I just wanted to add some field report support here: I’ve had no trouble printing TPU (Overture TPU), with the recommended settings from the posts and the adapter. I’ve even tried a few different variations of the adapter and they all seem to work well. Leaving the adapter in also hasn’t caused any issues when switching back and forth to PLA and PETG.
Thanks to everyone here for all the guidance and support!
Also me wants to add a short story …
I was having troubles with TPU since I’ve started with 3D-printing. It was the 3rd material after PLA and PET-G an I never got the Snapmaker (Original) working with it.
Also with my Ultimaker 3 I had no luck (just 10 prints worked “okay” then the hotend failed).
Then with the SM 2 they said “TPU will work” and I bought another spool since I wanted to try with a fresh filament. The machine loaded the filament just like normal but as soon as I started a print the nozzle clogged up and the filament wrap around the extruder gear.
So I threw the filament into a corner and forgot about it.
Today I got through my filament inventory and found 2 broken an d 1 seald box of TPU and I thought that I can give it a go. Just start with an open box also if the internet sais that TPU is super sensible for humidity.
But before I started printing I thought of my problems over the last years and then the fog liftet - the problem has to be the extruder speed. So I changes the starting script to lower down the extruding speed while priming the nozzle to 80 (instead of 250 as my standard).
I just made my first test print and now the second one with slightly improved settings is running …
This is looking so nice - I can’t tell how happy I’m right now.
Printing at 25 mm/s (max. speed, 70% for outer walls, 80% for inner walls, 90% for top/bottom infill) - first layer at the same speed with less problems than PLA.
No adhesion problems and super nice print with 0,20 mm layer height.
On the first test I was going much slower but the quality was quite bad (no consistent flow).
Because I’m a nice guy I share my S3D profile: Snapmaker A250 TPU.fff (11.9 KB)
Would be happy to read your comments.
Thank you. Gonna give this a try right now.
Hi Gil, can you comment on your build plate? From the photos, it looks like it is some kind of metal, but does not have the the build take surface. Thanks
Hi guys, here are some tutorials on suitable temperature on All3dp.
Flexible filaments, one of which is TPU, are fun and useful materials to work with, but they can be very difficult to use.
TPU prints at similar temperatures to PLA, working best at around 210 to 230 °C with a bed between 30 and 60 °C.
Since this material is so flexible, it can bend and stretch on its way from the extruder gear to the actual nozzle. Therefore, it’s important that the filament follows a confined path, is extruded slowly, and without retraction.
If these problems make themselves prominent, slightly increasing the extruder temperature can help decrease any strain on the filament that may be causing it to flex.
Edwin
Purefill TPU 53D blue transparent (link) - brand new out of the dry vaccum bag:
Tried first (flexifish on the right) with 230°C at 18 mm/s and 60-80° bed temperature PLUS set the working speed to 70% at the machine controls itself. Flow 100%, Layer 0.2 mm, wall 1.2 mm, top and bottom thickness 0.8, everthing but travel speed (80 mm/s) at 18 mm/s.
Second print (flexifish on the left) left everything like first print but set every speed to 25 mm/s PLUS working speed at the snapmaker control back to 100%.
What helped most: heated up nozzle first to 230°C and pushed the TPU filament manually with open lid through the hotend until it came out of the nozzle. Closed the lid and no adapter thingy was needed anymore…
It is an Energetic3D PEI plate. Purchased from AliExpress.
Did you get an answer to your issue. I have the same issue with the supports. The speed is too fast while printing the supports. Does anyone know how to change the printing speed for supports?
Just the feedback earlier in this thread. I slowed it down and backed off the first layer squish as I recall. I got a successful print. I may have gone to a higher temp too. The support still sucked, but it did the job well enough to make a usable part and I moved on. Those results just above (the blue filament) look pretty fricken good.
I used this thread to do my first tpu print. The Adapter helped. Start slow and work up to faster is my biggest suggestion.
Super cool!! And thanks to everyone who helped make this thread.
The thing I learned over time was to keep tension on the tpu filament. It really helps keep the filament feeding.
One year later I am at a point where I want to print TPU. Thanks for the great advice on the settings.
I am using PolyFlex from PolyMaker (it is TPU95) and I tried out some of their recommended settings settings: The temperature on the package ranges from 210 to 230 and I would not have tried 235 without this post but it really makes a big difference. The nozzle is much more likely to clog with lower temperatures.
The biggest difference made the z-offset. I am using 0.1mm and it works well for me.
The speeds that I am using are not different from PLA. Even the fast-printing works. The stringing however is still an issue. I tried to use retracting but it was either clogging or stringig, so I go without retractig and let it string, rather than clog. Fortunately the spiderwebbs are easily removed. I could adjust the flow settings but then I may not be able to use PLA anymore.
Does anyone have advice on this?
I deal with the stringing post processing… aka a heat gun. They clean up nicely.
One thing that changed my TPU experience is ensuring my filament is under tension the whole time. If I get slack in the system, it’ll bunch up (even with the adapter above).
I’d love for it to print TPU faster. Maybe the new head will do that for me.
Thanks for the discussion here and today I’m doing my first TPU print to make a rubber feet that is missing for my daughter’s toy. The issue for me is the same as the bro who was printing the stamp. it stops extruding after a while. I think the issue I found is the filament will be easily damaged in the printer head by the gear and roller then it basically can’t be grabbed by the gear any more. I followed a Youtube video to replace the spring on the roller with a spring in a retractable pen, and that worked and I was half way through my print, but again it stopped. This time it is not the gear damaging the filament, instead the weaker spring does not provide enough force to unroll the filament from a full roll. If I help unrolling the filament, it will actually print very smoothly at 60mm/s.
I will try print at 20mm/s cross the board for my next attempt, but this is the result I had at 60mm/s
@highpower this is a known issue, and there is a rather simple workaround:
You might need to adjust this a few times until you figure out what pressure works best, but that should work. Once I figured this out I have never had any issue with flexible filaments. It would have been nice if Snapmaker had added a pressure adjustment screw like every other extruder has, but we are stuck with what we have.
Shame that design change was overlooked with the v2 toolhead revisions, that would have been quite handy to be able to adjust filament pressure without having to resort to replacing springs and taping the door partially closed.
@CNC-Maker is there a picture you could post? I’m admittedly having a hard time visualizing this in my head. I’m a visual learner lol
@Mads0100 is that adapter still working?
Guaranteed they also ignored it for the dual extruder module too.
Dude, I left it in but I don’t know if it does anything. What I found was critical was tension on the tpu. I moved my filament heater to the roof of the enclosure and put a hole in the roof. I make sure there’s no slack in it.
It still doesn’t print fast. I’m at like 15mm/s.
I think what he means is leave the door open and use a tape to hold the door so that the roller still provide pressure on the filament. The tape should wrap to the left and right side of the printer head so it can provide enough pressure and you can adjust the pressure by moving one end of the tape tighter or looser
@highpower it sounds like you understand, but here is picture in case there is any confusion:
