Printing with BASF Innofil3D ASA

[mkaj2019 41]

Hey guys,

 

I just wanted to give you a quick info about my struggle with printing ASA by BASF Innofil3D ASA and the solution. 

BASF Innofil3D has a material profile for ASA in the Cura market place which did not work for me on my Ultimaker S5 at all.

The main issue that I experienced with the marketplace material profile is that all prints suffer from a really bad layer adhesion and warping. I changed fan speeds and print temperatures and could not find a sweet spot. Somewhere online I found a comment that ASA seems to degenerate the longer it stays in the hot nozzle. 

Speeding up my prints and turning the layer fan off reduced the warping and improved the layer adhesion in my opinion. It was way more difficult for me to break off parts from the 3DBenchy. Unfortunatly I cannot meassure the difference. 

 

My Ultimaker S5 Print Settings are at the moment: 

Print Temp: 255°C

Build Plate Temp: 110°C (Build Plate is a Filabase and works very well with ASA)

Extrusion Flow: 98%

Print Speed: 60 mm/s

Infill and Wall Speeds: 50 mm/s

Travel Speed: 120 mm/s

Infill before walls: False

Fan Speed: 1%

Maximum Fan Speed: 20%

Fan Speed Threshold: 10s

 

The print quality of course suffers a little bit due to the higher print speeds but I can accept this as long as the layers a perfectly bonded together.  If somebody has the same material could he/she confirm or disprove my observations? I am always open for suggestions/feedback.

  

Greetings

Markus 

Edited November 21, 2019 by mkaj2019

[geert_2 557]

I don't have this material, but my experience with PET is just the opposite. On my UM2-printers, I achieve the best bonding and best fill rate (=least amount of unwanted voids inbetween extruded sausages) at very low speeds, thin layers, and low temperatures. Typically 20...30mm/s; 0.06...0.1mm layer height; 210...215°C nozzle temp; and no fan (!).

 

Due to this slow speed the material has plenty of time to melt and bond with the previous layer. Due to the thin layer, the heat from the nozzle is transferred well onto the previous layer. And due to the low temperature, even 5...10°C below the recommended minium, the material does not decompose too much in the nozzle, even though it is sitting there for a longer time.

 

When these models break, the fracture goes diagonally through all layers, as if there are no layers. Absolutely no delamination-effects, which indicates a good bonding. See the photos: the fracture lines start at the bottom center, and then radiate outwards in a star-pattern, regardless of layers. This is clearly visible under a microscope, but hard to photograph. Layers are very lightly visible too, running vertically in these photos. This model is ca. 6mm x 4mm cross section.

 

It might be worth trying this too? The main disadvantage is of course that it goes very slow...

 

 

 

 

[mkaj2019 41]

Yes PETG is great, but it has also its limits.

At home I am printing a lot with PETG (See the picture below of my 2,6 kg DAS FILAMENT PETG Spool)

But at work I need a lot of different materials. Our company is producing analytic instruments and for prototypes I always need different properties especially resistances to various chemicals. ASA is on top of the chemical resistance extremely easy to sand/grind and has good antistatic properties (good for production jigs or e.g. assembled PCB tester).  

 

So overall I am not really looking for the best layer adhesion in the filament world but more on how to print the certain materials as good as possible. 

 

[geert_2 557]

When reading my text again, I see that it could be interpreted in multiple ways, and it was not clear enough. I was not trying to convince you to switch to PET.  :-)  But I was wondering if the same principle that I use for PET (=printing very slow, very thin layers, very cool) would also work for your ASA materials, if you have tried that?

 

[mkaj2019 41]

Ah okay I understand. Yes I have tried to print slower first which resulted in a worse layer adhesion.