Comparison of 3D printers - need advice from UM team

[aleksiej 0]

Hello guys!

I'm prepare a 3D printers comparision, main goal is compare the best printers on the market which supported PLA and ABS.

I decided that I conducted two tests, first test will include printers that support ABS, and there is my problem because prints from Ultimaker 2 don't look good. Maybe someone can give me some advice how to easy improve the quality print using ABS.

BTW: I tried to set many options, such as the material retraction of, temperature, printing, cooling, etc.

Printers list which I have at this moment:

- Ultimaker 2

- Zortrax M200

- UP! Plus 2

- Stratasys Dimension 1200 SST

- DaVinci

- Makerbot Replicator 2

- Makerbot Replicator Mini

- Cube

Here is the link to the model: Elf hut -> http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:33974

Cura settings:

Layer height: 0.14mm

Shell thicnkess: 0.8mm

Temp: 240

Fill density: 90%

Print speed: 70mm/s

Fan: 100%

Raft: No

Support: No

 

[Daid 306]

You need to turn down the fans on the UM2 for ABS. 50% or less fan speed is much better for ABS. Some even say fans off.

(I do not have a whole lot of ABS experience)

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I wonder why the Ultimaker print has a different color? Looks to me as it is a different filament...

 

[aleksiej 0]

I wonder why the Ultimaker print has a different color? Looks to me as it is a different filament...

 

Of course, because Zortrax and UP have 1.75mm and they have dedicated filament. In Ultimaker I used filament from ColorFab.

 

[IRobertI 520]

Colorfabb doesn't sell ABS though...

 

[Daid 306]

Of course, because Zortrax and UP have 1.75mm and they have dedicated filament. In Ultimaker I used filament from ColorFab.

 

So, for the Zortrax and UP you used filament from the printer supplier, and for the Ultimaker you used 3th party? (which does not even sell ABS. So you might have been printing PLA at high temperatures, also explaining the bad prints)

If you want a fair comparison you should be using ABS from Ultimaker. After all, we also sell that: https://www.ultimaker.com/t/filaments/abs

 

[aleksiej 0]

Colorfabb doesn't sell ABS though...

 

Yeah my mistake, the ABS is from FormFutura shop - I always mixed these two companies

 

[blue 0]

jesus, can someone print the hut with proper settings? I have never seen ultimaker prints this bad.

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

@Alexiej

Have you used the same (similar) settings across all printers?

I suppose you didn't used the same slicer, but I'm just curious how long did it take the print on UM2 compared to Zortrax.

Frankly speaking, I cannot see how can a printer reproduce such details with good quality on a 30 x30 x 40 mm part running at 70 mm/s. Only maybe if the acceleration and jerk is set to so lower values that it actually runs at 20 mm/s or so.

 

[trhuster 0]

@Alexiej

I suppose you didn't used the same slicer, but I'm just curious how long did it take the print on UM2 compared to Zortrax.

 

It takes 1 hour with raft on Zortrax with light infill (10-15%).

 

[Daid 306]

I'm also curious why you used 90% infill, which is odd and usually not that great for quality.

 

[SandervG 1,521]

I would suggest something like:

Layer height: 0.14mm

Shell thicnkess: 0.8mm

Temp: 245

Fill density: 15%

Print speed: 50mm/s

Fan: 0%

Raft: No

Support: No

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

I can get 1 hour of printing for something like 40 mm/s at 10% infill, 2 layers raft and the rest of the specified settings (sliced with slic3r, but I don't thing it matters to much). So, was the speed on Zortrax 70 mm/s as for UM, or not? What about speed on Up!+2?

 

[trhuster 0]

I can get 1 hour of printing for something like 40 mm/s at 10% infill, 2 layers raft and the rest of the specified settings (sliced with slic3r, but I don't thing it matters to much). So, was the speed on Zortrax 70 mm/s as for UM, or not? What about speed on Up!+2?

 

Zortrax has only normal and fast mode. Normal speed is around 60-70 mm/s.

 

[blue 0]

Zortrax normal speed is about 40mm/s. Definitely not over 60. Lets face it, ultimaker is faster.

 

[trhuster 0]

Zortrax normal speed is about 40mm/s. Definitely not over 60. Lets face it, ultimaker is faster.

 

It is about 60-70 mm/s if you ask Zortrax.

 

[blue 0]

Looks way slower in the videos though...I usually print ~50mm/s on the ultimaker to get good quality prints and I would expect Zortrax to be slower for the same quality simply because it's heavier.

 

[eldrick 65]

The Ultimaker 2 print shown is far from representative - it's the sort that forum users usually show when asking "What did I do wrong?"

Looks like Vortrax advertising, to me.

 

[trhuster 0]

Really hard to say for sure, but if i slice same file in makerware with 15% infill and 70 mm/s it takes 55 min. So 60-70 mm/s seems right to me.

 

[trhuster 0]

The Ultimaker 2 print shown is far from representative - it's the sort that forum users usually show when asking "What did I do wrong?"

Looks like Vortrax advertising, to me.

 

No this is not Zortrax advertising. Aleksiej asks for advice to improve the Ultimaker 2 print. But mabey someone with more experience can print it so we can see how a nicley tuned Ultimaker 2 prints it?

 

[anon4321 16]

Why does the UM version also seem to have a mix of two filaments? The roof has a slight bit of what looks to be the color used for the other prints?

 

[nick-foley 5]

UM + UM2 actual speeds are very close to what you set them, due to the high accelerations settings. Other printers never actually hit the speeds they state, because the acceleration settings prevent it from ever hitting top speed on any sort of detailed print.

In order to do any proper side-by-side comparison, the only variable which can be held constant across printers is print time - otherwise you are going to have incomparable results. IE, for every printer, you should tune the settings until the actual print time is equivalent.

That being said, it looks like you've got way bigger problems with your settings than print speed... too much heat or a wildly incorrect filament diameter.

 

[nallath 1,120]

You can set the speed at 9001 mm/s, but with low acceleration settings it won't even be able to get to that speed due to the limited size of the build platform.

I think that comparing the print time should give a better (although still bit flawed) image. Another option would be to change the acceleration & speed with G-CODE (eg; hard code em) and give all printers the same file (although the 1.75 fillament should still get another file, for obvious reasons).

 

[trhuster 0]

I think that comparing the print time should give a better (although still bit flawed) image. Another option would be to change the acceleration & speed with G-CODE (eg; hard code em) and give all printers the same file (although the 1.75 fillament should still get another file, for obvious reasons).

G-Code does not work on Zortrax, and i guess it won't work UP Plus 2 either. But just print as good you can and forget about time with 0.14 layers. Sure someone here is up too it?

 

[SandervG 1,521]

Where can we find the model?