On 6/14/2018 at 9:59 AM, ArthurG said:Will any Ultimaker products print with Ninjaflex? I've heard that the Ultimaker 3 has problems when you try to use flexible filaments. Can the s5 or 2 print with flexible materials? If so which would be best?
I know ultimaker brand materials have a sensor chip or something that recognizes the material when you put in the spool. If you use nonultimaker brand filament to print will there be any downsides other than having to manually input the material?
Not really. The NCF chip in the Ultimaker filaments communicates with the NFC reader in the reel holder. It helps to avoid any confusion about what filament is on your Ultimaker, and it automatically loads the designated profile. On a distance you can also sync Cura to the configuration on your Ultimaker. This works also if you don't have NFC chips because it syncs to the (manually) selected material from your Ultimaker, but I think it is a nice feature so I wanted to bring it up anyway ?
I had no issues with printing with Ninja's Flexible products. Here is a test I did last year when I first got my UM3E and was putting every imaginable material through it. The S5 should give similar results. I have not had the chance to test that yet with the Ninja Products yet though, so do not quote me on that specific case.
This was done when anything that took too long was not feasible. Now, I print things that take many days, but not then....I wanted it in my hands as fast as possible.
This is a small spider I got from Thingiverse to use as a test subject.
I shot it with Krylon gold paint to test it and to be able to photograph it. It was printed with a PVA base and what looks like little strings are actually supposed to be the teeny prongs jutting off the legs. But, still not too shabby for a 0.2 mm layer height. First pic is with a US Quarter for size comparison.
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I'd like to try Ninjaflex as well. Might you be able to give me advice on what kind of profile to use for Ninjaflex (temperatures etc.) as well as recommended printhead speed etc. Also, I have read that AA0.8 printcores are recommended with Ninjaflex. I have an AA0.8, and would be happy to try.
Many thanks in advance!
I changed out the bowden tubes with Capricorn XS to help the flexible retracts, but other than that and some (lots) of tuning, I run Recreus 70A flexible and ABS multi-material prints without too much stringing and blobs. For reference, ninjaflex is 85A, so the 70A I print with is especially challenging. To make it run, I slow way down (20-30mm/s) put flow up (108%) and am currently running retracts at 13mm. I would start much lower and work your way up, as you probably wont need that much with a harder material. I got real nice prints out of the ultimaker TPU, but it is just too hard for the prototyping I need to do.
Hello,
I would like to ask which settings did you use for printing. I would appreciate any kind of tips and settings recommendations for printing with Ultimaker TPU and Ninjaflex. Also, as far as I know, Ninjaflex has only 1.75 mm diamater and 3 mm diameter versions. Our 3D printer (Ultimaker 3) as well as other Ultimaker 3D printers that I have seen is only compatible with filaments with 2.85 mm diameter. I kinda new to 3D printing so I would also like to ask how did you print with Ninjaflex?
Thank you in advance for your reply!
On 6/19/2018 at 6:41 PM, kmanstudios said:I had no issues with printing with Ninja's Flexible products. Here is a test I did last year when I first got my UM3E and was putting every imaginable material through it. The S5 should give similar results. I have not had the chance to test that yet with the Ninja Products yet though, so do not quote me on that specific case.
This was done when anything that took too long was not feasible. Now, I print things that take many days, but not then....I wanted it in my hands as fast as possible.
This is a small spider I got from Thingiverse to use as a test subject.
I shot it with Krylon gold paint to test it and to be able to photograph it. It was printed with a PVA base and what looks like little strings are actually supposed to be the teeny prongs jutting off the legs. But, still not too shabby for a 0.2 mm layer height. First pic is with a US Quarter for size comparison.
"3mm" filaments are typically actually 2.85mm. 99.999% of printers only use the 2 sizes: 1.75 or "3mm" aka 2.85 aka 2.9.
If a filament is actually 3.00mm it will get stuck in the bowden of Ultimaker printers. But don't worry about that, the only companies actually making 3.00mm filament were Chinese companies and they all have fixed that issue and filaments are all 2.85mm now. Pretty sure they are all fixed now. I've tried a few.
First realize that TPU and Ninjaflex typically have hugely different flexibility amounts. Ninjaflex is as soft as a rubber band and hard to "push". Like pushing a string. Whereas the same company makes "Cheetah" which is much stiffer but still quite flexible. Good for making the sole of a shoe. Cheeta, I believe, is TPU. Maybe. I have some details here in this interactive chart of material properties.
Note that both axes are logarythmic. Vertical is strength (how hard to pull it apart). Horizontal is stiffness. Tough/flexible materials to the left. stiffer materials to the right.
If you print ninjaflex (the most difficult of the soft filaments) on a UM3, set the tension to the lowest setting on the feeder. Over extrude by a bit because it's compressed as it goes through (so not actually 2.85mm diameter inside the feeder) (I usually don't bother but 110% flow is a good place to start). Print very slow. I usually print ninjaflex at 10mm/sec. Much faster and it starts to underextrude a little bit. And oil the filament. Yes oil the filament. Most people don't want to do that. They think it will mess things up. It doesn't. It helps it slide through the bowden nicely and doesn't affect print quality at all. I let the filament hang down a meter below the spool and feeder and keep loosening the spool every hour or so and add one drop to the filament every meter. I use a thin machine oil: 3-in-one oil. Any light oil will do. "sewing machine oil" is also very effective and popular in stores.
I strongly recommend you try TPU or Cheetah or some other stiffer version of flexible filament which doesn't need any special treatment.
Ummm...that was a long time ago. I have not printed with it since and cannot remember anything about printing it.
As for the 3mm listing, if I am correct, a lot of materials that say 3mm are actually 2.85mm.
Just now, gr5 said:"3mm" filaments are typically actually 2.85mm. 99.999% of printers only use the 2 sizes: 1.75 or "3mm" aka 2.85 aka 2.9.
HAH! Beat me to it! LOL I type so slow these days.....and, @gr5 has a much more thorough answer 🙂
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SandervG 1,521
Hi @ArthurG,
welcome to our community!
Since we have a bowden tube system using a flexible material like NinjaFlex is not super easy, but it is doable.
We support for example printing with TPU 95A which is also pretty flexible. In between the Ultimaker S5 and Ultimaker 3, I don't think there would be much difference which would handle flexible filament better. If anything, the Ultimaker S5 has a flow sensor which could detect if there are any filament issues could be handy so I would vote for that one. But that doesn't directly help with printing flexible filaments.
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