I printed a couple of pieces with PLA matte using Bambu Studio with default settings for PLA Matte. Tall container with 1.6mm walls, and a thicker section for reinforcement.
Both pieces broke along a layer during what I would consider “not abusive” handling.
It seems that the adhesion between layers is much weaker than PLA basic. After getting my P1P I made a couple of 1mm thick flat test pieces with PLA basic (white) and was much impressed by how much bending force and deflection it could withstand before breaking.
The matte seemed to just snap – very little deflection before breaking, as if it was brittle.
Anyone have similar experience and/or can suggest remedies?
I assume you mean the Bambu matte PLA? I have not tried that yet, but I will offer the following broad suggestions:
My experience with matte PLA filaments is that they generally need to be printed at a higher temperature. For eSun PLA filaments, the matte should be 10ºC higher than PLA+, for example.
Have you calibrated your filament? Run at least the flow rate (both passes), pressure advance, and max volumetric speed tests in OrcaSlicer. (If you are unfamiliar, Orca is a fork of Bambu Slicer - looks almost identical, but with a few added features such as calibration tools).
My general checklist for strength issues includes:
increase the print temp. Try increasing in 5ºC increments, 10ºC if you’re bold
reduce the print speed.
reduce cooling. Start by turning off the aux print fan.
All of these steps will help to improve bonding.
Finally, and perhaps inappropriately, if you are printing it at high enough speeds, regular PLA will have a matte appearance anyway
I have the Orca slicer. Seems to work exactly like Bambu’s. Maybe a dumb question: Wouldn’t Bambu’s default PLA Matte settings be optimized for their filament?
Calibration. I looked at these. They seem focused on appearance. I did not see a test specifically for layer adhesion. Is there one?
Reducing print speeds. This seems to make sense, though there are lots of speed settings. Which one(s) do you suggest I adjust?
Agreed, I should have listed the temperature tower.
However, this could all just be immaterial. I looked at the TDS for both filaments, and the matte PLA has a significantly lower bending strength (53 MPa) vs PLA Basic at 76 MPa. The basic filament is a lot stronger overall. May just be the filament. All PLA is not created equal. 1 mm is going to be brittle but larger parts should be OK.
Just for background:
The flow rate calibration is important to ensure you are putting out the right amount of filament. I calibrate every spool I get, and I have found the Bambu default settings can be off significantly (PETG seems to be the most egregious). Nevertheless, the default settings are really starting points, not absolutes; different situations may call for adjustments.
The pressure advance is mostly for appearances but helps ensure the right amount of filament gets put down on corners (acceleration/deacceleration).
The max volumetric speed test sets the maximum speed which governs all speed settings. If you want to slow everything down you can just lower this value. Otherwise use the speed setting on the preview to see what setting on the Speed slicing menu is appropriate.
Thanks to all for the dialog. Interesting technology
re: bending strength. I’ve noted that Matte seemed much more flexible (less rigid) than Basic. That is, bending across the layers. I suspect this is more Young’s modulus than bending strength.
As a test, I printed an ‘L’ shape, 2" on a side (XY), 3" high, 1.6mm thick. Which is a segment of my original piece (2" square by 6" high). It seemed easy to break along the layers, though I don’t know what ‘easy’ should be with good layer bonding.
I’ll run the tower test on the Matte, and maybe Basic too.
i did 40 hours since i got the maching… used up all green and orange with not a single problem… then when i tried mate black it had problems… i will try now iwth 225 instead of 220…
got hte ffeling some layer dont stick together…
im glad i found ur post!!!
i already did flow rate and flow dynamics calibraiotn with the matte black bambu pla wich is causing problems… it got better after the calibration and i finally was able to print stuff with it…but most models i tested gave me problems on faster speeds above standard…
i tried putting the temp up to 225 or 230 for faster speeds but it seemed to make it worse…
it always started to give me spiral poop towers on corners! the more i turned the heat up the more these things showed up… does a lower bending strength mean it also needs lower temps right?
i was thinking about testing 215 or 210 but havent tried yet…
Any updates? I’m having the same issues!
So you are saying that after calibration in the bambu app fork you were able to get better results for PLA matte
If I had just read this before ordering the 8 packs of matte filament…With all filaments PLA basic and PLA CF I have perfect prints. But PLA matte grey and black is very bad. How is that possible that Bambu Lab sells this poor quality? Or are they just providing poor standard settings in Bambu Studio? I tried the PEI Plate and cool plate supertack. I tried drying the filament for 8 hours. After one week of printing failure after failure I doubted the printer x1c, but no. Other filaments still without problems…
I had better results with PLA Matte after increasing the temperature and slowing down the print a bit. With the default settings it printed, but layers came apart easily (very low adhesion).
My impression is all slicers are not made equal. I would be very curious if you tried the same print settings in Studio and what the results would be. I exclusively print pla matte and have never had this issue come up
I used the standard print settings for both plates and Bambu filament PLA matte. But later I tried PLA CF for another part of the model and it did not work ether, not sticking to the plate. Maybe it is an addition of problems and also with extrusion something is not working too. Wow. This is difficult to solve. A week ago before I got problems with PLA matte I had the best print results. Very strange.
Yes matte PLA has bad layer adhesion due to the additives they add to make it matte. What you can do is use regular PLA with fuzzy skin 0.1/0.1 setting and it will make the surface less shiny. Its also great at hiding layer lines, similar in effect to PLA-CF. The only downside is the slower print speed for the outer wall.
As a side note bambu has a patent for a vibrator inside the tool head to give the fuzzy skin effect at full printing speed, perhaps we will see it on the H2D.
Very strange for sure… Which build plate are you using? Any adhesives? And when did you clean it last? I did have problems with bed adhesion and hitting it was some IPA helped alot
