I’ve tried 4 different brands (maybe some are same manufacturers) of HIPS but they all seem to come out like this.
Is this normal? I read that HIPS was good for precise dimensions.
Tried multiple settings:
230-270C temp in 10C increments
90-100 bed temp
50-150 speed
no fans
with fans
Also tried a little bit of different flow rates
Other materials like PLA, PETG, ASA all print fine.
Anyone have experience with HIPS?
As you probably are already aware. HIPS is not directly supported by Bambu so you’re on your own even though there is a hint that there is a generic profile for it but I couldn’t find it.
What you did not mention is what filament profile you’re using.
Either way, the issues you’re showing are numerous, all of which point to a faulty filament profile. Just for starters, I see incorrect temperature, faulty pressure advance, improper flow rate, just to name the most obvious ones.
You’ll want to manually tune your filament anyway since there isn’t a factory profile . Since HIPS prints under the 300C max nozzle temp you should be OK to extrude properly. You may have bed adhesion issues and may want to not use a texture PEI but rather a smooth high temp plate and even then, consider glue if you have layer lifting off the plate. You’ll want to monitor the internal chamber temps to ensure that the temps stay high. As an example, if you’re printing in a cold garage, you may have issues.
The recommended slicer for manual tuning is Orca since it has baked-in calibration utilities that Bambu Studio does not have. Don’t bother with the Calibration menu in Bambu Studio. It is more a placebo than effective.
HIPS is supposed to be used as a soluble support structure, not something to make prints out of. I almost bought a spool of HIPS today as it was CHEEEP
MatterHackers
All About HIPS 3D Printing Filament:
I’m not sure if any additives are used for the filament version, but hips is widely used in plastic kits (airfix, etc). I used it a few times on my old ender3, but can’t remember any of the settings. Apparently it is not hygroscopic, so maybe the spool is still useable, if I can find it. As Olias said, calibrate it with Orca.
@Olias
I’ve used eSun’s HIPS profile, generic HIPS profile, and also tried BL ABS profile since they said HIPS prints similar to ABS.
I guess I will give Orca a try. Thank you for the suggestion.
@Wsquared58
That’s what I I got it for to use as support interface, but it won’t print overhangs properly and this is causing minor issues.
@debonr
Have you tried printing things other than just using it as a support material? I’m curious to know if you were able to use it like other filaments.
If you can find your old settings that would be incredible!
In the meantime, I’m gonna have to look into Orca.
When I was reading about HIPS as a material it said two things on the 3 or 4 sites I looked at.
Currently, HIPS is used in a wide variety of industries to produce consumer products, including: toys, electronic components, bicycle trailers, and food packaging.
One thing I was unaware of was that the solubility is with Limonene which I have heard of but don’t know where to buy where I live. I foolishly thought solubility = water, but nope
Perhaps this will help as far as settings. Scroll down.
I just use HIPS as support interface for ABS. One HIPS roll would last very very long…
Never used it for support, only used it for a few small models. I’ve found the spool, it is very brittle, like dry spaghetti. It was a pale yellow colour, but seems to have discoloured/faded. I remember it was pretty low cost, which may explain the brittleness. and discolouring now. I’ll see if I can recover it by drying. Humidity here is about 72%, and it’s been in the open air since I bought it from amazon in Feb 2021. The site advises print temp of 240, bed 90. It is no longer available.
That’s pretty high humidity. Sounds like a lot of maintenance just keeping all your filaments dry.
I’ve tried 240, 250, 260, 270 nozzle temp and 90, 95, 100 bed temp.
@osean I’m seeing 2 big problems here:
From looking at the prints, your initial layers are going down OK, but once you hit the bottom of the X everything goes real bad, real fast! Your layers from there get more blobby and your heat shrinkage becomes more pronounced. This might be where you kick on the cooling fan and that’s where things are going all bad for you. Not sure, but those initial layers are going down OK.
I’ve never given a single thought to humidity with HIPS. As far as I know it’s entirely non-hygroscopic.
I’ve attached a 3MF file for a calibration cube which has a copy of my Gizmodorks - HIPS filament profile attached in it.
CalibrationCube.3mf (20.6 KB)
I really think however that you will just never be able to successfully print HIPS as an entire object unless it’s less than 2-3mm tall and you have the bed cranked up as high as it’ll go, as evident of your failed attempts which only look great at the start. For you, with an A1 or P1 without a fully enclosed frame… HIPS is a support layer filament only. Get an X1 if you want to print with engineering filaments. Sorry.
I print with HIPS almost exclusively. It prints as a primary material all day long just fine. It’s the primary filament I print with in fact. I can’t remember the last time I used anything but HIPS in fact. Yes, you can use it as support for ABS, just as you can use ABS as a support layer for HIPS.
I’m printing on an X1C however.
Are there any issues printing HIPS (in general). I initially came across that particular acronym as a soluble support filament.
After reading some more in-depth articles, it seems like a viable and perhaps better choice than everyone’s go-to PLA. Including me.
When I read that it is used for toys, that means it must be pretty durable but it seems very under-appreciated.
There seems to be a big disconnect I’d like to better understand.
That being that within the 3d printing cohort, it is mostly used as the aforementioned support material, yet in industry it seems to be a popular material for durable toys.
@Wsquared58 the disconnect is yours.
HIPS == High Impact PolyStyrene
The 3D Print community for the most part doesn’t understand the material properties of most of the materials they are printing with. They use whatever people make and make due. They don’t understand there are THOUSANDS of grades of PLA, or ABS, or the entire assortment of other filaments out there. They think PLA+ is a real thing. It’s not. It’s a marketing term.
HIPS is used for a TON of applications! Not just Toys, but packaging, automotive, construction, medical, appliances, office supplies, food (knives, forks, and spoons), signs… you name it! You have some hips in your home right now, 100% guarenteed. Think of your remote control for your TV, the plastic on your stapler, lights switches, keyfob remotes, buttons on appliances, etc etc etc.
If it’s pushed, poked, flicked, dropped, or hit… odds are it’s made of HIPS.
Here’s the thing. It’s not an easy material to print with! You HAVE to have a heated chamber, period. It’s more finicky than ABS, which is already near impossible to print with a bed slinger.
With an X1C we can print all these engineering materials which were previously very tricky to print with at all. It’s one of the reasons it’s become SO popular!
If you watch the videos of various 3D printing YouTube influencers and look at their shelves packed with toys and trinkets it isn’t hard to figure they are in it for the swag they get from manufacturers and advancing the state of the art is not on their minds.
I picked up on that when I was reading about HIPS, yesterday.
My goal is to make practical things and to make that happen I think a decent scanner is a tool I need in my toolbox.
My reasoning being that John Doe comes to me with some part/object I don’t want to be trying to sketch it in an expensive CAD program but to scan it, fill in the broken parts and hit print.
As an aside, I haven’t had any issues printing ABS on my P1S.
I’m using a P1S combo. I heat the chamber to about 45C before I begin printing.
You’re right the first few layers are fine. It always starts to go bad after the first 10 layers or so.
I’m pretty sure this is what you meant but just to clarify, you’re saying that “you can’t print an entire object unless it’s less than 2-3mm tall” in a non-enclosed chamber right? Meaning in my case, I should be able to print entire objects.
Thank you for the file, I’ll try it out.
edit:
In your file the bed temp is 100C
Well, I dried the filament, more or less, but it is still very brittle. However I managed to load it into my p1s, after a few attempts. I found a 20mm test cube, and the bambu generic settings for hips - I raised the temperature to 240, made all the bed temperatures 90, but left the rest alone. Surprisingly, it printed perfectly, with a very slight elephant’s foot, without the filament breaking.
For those who have newer spools, is the filament more brittle, than say pla? Although the filament is not hygroscopic, maybe the plasticiser or other ingredients leech out over time, it is certainly difficult to handle now. However, it was cheap, and it could also have been years old before I bought it. I think I bought it to try it out for making model kits, because polystyrene cement is readily available, and it was cheap. Of course manufacturers vary, but this surprised me.
Thank you, I appreciate you for taking your time, to try this!
I’ve already tried the generic settings with no luck but will give it one more go.
A bit of an update - I had printed two 20mm test cubes, after removing a number of brittle layers, but then it failed on another print. I checked the spool of filament more thoroughly, and found that at every few metres, there was a brittle area, about 30mm long. I ended up more or less removing the top couple of layer windings from the spool. I re-spooled it, twice, and the rest of it seems flexible. The colour is also now consistent. I’ve an idea that it may have been effected by UV light, although it was indoors, not directly behind a window. The actual colour is a pale yellow, but some of the top layers were more orange. In the test cubes, this shows as stripes, and measuring across the yellow bands gives a dimension of about 0.7825 inches, across the adjacent orange stripe it’s about 0.786. Although Hips is not hygroscopic, so they say, long term storage seemed to have effected this particular filament. That does not mean that all hips behaves like this, but we have no idea what additives/colouring, etc., does in altering the blended material.
