Printing with PP?

[Tiger91 1]

I just got some PP to test out on my UM3...

 

I'm pretty disappointed - it has the worst adhesion possible, even with glue/hairspray. I know that one of those expensive build plates is recommended for this material, but I was wondering if anyone had luck printing with just the normal glass buildplate?

 

Also, if you do use the adhesion base, what are the largest prints you've done with it?

 

Any tips?

[dxp 23]

Hi @Tiger91,

 

luckily i could use those famous adhesion sheets from Ultimaker. And i printed a very small part. Lately i discovered some bubbles under the sheet where the corners of the part were - so, adhesion on the sheet was very good.

Maybe you could try something like book wrapping foil or Tesa 4309? I didn't test one of them but i would try if i had none of these UM-Sheets.

 

And maybe you could cover your UM with a card-board-box to keep the heat inside? Every bit of warmth helps :-)f

 

Cheers,

dxp

[DidierKlein 729]

Hi!

 

PP and adhesion is indeed complicated. That's why it's recommended to use the adhesion sheets (these work pretty well).

 

PP is known to stick to basically nothing so you can try different things but it's most likely it will fail.

 

Tips for adhesion as you probably know: 

 

Large brim and pretty close levelling, you may want to change your first layer height to 0.2 or 0.1 for an extra squish.

 

Try blue tape maybe? But the best would be the adhesion sheets (you can buy that directly from your local reseller)

[korneel 176]

I've had great success with PP by using the glassplate, then spraying it with printafix , waiting a bit, then spraying again. just a 3 or 4 layers of printafix, then printing with the default cura settings. 

no more adhesion problems for me

I actually have a special glassplate for PP that is completely coated in printafix and i just never clean it.. works like a charm.

[SteveCox3D 85]

One straightforward solution if you don't have printafix is to use the wide (normally brown) packing tape used for sealing up boxes for shipping.  I think this tape is actually PP, and PP really only likes to stick to itself, but the adhesive on the other side allows the tape itself to stick to the glass plate.

 

I've found this to be very effective, the only downside is that when removing the print sometimes it doesn't come away cleanly and some small parts of the tape come away stuck to it that you need to clean off.  I've produced PP prints that are as large as the buildplate of the UM2 using this technique with no problems of loss of adhesion.   

[Tiger91 1]

On 2/26/2018 at 7:31 AM, SteveCox3D said:

One straightforward solution if you don't have printafix is to use the wide (normally brown) packing tape used for sealing up boxes for shipping.  I think this tape is actually PP, and PP really only likes to stick to itself, but the adhesive on the other side allows the tape itself to stick to the glass plate.

 

I've found this to be very effective, the only downside is that when removing the print sometimes it doesn't come away cleanly and some small parts of the tape come away stuck to it that you need to clean off.  I've produced PP prints that are as large as the buildplate of the UM2 using this technique with no problems of loss of adhesion.   

I will have to try that - do you know a good brand/location that would give best results?

[SteveCox3D 85]

I think most brands of packing tape should work.  They tend to be made from polypropylene or polyester, and you want the polypropylene type.  So if you buy some see if it specifies which material it is.  It worked for me with the tape I already had which didn't have any material info on it - maybe I got lucky and it was PP. 

[Cosomo 1]

Hi Steve, You are great!!!

 

I have tried your solution and works perfectly!! The packing tape is the solution, I have used a transparent one and it works!

 

Thanks a loooottt!!

 

If you come to Spain you are invited to enjoy with us !!

 

Best Regards

[SteveCox3D 85]

On 10/27/2018 at 6:29 PM, Cosomo said:

Hi Steve, You are great!!!

 

I have tried your solution and works perfectly!! The packing tape is the solution, I have used a transparent one and it works!

 

Thanks a loooottt!!

 

If you come to Spain you are invited to enjoy with us !!

 

Best Regards

Glad it worked out! This forum is all about helping each other, so it's great to get your feedback that this solved your problem.