.thumb.jpg.d263a5bc81530431201935650b7c9fff.jpg

    That is even a column of cubes that are ball and joint tests I made.

    Here is a teeny lettering test with NinjaSemiFlex

    FlexTeenyLetteringTest.thumb.jpg.077fc367bfca00d4b9ee76d0b81b8440.jpg

    NinjaFlex with Matterhackers PVA

    NinjaFlexwithMHPVA.thumb.jpg.f65489b0a90060fb28c73e5607c10502.jpg

    NinjaSemiFlex with UM PVA

    NinjaFlexwithUMPVA.thumb.jpg.11c3714f880d19b61716e9db7ad61a02.jpg

    Painted SemiFlex, even the base for the dinos. Grey is still PLA. Spider is spray painted NinjaSemiFlex.

    PaintedFlex.thumb.jpg.d2d3d547b3c499ae699cbdb633138457.jpg

    Ball and joint before assembly

    BallAndJointFlex.thumb.jpg.bfd292352a12c9dc73004844eb2bd121.jpg

    And after assembly with other semiflex prints.

    VariousGeometryNinjaFlex.thumb.jpg.8001ab15542e38f35c581377cf5cfa55.jpg

     

     

    Edit: I found these.

    These are the profiles I developed all those eons ago to print these with:

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Draft.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex NoSprt Normal.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex NoSprt Draft.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex Fast.curaprofile

    NinjaFlex Draft.curaprofile

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Hi.curaprofile

    Ninja-SemiFlex-Fast.curaprofile

    This is great!  I'll definitely try ninjaflex.

     

    Also, the dinos are really cool :)

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    The points in this thread about TPU (in each of its forms) being hygroscopic is worth taking seriously -- dry out that filament, and it will treat you better! but darned if I can fully eliminate retraction stringiness myself. I just tweak the model to prepare for this and disable retraction where I can. That won't necessarily help you now that you have something you want to print, but consider whether you can clip strings with a flush cutter afterwards.... 

     

    I think you'd do fine with TPU 95A or NinjaTek's Cheetah -- very similar materials and the slightly less squishy durameter can make it easier to predict and print at higher speeds than NinjaFlex (at Shore 85A) and softer materials.

     

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    I've used the AprintaPro HARD FLEX (98° shore A) on my UM3 last weekend.
    Retraction seems to be useless so I disabled it. After the Feeder stopped molten material is running out of the nozzle for quite a few seconds.
    Printed a test cylinder and the outside was ok but the infill is not so good. Bad stringing on the travels (only inside).

    So I'll try it for some basic parts.
    The bonding between the layers is fantastic. If you cut through the printed object it is like cast rubber.

    But I think the Ultimaker TPU is quite different to my AprintaPro HARD FELX - some Problems seem to be the same.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    On 2/19/2018 at 3:13 AM, mattgriffin said:

    The points in this thread about TPU (in each of its forms) being hygroscopic is worth taking seriously -- dry out that filament, and it will treat you better! but darned if I can fully eliminate retraction stringiness myself. I just tweak the model to prepare for this and disable retraction where I can. That won't necessarily help you now that you have something you want to print, but consider whether you can clip strings with a flush cutter afterwards.... 

     

    I think you'd do fine with TPU 95A or NinjaTek's Cheetah -- very similar materials and the slightly less squishy durameter can make it easier to predict and print at higher speeds than NinjaFlex (at Shore 85A) and softer materials.

     

     

    Hi Matt,

      I'm using UM TPU with UM ABS as the support structure.  It works well, when it does work.  But I'm thinking now that its because my TPU is taking on ambient moisture.  Can I just put the spool into the fan oven for a while to dry it out? Do I need to put it into a ziplock bag with desiccant too? For how long and at what temperature?

     

    I'm getting very unreliable results with the same settings - some days perfect, others not.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    I have been finding that using the various tricks shared my community members and ultimaker staff here to dry out TPU — the low temp oven trick, similar to refreshing stereo audio tapes, or food dehydrator (like PrintDry or sorting out your own solution), or drying the filament on the bed overnight all lead to happier TPU processing. Any other trick that I am looking into that is new to me is bracing the Bowden tube up a few inches/cm so that the insertion angle is at a fixed true 90 degrees down into the hot end seems to reduce friction where it matters and allows retractions to perform more accurately even when being driven from a distant filament drive.

     

    The results I have seen are a remarkable improvement, exciting in particular because this is even without changing anything other than drying the TPU and bracing the insertion point. But I have not attempted this new trick myself, just drying TPU which I certainly encourage, so I can only suggest that these are promising directions.

     

    Depending on your type of use, you might consider crushing the TPU element a few 0.1s into the ABS. This is an old hack but I have liked it for living hinges and less compatible bonding.

     

    Wanna share a photo or two of your attempts so far?

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Thanks Matt,

     

      From the image you can see my ABS supports with a 0.3 mm z-offset.  They peel away very nicely, most of the time.  The TPU brim gives great support to the ABS and once it's still warm on the bed, I can very cleanly remove it off the bed.  My under-surface is an issue sometimes, but I now think this will be resolved by the drying out beforehand.  Do you have any suggestions on improving the balling on the top surface?  It's not a big deal, but it would be great to keep the post-processing to a min. I read on another forum post to turn off the fans, so I might try that tonight.

     

         I have a cover on top and a hinged door and this is certainly helping with the ambient temperature, but spools are not encased.  https://www.makershop.fr/accessoires-fdm/1562-capot-ultimaker-3.html  I'm thinking of making up a secondary polycarbonate cover and have some desiccant sachets in there - away from the spool feeds of course.

     

    I assume that you're talking about bracing on the outside of the Bowden tubes?  That's a good idea - acting like a strain relief!

    IMG_9257.PNG

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Drying in the oven at 90°C (I think, and only the neccessary 3m) helped a lot last time. Before that I had blobs and bubbles and a nasty surface, afterwards smooth and correct surfaces.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?
    6 minutes ago, dxp said:

    Drying in the oven at 90°C (I think, and only the neccessary 3m) helped a lot last time. Before that I had blobs and bubbles and a nasty surface, afterwards smooth and correct surfaces.

    Thanks DXP, for 3 minutes, that's not long at all.  I could do that as part of my pre-print check-list on my batches.  Should I pop in the reel of ABS too while I'm at it?

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Printing with TPU95A?

    Oh, no! :O I took only the 3 meters for the next print and dried it for 1 hour.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • Introducing Universal Cura Projects in the UltiMaker Cura 5.7 beta
        Strap in for the first Cura release of 2024! This 5.7 beta release brings new material profiles as well as cloud printing for Method series printers, and introduces a powerful new way of sharing print settings using printer-agnostic project files! Also, if you want to download the cute dinosaur card holder featured below, it was specially designed for this release and can be found on Thingiverse! 
          • Like
        • 10 replies
      • S-Line Firmware 8.3.0 was released Nov. 20th on the "Latest" firmware branch.
        (Sorry, was out of office when this released)

        This update is for...
        All UltiMaker S series  
        New features
         
        Temperature status. During print preparation, the temperatures of the print cores and build plate will be shown on the display. This gives a better indication of the progress and remaining wait time. Save log files in paused state. It is now possible to save the printer's log files to USB if the currently active print job is paused. Previously, the Dump logs to USB option was only enabled if the printer was in idle state. Confirm print removal via Digital Factory. If the printer is connected to the Digital Factory, it is now possible to confirm the removal of a previous print job via the Digital Factory interface. This is useful in situations where the build plate is clear, but the operator forgot to select Confirm removal on the printer’s display. Visit this page for more information about this feature.
          • Like
        • 0 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...