Has anyone used Overture AIR PLA?

Hello,
Has anyone used Overture AIR PLA, a light weight PLA (about 30% less per print) their version of LW PLA. It seems to print OK with generic PLA settings. However the roll I just got seems to produce a lot of extrusion artifact that I would describe as ‘spider web’. In my case, using spiral/vase mode. it was confined to the interior of the print. I will have to play with the settings. Any info would be appreciated. Also I found out that bed adhesion is not as good as with standard PLA on the hot PEI plate so requiring a larger inner/outer brim and a no (0) brim-object gap for taller objects to not pop off. The factor K was determined as 0.60 by autocalibration in Bambu Studio.
Overall my prints were not a smooth and ‘clean’ as ‘standard’ PLA and appeared to be more flexible and did not fracture when bent using thin-walled objects. In my case a canopy for a RC helicopter.

Hello and yes I’ve used the pla fly by overture. I’m having an issue with the spider webbing with the orange more than any other color. My issue is the starting points for each layer whether it’s internal or external walls. I do not print in vase mode but split my object up and mostly use a single wall to the 4 mm nozzle. I’m in the process of trying to research and experiment and possibly try Orca slicer calibration next to get rid of this integrity killer of the structure of my models. I’ve had to use paper thin patches CA glue and accelerant where I can reach to correct the integrity of the model. As I said I’ve really noticed it on an su-47 I’m printing out of Orange and white just to use up filament. Actually the nose piece in Orange was fine but it didn’t have those abrupt turns when starting a new layer. Definitely a flow and speed issue on startup of those areas. Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to help at this point in time and I don’t see many people addressing the spider web issue especially trying to describe it properly where the print head comes down and starts extruding in corners. I was hopeful I could override the G1 z command and change the feed rate, slight pause to allow the extruder to get primed after retracting specifically to that move. It’s something I did with my cncs when I had a machine shop business and had a lot of success searching and replacing just those instances of movement. Happy hunting if I figure something out in the next day I’ll get back to this post. Would be appreciated if you have figured something out or someone has helped you to fire a line to me. Thanks much

Thanks for posting this reply. I have printed about half a dozen conopies with the green PLA AIR from Overture since and always got spiderwebbing. I did not work on the settings though.Over time I thought that the filament sitting in the Bambu AMS would take on moisture and things would change, for the better or for worse. But moisture or age /air exposure doesn’t seem to be the issue. Smaller parts like hinges don’t have this problem but they show inaccuracies and defects in fine structures more than other PLA types. The spiderwebbing seems to be linked to the way the printhead moves during the spiral vase mode. It’s not clear to me why the head moves or needs to move diagonally across the interior space and completing just spiral movements. ‘Windows’ or gaps in the shell would still show webbing but not the whole interior space. The fine threads seem to be related to over-extrusion and oozing from the nozzle… This could happen somtimes but should not happen most of the time. In small objects with quick short distance moves this is not a problem of course. I don’t know if it is possible to adjust and fine tune the extrusion just right for this filament to achieve nice layers with minimal webbing. I am using k=0.60. If you have determined a better value and changed other settings for the better please let me know.

Appreciate the feedback. I have since gone to another filament for various reasons and they foaming capability of this filament leaves a very unusual webbing various types but they come off. I just think it’s a matter of the baking soda or whatever they are using as the agent to make the pla foam. I probably shouldn’t share this but I have had many positive results with a new filament I have recently been using. I say shouldn’t share because those I’ve given testimony to the great results have purchased it. Thankfully I bought 2 rolls but it’s almost gone. No colors in stock till mid August. I respect the work that Colorfabb has recently done with their LW-PlA- HT. I’ve been printing a number of a designer’s F-series Jets on cults3d, Kyle, with this new material. What’s amazing is 60°c is pretty much the temperature that starts to transform standard pla and pla-fly into a soft mess. The transitional temperature of colorfabb is 130°c and I ran it through a series of tests. I used my flow test cubes and stood one up vertically the other horizontally in the Pennsylvania heat Wave we had. I couldn’t even sit on my back steps. I also tested a failed large fuselage (rare storm related power outage, 2½ hours, P1S didn’t pickup well) and the heat/UV rays didn’t deform the material at all. I left a few of my planes over this past weekend at a local flying club in full sun and showing off the F-18 (really like the model) and nothing. So back to your point I believe it’s just a matter of the foaming agents in these materials that makes it difficult to retract and move to another location and not have some kind of a web left behind. Again thank you for your feedback. For now I’ll just deal with the added post processing work. I enjoy printing especially assembling 3D printed aircraft. It’s all good.

Thank you very much for that insightful feedback. I will try to get my hands on this filament you mentioned if possible and give it a try. 3D printing and my limited knowledge/experience still has a lot of room for improvement… If you can give me a lead on this new filament please do so. I don’t think Bambu Lab should have any objections especially since they don’t seem to have anything else or equivalent to offer.
Best Regards.

Will do. ETA is week 31-32. Keep you posted.

I have looked into the availability of the LW-PLA-HT filament and unfortunately the only color, olive green, which I am interested in, is not available or more correctly not in stock. I would like to use it for scale helicopter fuselage printing. But first I would have to design a model, like the UH-1 Huey. A 3D scanner would be nice to have to not have to design it totally from scratch.

I just used it on my Bambu X1C and… oh boy it wasn’t easy.

After maybe 10 iterations I managed to make it print.

These are the settings I used to make it work:

  • retraction lenght: 5
  • initial speed layer: 10/15 mm/s
  • flow ratio: 1.127

Also used glue stick on a textured PEI sheet (first time ever).

I uploaded a print profile here if you want to test these settings out:

(search for maneki neko by Nico on makerworld)

though I think only the flow ratio will be updated there, the rest you need to update yourself.

Just started playing with this filament on our Bambu X1C and I’ve only been printing regular PLA for less than a year. I’m getting a few voids here and there on my sidewalls. Here’s a grainy pic while it is printing. I have 1 wall loop (RC plane part). I have my retraction set at 3. I just dropped it to 2 since I do not see any stringers. Any ideas of another setting I should focus on?

Voids

whats the trick to getting this stuff to stick to the plate ive been working on it all day and still nothing im wasting more than ill be using at this point