Ninjatek Cheetah

[Oliveros 11]

Hello everyone,

 

I recently got my hands on an Ender 6 and I'm finally able to use Ninjateks "Ninjaflex" filament which is a super flexy TPU and is used for gaskets and other things.

 

I made a gasket with it yesterday because I was in a pinch doing a motor rebuild on a sunday, customer needed it on Monday in the morning so I just designed a gasket and printed it with Ninjaflex, it was a for a motor driving some gears and in the gear case there is oil.

 

Turned out really well, only thing I didn't like was the gasket "squishing" out the sides when I tightened the motor flange, I assume that's because it's just that soft and flexy.

 

I then called Ninjatek and they recommended Cheetah as it's slightly harder but not as hard as their "Armadillo" which I've also used for a lot of parts.

 

Does anyone here have experience with Cheetah? 

[Mari 37]

I have some experience with Ninjatek Cheetah, but not in the way you used Ninjaflex (gasket)...

[Oliveros 11]

Okay, what's your experience with it?

 

Is it as flexible as Ninjaflex or as hard as Armadillo?

 

Just trying to get a feel for it.

[Mari 37]

Cheetah is less flexible than Ninjaflex, but therefore easier to print with a bowden-tube style printer!

 

Ninjaflex: Shore Hardness = 85A

Cheetah:  Shore Hardness = 95A

Armadillo: Shore Hardness = 75D

 

Regular PLA: Shore Hardness = 83D

 

 

How flexible the part you print will be depends on wall thickness, wall layers and of-course infill percentage...

Edited October 27, 2020 by Mari

[Oliveros 11]

Cool, thank you for posting that.

 

Cheetah sounds like it might just be the thing, Armadillo seems not flexible enough for a lot of things, Ninjaflex way too flexy for most things, so perhaps Cheetah is the happy medium.

[Choclit99 0]

I have been trying different TPU95 filaments with my S5.  Not surprisingly, the UM works fine but colors are limited.  The Matterhackers brand and the PolyMaker TPU 95 don’t feed properly. I’m have tried two samples of the PolyMaker brand with identical bad results, so it wasn’t just a bad batch of filament, which the company thought might be the case.  I just tried Cheetah for a small print and it worked great.  There seems to be an easy way to tell in advance if it will work. During the initial feed cycle, the PolyMaker filament ends up 2-3 inches away from the print head.  The Cheetah was about 1/2 inch away and it worked fine.  I am about to try the NinjaFlex later today with the same print. I will let you know how it works.

[Choclit99 0]

Report on NinjaFlex.  Close but not quite a cigar.  It actually almost made it through my test print but gave up near the end.  The key here is that it is easy to tell if a filament will work.  The UM TPU 95 and the Cheetah both feed to less than an inch away from the print head and they work.  The PolyMaker and Matterhackers and the Ninja Flex all stopped the initial load 2-3 inches away. This seems to perfectly correlate with failure so far.

[Northener 0]

I have used cheetah to print gaskets, drive belts(armadillo ad drive wheels), "rubber mounts" for motorcycle gas tank etc 

 

 

After trying cheetah and armadillo they are now my go to for most tasks

 

I have a um3, so it works fine with the bowden tube.

[Bigbrit 9]

Just to add to this, ive been trying different TPU's and found similar results - Polymaker PolyFlex does not work, it gets jammed up in the bowden.

 

I have found a great alternative to Ultimaker TPU (££££) This is very cost effective - Filamentive FLEXpro.  Not quite as nice as the ultimaker filament admittedly but at less than half the price of UM its good enough.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Bigbrit