Flow vs Material flow vs Filament diameter vs Nozzle size

[jino 0]

Hi,

Are there any differences between these settings?

In the Ultimaker 2:

Flow - in customize material

(Filament) Diameter - in customize material

Material flow - when printing

In Cura:

Nozzle size - in advanced settings

It seems all these settings control how much material the extruder will feed at any given speed, so if I want to increase the flowrate, they would give me the same result?

 

[illuminarti 18]

Nozzle size also defines the spacing of the lines that the print is built from; so increasing nozzle size doesn't really increase the net flow - you will get more plastic per second of extrusion, but the lines will also be spaced proportionately further apart to compensate.

The others all affect the amount of flow without varying the spacing of the lines.

 

[gr5 2,192]

They are all the same except for nozzle size. Nozzle size is also used to trace out a path inside the desired result. So if you ask for a square 10mm on a side with a .4mm diameter (.2mm radius) nozzle the path will be inside by .2mm so it will move in a square pattern with sides 9.6mm long.

Nozzle size determines the minimum wall width and line spacing, and other things.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Hi Illuminarti/George

If you have a .4 nozzle and define it in Cura (for example) as .38 or .42 Does that have any effect on the statements above?

 

[illuminarti 18]

Hi Illuminarti/George

If you have a .4 nozzle and define it in Cura (for example) as .38 or .42 Does that have any effect on the statements above?

 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean... basically the nozzle width will determine the line spacing. HOWEVER... there's one other thing to bear in mind... the EFFECTIVE nozzle width that cura uses is adjusted on the fly to be some exact divisor of the declared shell thickness: Cura will behave as if the nozzle is up to 50% wider than the actual value, or 25% thinner, in order to make the shell thickness be an exact multiple of the nozzle width. All so that the shell thickness is a whole number of passes of the head.

So for instance, if you set the nozzle width to 0.42mm, but leave the shell thickness at 0.8mm (or 0.4mm, or 1.2mm), Cura will behave as if you had set a nozzle width of 0.4mm anyway - to make the shell be an exact number of passes. And that logic holds not just for the shell, but for the entire print.

I discuss this some in my blog, here. The actual bug in Cura is long since fixed, but the nozzle width adjustment stuff is still valid, I think.

 

[jino 0]

Thanks for the replies, good to know that there are no hidden differences, just that the nozzle size is not a flow rate adjuster, should have figured that one out.

I´m experimenting with getting better layer bonding with nylon, increasing the flow rate with 10% helps a little..

Interesting how Cura handles different wall thicknesses. If I decrease the nozzle with 10% ( to 0,36mm) and increase the flowrate with 10% and keep the wall thickness a multiplier of 0,36, I should be able to get the layers to extrude into each other and bond a little more.. worth a try

 

[yellowshark 153]

Sorry, I was coming in at a slight tangent. I have seen posts quite recently, if not on this forum then the Slic3r forum (I am now a Cura convertee btw), talking about using the nozzle width definition as a tuning parameter e.g. reducing or increasing (cannot recall which way around)your actually nozzle width to get finer detail on small prints. I did not understand precisely what would be going on if this were done.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Here is an example posted by George

Posted 11 March 2014 - 01:53 AM

You can cheat a bit and tell it your nozzle diamter is .3mm. This might be enough to get an okay print.