Due to the coming National Holiday, Our Production and Shipping will pause from 29th Apr'23 and resume on 3rd May'23.
materials
Metal filled filaments are made by mixing a fine metal powder into a base material, providing a unique metallic finish and added weight.
Metal filled filaments contain very fine metal powder such as Copper, Bronze, Brass, and Stainless Steel. The percentage of metal powder infused in each filament can vary depending on the manufacturer. The presence of this metal powder makes the filament much heavier than standard plastics. This means that the parts printed with metal-filled PLA will weigh significantly more than ones from the standard PLA, despite using the same settings and consuming the same amount of material. Metal filled filaments also tend to be very abrasive as they are extruded through the hotend. A standard brass nozzle will be too soft and will quickly wear down. Be sure to upgrade to a wear resistant nozzle in order to print this filament effectively. There are other metal-like filaments in the market that may just have metallic coloring added to the filament. These filaments do not contain any actual metal powder, so they do not share many of the same benefits of the true metallic filaments. This article will focus on materials that contain actual metal powders for a realistic metallic weight and feel.
Before 3D printing with metal filled filament make sure your 3D printer meets the hardware requirements listed below to ensure the best print quality.
Temperature: 45-60 °C
Heated Bed Optional
Enclosure Not Required
Painter’s Tape
Glue Stick
PEI
Temperature: 190-220 °C
Requires Wear Resistant Hardened Steel Nozzle
Part Cooling Fan Required
These tips will help you reduce the chances of common 3D printing issues associated with metal filled filaments such as clogging, the nozzle wearing down, poor bridging, and blobs left on the surface of the print.
Most 3D printers ship with brass nozzles that are relatively soft. Since metals can be abrasive in general, brass nozzles can easily wear out when used with metal filled filaments. Upgrading to a wear-resistant nozzle will help reduce the wear significantly. Another aspect to consider while upgrading is the nozzle size. Although it is possible to print with standard 0.4mm nozzles, metal particles tend to clump around the orifice and can cause clogging over extended periods of use. Nozzle sizes of 0.5 – 0.6 mm seem to work better for metal filled filaments. It is also good to periodically check the nozzle orifice for any visible wear. Worn out nozzles can otherwise result in inconsistent extrusion and reduced overall quality of the printed parts.
Metal filled filaments are quite heavy, which has an impact on their bridging
performance. When the molten plastic is extruded across either side of the
bridge, it droops excessively and eventually breaks before it can complete the
bridge. This means that parts with lots of large bridging regions will be very
difficult to print.
Simplify3D Version 4.0 added several new features related to bridging, including one that
allows you to completely customize the direction of this bridging fill. If you
have a part that requires bridging and there is no way to avoid it, you might
find that there is a specific fill angle that will work best for this
material. The software also allows you to customize the exact speed and
extrusion rate used for the bridges, so you can experiment to find what works
best for your material. Other successful methods would be to add support
structures to support any potential overhangs, or consider using a dual
extrusion system with a dissolvable support structure such as PVA. Simplify3D
includes a feature called Dense Supports, which allows you to use this PVA
material very sparingly, only at the interface between the supports and the
part, so this can be a great option as well.
Metal filaments are very brittle in general. This affects the final parts, but
it also applies to the raw filament itself which needs to be pulled into the
printer as it is extruded. If you follow the filament path from the spool, all
the way to the extruder, check for any sharp angles or curves which may put
too much stress on the filament. We found that many printers included sharp
bends that had a tendency to cause the filament to snap in the middle of
printing. You may notice this happens more as the toolhead moves around during
the print, since different toolhead positions may put more stress on the
filament as it bends to move to the new location. One great way to avoid this
is the change the location where the filament spool is mounted. Start by
mounting the spool on top of the printer and try to minimize the distance from
the spool to the extruder.
Additionally, a strong filament guide tube
that limits the bend in the filament path will prevent most breakages.
Like wood filled and other composites materials, retractions with metal filled filaments can be rather challenging. The presence of metal powder makes it difficult for the nozzle to contain the suction pressure in the melt chamber during retraction. This will frequently lead to blobs at the beginning and end of each printed segment, where the extruder was trying to start or stop the plastic extrusion. Simplify3D has several features that can be a big help in this situation. The first is a unique feature called Coasting, which will automatically reduce the pressure in the nozzle right before the end of a print segment. This greatly reduces oozing when moving to the next print segment, so it can be a great option to consider. You can also try setting the “extra restart distance” to a negative value of -0.1 or -0.2mm, as this can help with the blobs that may form at the start of each segment. For more tips on how to reduce these blobs, please refer to our Print Quality Guide: How to Reduce Blobs and Zits.
Home Unionfab - Materials Metal
There has been a critical error on this website.<\/p>
Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}