I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what I may be doing wrong.
Taulman 910, dried 12 hours to 19% RH, fed from dry box for printing at 20% RH.
So far I’ve tried:
Stock Generic PA settings.
Temperatures from 260-280.
Bed temps from 60-100
Flow rates from 1 down to 0.90
PEI Smooth and Textured, Engineeing plate (x2) bare, Magigoo, PVA, 3DLAC across them all (at different times)
Preheated chamber to 40-45 degrees
Sealed gaps with ducts tape.
Standard, Silent, 50mms, 100mms.
No brim, 3mm and 5mm brim.
Cooling in Generic PA profile and no cooling at all
Was getting these results with the corners lifting (white background) and then finally got a completed print with great adhesion by moving to the back of the plate and it’s bent the built plate up and given a similar result.
I can’t seem to find many options on clamping the plate.
I’ve had the same problem back in my master thesis with a different printer (E3D ToolChanger) and now I’m facing the same problem again with the X1 Carbon and PETG filament.
The basic problem is: The material shrinks while cooling down. This leads to shear forces between the layers and those forces are bending up the printed part.
This isn’t a problem for parts with a more or less square or round first layers since there is enough area that holds down the printing plate via magnetic field and the big contact area “glues” your part to the plate. But it’s a little bit different for parts that are long and thin. These parts will get lots of shear forces but aren’t “glued” to the plate that good and even if this isn’t the problem, the shear forces can be high enough to lift the magnetic plate and bend it. The effect is the same: You’ve got warping. You’ve printed your part on one side of the bed, where the magnetic field isn’t that strong. Putting the part to the middle of the plate might help a little, while I don’t think it will solve yout problem entirely.
So with these information I’d suggest three options: #1 Try printing a raft. This is an extra part with a much larger contact area sitting between your part and the build plate. This will lead to a better adhesion and should solve your problem. Sadly I couldn’t find the option for enabeling a raft in Bambu Studio, so you’ll have to switch to another Slicer for that option (I suggest SuperSlicer scince it’s quite similar), or add the raft manually. However, I’ve never worked with rafts so I can’t give you any further tips on that option. #2: Try using a tempered glass plate (without a micro-porous coating on it!) and use spray glue (e.g. 3D LAC). That works quite well on general but I don’t know if anyone ever tried to use a glass plate on a X1C. #3: Try using a sheet from GeckoTek. These are very powerful in first layer adhesion and are glued directly to the heatplate without a magnetic plate. Again: I don’t know if someone has ever tried this but at least this seems to be the better option for me since the mounting of a glass plate will be quite tricky.
If you consider using my suggestions #2 or #3, please constact BambuLab first, if they would’ve any concerns about that or any recommendations for the implementation.
In fact your part looks quite similar to a test-part for warping and layer-adhesion tests we used to print at the university for classification of warping- and layer adhesion characteristics for experimental filaments. The test parts were just a little bit narrower.
I print in nylon a good bit and can tell you printing that shape in nylon will be difficult. Can you print it laying flat? This will keep the part closer to the hot build plate and more uniform in temp.
Printing slower helps but you should try a different material. CF nylon helps a lot with warping. Polymaker CoPa warps much less than most nylons. Ninjatek Armadillo TPU is also a good nylon substitute that doesn’t warp much.
It took me many failed prints before getting a reliable profile for Alloy 910. In addition to the many excellent recommendations others have given, I found the following to help:
Lowering initial layer print speed.
Lowering bed temp to 45-50C and nozzle temp to 260-265C.
Found a solution for the plate lifting. I am printing a 256x256 so no options for the clips or other creative solutions. But put some dimaflex on the backside four corners and as it heats up to 100 degrees the plates are stuck and when the temp reaches 50 degrees it releases it.
