UMS5 Print Speeds (upper limits?)

[PupPrints 0]

Hi all,

 

I've been using the Ultimaker S5 for the past few months and been really impressed with the quality of build, dimensional accuracy (apart from reaally small holes!) and reliable prints (haven't had a failed print due to the printer yet). What I have seen, and has been mentioned on here before is the relatively slow speed of the printer to get that quality. Has any other users pushed the standard default settings for speed to its upper limits to find out how the S5 copes? It'd be great to be able to up the efficiency of the machine even more! Hopefully not to the detriment of quality too much, but dimensional accuracy and part strength is more what I'm interested in as I'm making mostly functional prints.

 

Thank you all!

[Smithy 1,135]

It is hard to say or to give you a specific value because with higher speeds you always get less quality and less dimensional accuracy. So you have to decide which accuracy or surface quality is good enough for your prints.

 

I am sure you can print a lot faster than the default profiles, but then you have to accept some drawbacks. How much of these drawbacks are acceptable is up to you. 

 

If you want faster prints, I would choose a smaller object, and print this object with different speeds, then check the results. It is important to set all speeds (inner, outer walls, infill, etc.) to the same value, that gives you better results than different speed values.

[PupPrints 0]

Great thank you Smithy! Would there be a red line that is not recommended to go over? I have been happy with putting up the speed to 70-80mm/s but would feel uneasy pushing it up over 100mm/s

[Smithy 1,135]

I cannot say if there is a red line, but I am sure there is. But try increasing by 10mm/sec and check the results. 

It also depends on the model itself, so if you do now some testing it must not be same with another model, another shape and so on. And most important it depends on the material, nozzle size, and layer height because this is the factor how much material must be extruded. If you print faster, with a big nozzle like 0.8 and fat layer heights, you need more material and therefore you also have to increase the print temperature to melt enough filament in time.

 

So it is not just playing with speeds you have to take a lot more settings into account.

[PaulK 14]

Innofil claims speeds of 120-150 for their Pro1 series, which they say is formulated for speed (and quality if you print slow). I've not tired it, but have a reel I'll bust open when my current reel of Tough PLA black runs out. 

 

It will be interesting to try the Pro1 at 120 or so with a 0.8 nozzle and see if you can keep the plastic flowing enough. It would be nice for certain fixtures that you are ok with some roughness and inaccuracy, but just want to bang out.

[Smithy 1,135]

They mean it is printable at such high speeds, but the print speed depends also on a lot of other things. The UM3 and S5 with their bigger and heavier print head will never print as fast as the UM2 for example. If you use such high speed on the S5 you will get a lot of ringing due to the vibrations when the head changes the direction. Additionally, to get a high flow you also have the increase the print temperature, especially if you use the 0.8 print core.

 

So, one issue is, the flow with the material, temperature, nozzle size, and the other issue is the mechanical part, such as the weight of the print head, vibrations and other things in this direction. So just using a material like the Pro1 solves not all issues.

 

Btw, the Pro1 White filament is not a real white. It is more a shiny pearl white - so keep this in mind if you are looking for a "normal" white.

[gr5 2,002]

The S5 should be able to go to 200mm/sec absolutely no problem.  At some point innfill doesn't connect well.  You can play with the speed *during* a print.  You can go up to (I think) 500%.  So slice with *all* printing speeds at say 100mm/sec and set the nonextruding move to 200mm/sec and then you can set the percentage to say 75 to get 75mm/sec and then set it to 150% to get 150mm/sec and so on.  You'll see that the infill doesn't connect so well internally on larger parts and long straight runs can have vibrational issues but in general you are probably okay at 200mm/sec.

 

However usually I like to achieve faster printing speeds by printing thicker layers and with fat nozzles like a 0.8 or 1.0 nozzle (3dsolex has 1.0 and 1.2 nozzles (among others) for their hardcore for the S5 and disclaimer: I sell 3dsolex parts in USA).

 

If you care more about dimensional accuracy and don't care about ringing which makes 3d printed text look like crap but is not measurable with a micrometer, then remove uncheck "jerk control" and "acceleration control".  It will print both faster and more accurately.

 

[PupPrints 0]

Thank you all, looks like I will be testing out speeds a lot over the next week. Interesting about the jerk and acceleration control so I will experiment with that for the functional prints. Even going up to 100mm/s could drastically reduce my print queue so this is very useful for me!