Help with printing engraved text

[Nicko_Airbus 2]

Hey guys I'm printing with the S5 pro bundle with PLA from color fabb and It is just impossible to print nice text on my parts...

 

I've done like 8 different tests and nothing really helps. Attached is an excel file with my settings and in the excel is also a photo of the results.

 

Here is the part that I'm trying to print (Attached)

 

Will I be more successfull with low speed (30), thin layers (0.1), cold temp (190), cold bed(30) ?

 

And don't know what to do anymore....

GT9910985-GTOO01 1.stl

[Smithy 1,144]

1 hour ago, Nicko_Airbus said:

Will I be more successfull with low speed (30), thin layers (0.1), cold temp (190), cold bed(30) ?

Yes and always, but you can keep the bed at 60C otherwise your object has maybe not enough adhesion. Personally I print nearly everything with 30-35mm/sec or use the visual or engineering profiles from Cura. 

 

But I think your problem is also that the font is very small, can be just the picture, but it seems to me it is too small to get a good result. Would be better to use an AA 0.25 core, but this is probably not the best solution just the get a good readable text.

[geert_2 557]

A couple of years ago I did a lot of tests with small text: caps height 3.5mm, character width 2mm, leg width 0.5mm. Recessed text, thus engraved, always came out worst. This is because the nozzle can not get into tiny openings in characters like: N, M, K, H, G, B, 8, etc... So they get completely messed-up and the openings (engravings) get closed.

 

You are better off making raised text. While it still looks a bit Flintstone-like, it is easier to read. If it has to be recessed somewhat to prevent it from being damaged easily, consider recessing a plate surrounding the text, but raising the text itself. See the quick concept pic below.

 

When printing transparent materials, you could also consider making a watermark text. Thus hollow text inside the model. It will still get deformed, but for a watermark that is less critical than for surface text. Watermarks are expected to be somewhat abstract and deformed.

 

I also made a characterset optimised for 3D-printing. See here (and then scroll down a lot). Be sure to copy any files of interest, as I am not sure I can keep them up due to changes in policy and website-engine:

https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/geert-keteleer/manuals/

 

Pictures:

 

Concept of raised text in a recessed surrounding plate:

 

Watermark text concept: both as positive text (solid characters inside a hollow) and negative text (hollow characters):

 

Raised text, 3.5mm caps height:

 

Watermark text inside a 10mm x 20mm x 10mm block. This is printed very slow and cool, in thin layers, otherwise the text would not be visible. Left: as printed, right: after polishing the block:

 

More watermark text. Nozzle is 0.4mm, and thus printing-lines are 0.4mm apart. Text leg-width is 0.5mm.

 

Mini-text, caps height 2.5mm, character-width 1.5mm, and leg-width 0.5mm. This is the smallest you can get with a 0.4mm nozzle:

 

A bit bigger text, raised in a recessed area. Caps height is ca. 7mm:

 

Watermark text, as hollows totally inside the model. Top model is smoothed in post-processing to reduce layer lines, bottom model is as-printed:

 

 

[Nicko_Airbus 2]

On 12/14/2020 at 8:07 AM, geert_2 said:

A couple of years ago I did a lot of tests with small text: caps height 3.5mm, character width 2mm, leg width 0.5mm. Recessed text, thus engraved, always came out worst. This is because the nozzle can not get into tiny openings in characters like: N, M, K, H, G, B, 8, etc... So they get completely messed-up and the openings (engravings) get closed.

 

You are better off making raised text. While it still looks a bit Flintstone-like, it is easier to read. If it has to be recessed somewhat to prevent it from being damaged easily, consider recessing a plate surrounding the text, but raising the text itself. See the quick concept pic below.

 

When printing transparent materials, you could also consider making a watermark text. Thus hollow text inside the model. It will still get deformed, but for a watermark that is less critical than for surface text. Watermarks are expected to be somewhat abstract and deformed.

 

I also made a characterset optimised for 3D-printing. See here (and then scroll down a lot). Be sure to copy any files of interest, as I am not sure I can keep them up due to changes in policy and website-engine:

https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/geert-keteleer/manuals/

 

Pictures:

 

Concept of raised text in a recessed surrounding plate:

 

Watermark text concept: both as positive text (solid characters inside a hollow) and negative text (hollow characters):

 

Raised text, 3.5mm caps height:

 

Watermark text inside a 10mm x 20mm x 10mm block. This is printed very slow and cool, in thin layers, otherwise the text would not be visible. Left: as printed, right: after polishing the block:

 

More watermark text. Nozzle is 0.4mm, and thus printing-lines are 0.4mm apart. Text leg-width is 0.5mm.

 

Mini-text, caps height 2.5mm, character-width 1.5mm, and leg-width 0.5mm. This is the smallest you can get with a 0.4mm nozzle:

 

A bit bigger text, raised in a recessed area. Caps height is ca. 7mm:

 

Watermark text, as hollows totally inside the model. Top model is smoothed in post-processing to reduce layer lines, bottom model is as-printed:

 

 

This is awesome work ! thanks a lot for the feedback !