Behind the printing effect: How do manufacturers test filaments?
👋Hello everyone! Today I will share with you our little secrets in filament research and development. As a research and development company, each filament is rigorously tested to ensure that it not only has excellent printing effects, but also can be adapted to various printers. Today I will take you to understand one of the very important parts: printing tests.
Printing test model
When the R&D department launches a new material, we will first conduct a preliminary printing test. By printing the temperature tower model, we can quickly find the best printing temperature range for the material. This step is very critical and can ensure subsequent stable testing.
Requirements: Heating extrusion
1) Ensure smooth extrusion at the lowest temperature and smooth filament surface at the highest temperature. 🌡️
2) No drawing during printing, no obvious overhang during bridging, and a flat surface without dents.
Batch model testing
After determining the optimal printing temperature range, we will select a variety of common printers on the market for batch testing. This ensures that the material can not only perform well on a single device, but also adapt to more types of printing devices. In order to ensure the wide applicability of the filament, we will also use some industrial-grade printers for testing. This is not only to meet the needs of individual users, but also to ensure that the filament can also perform stably in industrial applications.
Comprehensive model testing
Next, we will print more complex models to test the performance of the material in multiple aspects such as drawing, draping, and bridging. By observing the shrinkage and warping, we can further optimize the material to ensure stability when printing large models.
Drawing is a concern for many users, and we will also test this aspect specifically. If the material is seriously drawing when printing the top, it will not only affect the appearance, but also increase the difficulty of post-processing. By observing the distribution and length of drawing, we can quickly evaluate the quality of the material. Generally, we hope that the drawing part appears at 1/3 of the top. The less drawing, the better the performance of the material.
R&D cycle and optimization
A high-quality material is not developed successfully in one go. It often goes through dozens or even hundreds of adjustments. Our R&D team constantly adjusts the formula and optimizes the material performance to ensure that users can use the material easily after getting it, and adapt it to various printer models. Our goal is not only to provide cost-effective materials, but also to ensure its stability and ease of use in actual use.
Physical property test
In addition to printing tests, we will also conduct a series of physical property tests, such as tensile strength, impact strength, flexural modulus, etc. These physical property tests can help us fully understand the performance of the material and its performance in different environments, so as to further optimize the product.
Test items Test equipment
Tensile test (XY) Universal material testing machine
Impact test (XY) Izod impact testing machine
Moisture control
Finally, the moisture content of the material also has a great impact on the printing effect. We will keep the moisture content of the material below 0.5% to ensure its dryness. Because the material is easily hygroscopic due to long-term exposure to the air, it is best to dry it before printing, which can reduce drawing and other bad printing phenomena.
The following is a printing case where the filament is not dry:
In summary, developing an excellent filament requires not only complex formula debugging, but also multiple printing and physical property tests. Every detail is related to the user’s printing experience. We hope that through such a testing process, the materials you get in your hands can be worth the money and easily achieve perfect printing effects. I hope these little tips are helpful to everyone, thank you for your attention! 🙌💡
If you have any questions, please leave a message to discuss! 🔍
Sales Manager: Caspar
Email: caspar@isanmate.com
Whatsapp/Wechat/Telephone: +86-13532356312
Target our official website and social media.
We look forward to receiving your enquiry ~
Jackie Wang
Hello friends, I am the author of this article.
I have been engaged in the 3D printing industry for more than ten years, and I am honored to share some of my own experience here. If you have any questions, please leave a message!