Hi Everyone,
I am trying to work with this newer foaming TPU from Color Fabb that has an expansion rate of 1.4-1.6 times. When I go to print the extruder seems to be pushing back down into the material, possibly not allowing for the expansion.
I very new to this world as I am a Pedorthist that is expanding my orthotic manufacturing into the 3D printing world.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I’m shooting in the dark here, but if I read this block of text from Colorfabb’s site, on one it the foaming TPU’s they make, it sounds like you might have have your flow rate at 100%, but they are suggesting you drop it to between 60-80%
VARIOSHORE TPU NATURAL
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We have taken TPU… and made it special by using the same foaming technology we debuted with LW-PLA. Our varioShore TPU has a few main distinctive features: its variable shore hardness, reduced weight and density and soft touch. varioShore TPU allows users to vary the density of the material by adjusting temperature and material throughput (speed & layerheight). At temperatures between 200 and 250C the materials will start to expand to roughly 1.4-1.6 times its original volume, which reduces the density to 0.7 to 0.9 g/cm³ . This means the material can be printed at low flow rates (60-70%), to compensate the active foaming, which in return gives very soft printed parts. Between 190-200C the material can be printed without foaming, resulting in different haptics and harder prints compared to foamed samples.
From shore hardness 92A(unfoamed) to shore 55A (maximum foamed).
Developed in co-operation with Lubrizol, varioShore TPU is a material ideally suited for printing insoles and cosplay parts for instance.
Please note that color variations may occur. Color will turn lighter when material is at maximum foamed state as opposed to non-foamed state which shows a deeper and richer color.
There may also be a need for a diff. layer height for whatever nozzle you’re currently using, as also suggested by this under the Printing Advice part:
Cooling fan
Use the least amount of cooling when maximum foaming is required. For better overhang performance use 50-100% cooling.
We advise our community to use standard TPU settings as a base setting for developing your own pre-sets.
Make sure the distance between nozzle and platform is not to small, especially if the material is being foamed while printing, the pressure will need to be released from the hot-end to prevent clogging and feeder issues.
I think the rest of the crew here would need to know what your printer type is, nozzle size, and some of your printing parameters… I’m very intrigued but I’m more focused on the harder plastics for cosplay props for my kids or repair items around the house. This might be an area I explore later if the product stays on the market.
Good luck tho and share your results for others to learn from please! (later self interest at the forefront here)
I have been helping this lady out with her parts using the printers in the storefront, and I finally settled on 57% flow rate at 220C. This provided phenomenal looking and dimensionally accurate parts while still being nice and squishy.
I ended up dropping the speeds down to 30mm/s but I kept the accell stock and this worked wonderfully. The part was still produced much faster than any of the other machines I sliced it on, and the quality remained just as good if not better.
Matt
