Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
Indeed, I have been trying for a long time to find the right combination to print Recreus Filaflex 60A. I have worked for a long time and still work with Fiberlogy Fiberflex 40D. I had no problems with this filament. However, I wanted to try to print with an even more flexible material. I came across the company Recreus which produces very flexible filament. So I got myself some Filaflex 82A as well as Filaflex 60A. While the 82A is not too difficult to print, the 60A is almost impossible to print. I tried a lot of possibilities, even trying to print with a 0.8 nozzle, but nothing worked. The prints were all of very poor quality. The flow of the filament was constantly interrupted which resulted in poor adhesion and tearing of the material inside the object. So I consulted several forums and here is the answer to be able to print Filaflex 60A:
1) First you have to remove the ball holder assembly which is one of the main causes of bad prints. Indeed the ball blocks the filament which is transported from the gearbox to the hotend. Because Filaflex 60A is an ultra flexible material, it is stretched between these two elements which implies that the quantity of material available at the hotend is no longer sufficient to be able to print continuously.
2) Download the configuration for the different Filaflex filaments on the Recreus website. These parameters have been tested and work impeccably with the MK4.
3) On the MK4, you must load the filament manually by choosing the Flex filament as the base filament. Do not worry if smoke escapes during loading. Subsequently the correct printing temperature is set in the configuration.
4) If you get a message that this is a different configuration when loading the print than what is specified in the gcode, ignore this message and continue.
5) When it comes to fairly large and complex objects to print you absolutely must work with supports because as the material is very flexible it risks being deflected when the nozzle is in contact with it.
RE:
Hi Meisech!
Thank you so much for your detailed contribution regarding printing Filaflex 60A on the Prusa MK4! Your insights and step-by-step guide are incredibly valuable for the community and for anyone working with this ultra-flexible material.
Thank you again for sharing your experience, and we truly appreciate your support of Recreus materials! 😊
Best regards,
Cristina
RE: Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
When you say 'ball holder' do you mean the mechanical part of the filament sensor?
RE: Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
Hi,
Yes, that's right.
RE: Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
Ah. I have the MMU installed so the sensor arrangement is different. I was just hoping it was something easy. I’ve gotten a successful print or two with the 60A but then fails for many subsequent attempts.
RE: Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
Some of mine experience :
I have successfully (beautifully actually) prints of TPU with nextruder MK4S with mod for MMU3, but without MMU3 of course.
I've also printed a mod for internal nextruder plastic that constraints filament insertion further (out of PC), but not remember which model 🙂
Fiberflex 40D, Fiberflex 30D, AzureFilm 85A Black and Red (Black is a bitch), next I'll try this 60A to see what will happen.
I print on textured sheet with hair spray since prints sticks too well.
Loading of filament is a bit tricky, you need to insert it absolutely vertically with strait filament...and even then, sometimes it may stuck in the extruder gears.
I load with filament sensor on, with a bit of a help moving idler by hand when pushing filament from the top.
Once loaded, I disable filament sensor, since it gives false results during print.
Also I'm printing from dry box directly above the printer with very short filament path.
Nextruder is able to feed filament to the nozzle with no problems.
Scarf seems helped a lot with round objects, seam position "nearest", but disable "External perimeters first".
Enable "Scarf joint around entire perimeter" for round objects with diameter less than 2 cm.
RE: Recreus Filaflex 60A is printable on a MK4
For MMU : https://www.printables.com/model/903748