Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
I have a Prusa i3 with the original nozzle for the MK2. Can this printer print at 315°C without destroying the heater or nozzle assembly? The filament i want to use is this one here: https://www.3dxtech.com/firewire-pps-3d-printing-filament/
I have so far successfully printed with ABS, TPU, TPE, and PET filament. I plan to install a chamber heater for the PPS.
Re: Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
Nevermind, I just noticed that the software only allows a setpoint of 295°C max for the nozzle. 🙁
Re: Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
You could buy a thermocouple for nozzle beyond 300'c and modify the prusa's firmware configuration.h (I think) to have max temp that your nozzle won't melt the whole thing.
Bed is something else, gonna need to have AC silicone pad. But this one way beyond current mk3. Maybe on mk4 then prusa will incorporate AC heated bed
Re: Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
So I've printed that exact filament on my printer. Here's what will go wrong:
[*] You'll hit the thermistor useful accuracy limit at ~280 C. Buy a PT100 RTD and amplifier from E3D.
[*] You'll hit the nozzle temperature limit. Compile your own firmware.
[*] You'll hit the bed heat limit. Jack up the system voltage. I use 15 volts and can get a bit over 140 C. I use a mk42 bed.
[*] You'll find that the parts warp like crazy. Add an enclosure. I ran mine up to 70 C.
[*] You'll find that PLA and PETG warp after a while at 70 C. Replace all parts of the printer with ABS.
[*] You'll find that even your ABS nozzle fan and extruder body doesn't survive having the nozzle at 325 C in a 70 C enclosure. Reprint them in PC.
[*] You'll find that after a long time printing that the stepper motors heat up quite a lot and the bearings sometimes seize. Buy some silicon nitride bearings.
...and you're done. You can print exotic high temperature stuff now. I also swapped heatbreak to the E3D titanium on the theory that I wanted to conduct less heat up. I'm unconvinced it was necessary. I also swapped to the nickel plated copper block and nozzle since I was rebuilding the extruder anyway, and I hate doing that. I'm also unconvinced those were necessary.
Happy high-temperature printing! I'm about to try Ultem 1010.
Re: Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
So I've printed that exact filament on my printer. Here's what will go wrong:
[*] You'll hit the thermistor useful accuracy limit at ~280 C. Buy a PT100 RTD and amplifier from E3D.
[*] You'll hit the nozzle temperature limit. Compile your own firmware.
[*] You'll hit the bed heat limit. Jack up the system voltage. I use 15 volts and can get a bit over 140 C. I use a mk42 bed.
[*] You'll find that the parts warp like crazy. Add an enclosure. I ran mine up to 70 C.
[*] You'll find that PLA and PETG warp after a while at 70 C. Replace all parts of the printer with ABS.
[*] You'll find that even your ABS nozzle fan and extruder body doesn't survive having the nozzle at 325 C in a 70 C enclosure. Reprint them in PC.
[*] You'll find that after a long time printing that the stepper motors heat up quite a lot and the bearings sometimes seize. Buy some silicon nitride bearings.
...and you're done. You can print exotic high temperature stuff now. I also swapped heatbreak to the E3D titanium on the theory that I wanted to conduct less heat up. I'm unconvinced it was necessary. I also swapped to the nickel plated copper block and nozzle since I was rebuilding the extruder anyway, and I hate doing that. I'm also unconvinced those were necessary.
Happy high-temperature printing! I'm about to try Ultem 1010.
I've successfully printed a few hundred small parts in Ultem 9085 on my two MK3s. One is still on original components, the other is upgraded to a titan aqua. I use either an ultimaker adhesion sheet, or the 'Just keep printing' microtextured sheet on amazon. Bed temp at 120 - enclosure only around build plate to save the stepper motors - haven't replaced the extruder body (yet) - first layer at 325 remaining layers at 345 - extruder motor on the unmodified is hottest and sits around 55C - Ultem really flows so you have to dial down the flow constant and make the line width much larger (with my 0.8mm nozzle I use 1.9mm for solid infill lines) - if you use the 'just keep printing' sheets, lay them upside down on the 120C buildplate for a bit to heat up and allow to expand before carefully applying else they'll form bubbles as the sheet expands over time - the first layer at 325 helps to not melt the sheet 🙂
Re: Can I use PPS filament on my printer?
So maybe it is time to update you about what I have done instead of PPS printing:
More experimentation is needed with GF filled filaments but I think these are excellent for high temp structural parts.