Printing with TPU - Revision history

Burrowsa at 06:31, 8 February 2019

2019-02-08T06:31:46Z

Burrowsa at 06:26, 8 February 2019

2019-02-08T06:26:42Z

Burrowsa at 08:23, 7 February 2019

2019-02-07T08:23:48Z

Burrowsa at 08:23, 7 February 2019

2019-02-07T08:23:13Z

Burrowsa at 08:19, 7 February 2019

2019-02-07T08:19:51Z

Burrowsa at 17:48, 6 February 2019

2019-02-06T17:48:48Z

Burrowsa: /* Printing consideration */

2019-02-03T13:56:39Z

‎Printing consideration

Burrowsa: /* Your own computer running Cura */

2019-01-31T21:16:00Z

‎Your own computer running Cura

Burrowsa: /* Makespce Cura PC */

2019-01-31T21:14:08Z

‎Makespce Cura PC

Burrowsa: /* Printing consideration */

2019-01-31T19:42:10Z

‎Printing consideration

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 TPU stands for Thermoplastic Polyurethane. According to Wikipedia, TPU has many applications including automotive instrument panels, caster wheels, power tools, sporting goods, medical devices, drive belts, footwear, inflatable rafts, and a variety of extruded film, sheet and profile applications. TPU is also a popular material found in outer cases of mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones. It is also used to make keyboard protectors for laptops.
-A – is the shore harness. The higher the number the harder the material. The letter relates to the test used to measure the hardness. You can only compare numbers with the same letter, generally the higher the letter the harder the material. I couldn’t get exact number for the filaments we stock but representative shore hardnesses for ABS and PLA are 100D and PLA 80D respectively. See [https://www.smooth-on.com/page/durometer-shore-hardness-scale/ this page] for more info.
+A – is the shore harness. There are different Shore Hardness scales for measuring the hardness of different materials. These scales were invented so that people can discuss these materials and have a common point of reference. As you can see from the chart below, there is overlap on the different scales. For example a material with a Shore hardness of 95A is also a Shore 45D.
 TPU 95A is a semi-flexible and chemical resistant filament with strong layer bonding and high abrasion resistance.
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 * Ninjatek semiflex 98A
-Because our printers are fed via a boden tube we can’t use anything softer than 95A, so 98A (semi-flex) is fine but ninjaflex is not. In in doubt go off the shore hardness and even then I’d recommend ordering a sample before committing to a whole spool.
+Because our printers are fed via a boden tube we can’t use anything softer than 95A, so 98A (semi-flex) is fine but ninjaflex is not. If in doubt go off the shore hardness and even then I’d recommend ordering a sample before committing to a whole spool.
 ==Printing properties of TPU 95A==
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 [[file:durometerchart.png]]
-image taken from [https://www.smooth-on.com/page/durometer-shore-hardness-scale/]
+image taken from [https://www.smooth-on.com/page/durometer-shore-hardness-scale/ this site as was some of the text above]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 TPU stands for Thermoplastic Polyurethane. According to Wikipedia, TPU has many applications including automotive instrument panels, caster wheels, power tools, sporting goods, medical devices, drive belts, footwear, inflatable rafts, and a variety of extruded film, sheet and profile applications. TPU is also a popular material found in outer cases of mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones. It is also used to make keyboard protectors for laptops.
-A – is the shore harness. The higher the number the harder the material. The letter relates to the test used to measure the hardness. You can only compare numbers with the same letter, generally the higher the letter the harder the material. I couldn’t get exact number for the filaments we stock but representative shore hardnesses for ABS and PLA are 100D and PLA 80D respectively.
+A – is the shore harness. The higher the number the harder the material. The letter relates to the test used to measure the hardness. You can only compare numbers with the same letter, generally the higher the letter the harder the material. I couldn’t get exact number for the filaments we stock but representative shore hardnesses for ABS and PLA are 100D and PLA 80D respectively. See [https://www.smooth-on.com/page/durometer-shore-hardness-scale/ this page] for more info.
 TPU 95A is a semi-flexible and chemical resistant filament with strong layer bonding and high abrasion resistance.
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 image taken from [https://rigid.ink/blogs/news/172062855-what-is-the-difference-between-tpe-and-tpu-flexible-filament this page at RigidInk our TPU supplier]

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:23, 7 February 2019
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	[[file:flexible_filament.jpg]]		[[file:flexible_filament.jpg]]
		+
	image taken from [https://rigid.ink/blogs/news/172062855-what-is-the-difference-between-tpe-and-tpu-flexible-filament this page at RigidInk our TPU supplier]		image taken from [https://rigid.ink/blogs/news/172062855-what-is-the-difference-between-tpe-and-tpu-flexible-filament this page at RigidInk our TPU supplier]

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:23, 7 February 2019
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	[[file:flexible_filament.jpg]]		[[file:flexible_filament.jpg]]
		+	image taken from [https://rigid.ink/blogs/news/172062855-what-is-the-difference-between-tpe-and-tpu-flexible-filament this page at RigidInk our TPU supplier]

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:19, 7 February 2019
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	[[file:TPU_TEACHING_BOARD.jpg]]		[[file:TPU_TEACHING_BOARD.jpg]]
		+
		+	[[file:flexible_filament.jpg]]

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 * Brim – the material sticks well at a lower bed temp to PLA but a brim can help stabilise tall thin prints.
 * Raft – seems to work fine, removing the raft was easy but the surface finish on the bottom of the print is even worse than you'd normally expect with a raft.
 * Support – needs to be printed more slowly than the default in cura. Reducing the support speed to 10 mm/s seems to do the trick. Dependning on the geometry of what you're printing support may be less effective than you'd expect as the print may "flex" away from the support during printing.
 * Removing prints. The material sticks well at low temperatures but also comes off cleanly with the application of a little force. The octopus required me to pull each leg off one by one before I could remove the whole.

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 * In particular the infill speed on the generic TPU 95A Cura profile seems to fast (see board)
 * Either have more retraction than normal or no retraction, this is due again to the slow feed response. I prefer no retraction as it reduces the change of the filament jamming in the feeder.
 * Brim – the material sticks well at a lower bed temp to PLA but a brim can help stabilise tall thin prints.
 * Raft – seems to work fine, removing the raft was easy but the surface finish on the bottom of the print is even worse than you'd normally expect with a raft.

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 ===Your own computer running Cura===
-[[:file:TPU.zip|This archive]] contains modified cura profiles to use in cura 3.6.0 (and possibly other versions too). Use the "manage profiles" dialog to import them. To use the profiles, you should first select "Generic->TPU 95A" as the material then select one of the profiles.
+* Download [[:file:TPU.zip|This archive]] which contains modified cura profiles to use in cura 3.6.0 (and possibly other versions too).
 [[file:TPU_TEACHING_BOARD.jpg]]

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 ===Makespce Cura PC===
-TODO
+The PC in the space has been updated to support TPU.
 ===Your own computer running Cura===

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 ==Printing consideration==
 * Print slowly, makes up for the slow response of the material to the feeder
 * In particular the infill speed on the generic TPU 95A Cura profile seems to fast (see board)