I’ve been experimenting with a different filament called TPU Air.
This filament is flexible like a TPU, but it also foams as it prints. Increasing the printing temperature results in more foaming and a softer part. These characteristics make it ideal to print cradles and protective pieces to cushion a model and prevent damage.
Using the TPU Air
The reviews said to not run the filament through a Bowden tube, so I printed a top mount spool holder and fed the filament directly into the extruder.
There is significant amount of stringing anytime the nozzle lifts and moves to a different place. I found it best to print only one part a time. It’s possible that this could be controlled with the retract settings, but I didn’t play around with those.
I started with a generic TPU filament profile and modified the print temperature to 260 C and the flow rate to 50%.
I used a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.4mm layers to keep print times reasonable. This filament isn’t going to produce finely detailed parts, so there is no reason to chase quality settings.
Wall thickness: two loops, 1.2 mm thickness
Infill: 15%, Gyroid
Two bottom layers, 3 top layers
First layer speed: 25 mm/s
Wall print speed: 40 mm/s
Infill print speed: 60 mm/s
One last nuance – at the end of the print, the filament forms a kind of aglet on the end in the extruder. This causes the next print to have a jammed nozzle. My solution was to disengage the extruder gear, yank out the filament, and cut off the end between prints.
This filament is flexible like a TPU, but it also foams as it prints. Increasing the printing temperature results in more foaming and a softer part. These characteristics make it ideal to print cradles and protective pieces to cushion a model and prevent damage.
Using the TPU Air
The reviews said to not run the filament through a Bowden tube, so I printed a top mount spool holder and fed the filament directly into the extruder.
There is significant amount of stringing anytime the nozzle lifts and moves to a different place. I found it best to print only one part a time. It’s possible that this could be controlled with the retract settings, but I didn’t play around with those.
I started with a generic TPU filament profile and modified the print temperature to 260 C and the flow rate to 50%.
I used a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.4mm layers to keep print times reasonable. This filament isn’t going to produce finely detailed parts, so there is no reason to chase quality settings.
Wall thickness: two loops, 1.2 mm thickness
Infill: 15%, Gyroid
Two bottom layers, 3 top layers
First layer speed: 25 mm/s
Wall print speed: 40 mm/s
Infill print speed: 60 mm/s
One last nuance – at the end of the print, the filament forms a kind of aglet on the end in the extruder. This causes the next print to have a jammed nozzle. My solution was to disengage the extruder gear, yank out the filament, and cut off the end between prints.
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