When 3D printing, there are a multitude of options available to you in order to have a successful experience. Fortunately for our customers, Black Magic 3D provides recommendations of print parameters on all of our materials. But what do they actually mean? In this entry, we will discuss the different options and how to best use them to your advantage.
Print Speed
Movement Speed
Retraction Distance
Retraction Speed
Number of Shells
Layer Height
Layer Fan
Infill
Printbed Temperature
Extruder Temperature
This is the speed at which the extruder will move when actually printing an item. When considering what speed to print at, it is essentially a simple cost-benefit analysis; the slower the speed, the better the print, but also the longer it will take to print. Standard materials, such as ABS and PLA, are fairly easy to print with and you should be able to get a high-quality print at a quicker speed. However, when using filaments with other qualities or additives, you may want to slow the speed for a better result.
This is the speed at which the extruder moves when not printing. In general, this is a comparatively unimportant parameter to worry about because default settings are usually okay. Faster is generally better because the extruder can drop material if it moves too slowly, and it will speed up a print to have a faster movement speed.
The retraction distance is the distance at which the material retracts into the extruder when it is not printing (during the movement as described in movement speed). For some materials, you may want to increase the retraction distance (such as for taulman Bridge) because the material is slightly more likely to ooze from the extruder. If you do not increase the retraction distance, the print is more likely to require post-processing.
The retraction speed is the speed at which a material is retracted to the set retraction distance. Again, a quicker speed is helpful for certain materials (such as taulman bridge) because such materials are more likely to ooze from an extruder.
The number of shells is how many fully-infilled shells are extruded, before the infill begins. A higher number will lead to a stronger print, but also take more time and material. Generally, two shells is okay (and minimally required), and is the default setting on most prints. However, if you want a stronger print, you may be better off changing the infill than the number of shells. A higher number is shells is also often correlated with a less visually appealing print.
This is the height that each layer will be. The smaller the layer height, the higher the resolution. However, it can take considerably longer to finish a print if the layer height is significantly decreased, and certain materials may be sensitive to different layer heights.
As a rule, you may want to consider increasing the layer height for a prototype, and decreasing the layer height for a model or product.
The layer fan is sometimes required to more quickly cool material after it is extruded. The reason for this is that some materials take longer to cool, and may begin to deform after they are printed if not quickly cooled. As an example, it is sometimes important to use a layer fan when printing with PLA, because PLA cools slowly.
The infill is the percentage that the object is filled, internally. A higher infill print will be stronger, but will also take longer and require significantly more material. If you are printing a tool, such as a wrench, you will more than likely wish to increase the infill.
The Printbed temperature is the temperature of the platform when printing. It is used to coerce material into sticking to the printbed, and to stop material from warping during a print. Some materials, such as taulman Bridge, will certainly require the printbed temperature to be set properly, as the material is slightly more likely than ABS and PLA to warp.
The extruder temperature is the temperature at which material is being extruded by the nozzle. Different materials will vary in their required extruder temperature, and it is important to be proactive in finding an extruder temperature which works for your material.