What do all the grades of materials mean? What is the difference between PLA and HTPLA+?
Without getting too complicated, each grade has a specific amount of this that or the other thing to make it unique. At the end of the day, filament is filament and it prints in your 3D printer.
PLA (4043D) has been around the longest, and it's the most used PLA material for prototyping around. It has many good qualities and some negative qualities. 4043D is great at rigidity. It holds it's shape and does not like to bend much. It doesn't warp when printed. It is prone to cracking before bending which gives it a brittle quality. It also has the lowest melt temperature than any material.
HTPLA+ (3D870) is the new kid on the block. It too can be heat treated, but it works just as well without it. This is the best PLA material to use for objects that require all of the best properties of PLA and ABS. It stays rigid like 4043D, but it also can bend like 3D850 and ABS before it breaks. It prints like ABS (which everyone seems to love). Layer adhesion is also the best with this material. The only drawback, it's hard to pigment. The base material is milky white when extruded, so most colors are earth tones or pastels. Ongoing research is being done right now to provide us with a material that is more clear like 3D850. 3D870 is an engineering grade PLA.
How do I anneal HTPLA+?
There is a great write-up here on how to anneal HTPLA+
What is the empty refill spool weight?
This can be tricky. The ones that we print are typically right around 150 grams. Everyone has their own way of printing one, various infill, different materials, nozzle diameter etc. But we print ours from HTPLA+ (3D870) using a custom S3D profile. If you decide to print your own, it could be more or less around that weight. But 150 grams seems to be sufficient.
How should I adjust my printing profile to get the best results?
By far, the biggest issue we see users running into is printing filament at the wrong temperature. Since we don't include fillers in our filament, the print temperature is typically ***higher*** than our competition. We include a recommended printing temperature on the side of each Fusion Filaments roll. We recommend this temperature as a starting point, and you may need to adjust up or down from it depending on the accuracy of your printer's hotend thermistor reading and your print speeds.
Why are my prints suddenly stringy?
Nearly all filament types absorb moisture from the air, degrading print quality. This can present as surface roughness caused by moisture and audible "popping" during extrusion, or as stringing. Fusion Filaments ships filament rolls in sealed bags with desiccant to help keep your filament dry during the shipment process; however, it is nearly impossible to keep filament "dry" for an extended period of time.
Some users create dry boxes filled with desiccant to help keep moisture away, but in most cases this merely delays the issue and doesn't actually fix the problem. Some filament types (such as PET) may absorb enough moisture to degrade performance within a day of being out in open air. Users truly concerned with performance and print quality need to invest in a filament drying system. Several third parties make units specifically for drying filament before use, or DIY savvy users really like using repurposed food dehydrators. Either way you go, this should be considered as important as any printer mod to improve your quality!
If you don't have access to drying equipment and have to make the best of it, turning down print temperature in a pinch may decrease the bad effects of wet filament, just be sure to test part strength and ensure you don't drop too low to extrude properly.
How do I prevent jams?
- Ensure you have found the correct extrusion temperature. Some "jams" are actually just extruding too cold causing the extruder to slip or grind the filament!
- Ensure you have retraction tuned correctly. The vast majority of users have retraction set much higher than required, potentially pulling molten filament up into the cold side of the hotend's heatbreak where it solidifies. An excellent guide on tuning retraction is here: https://www.sublimelayers.com/2016/10/some-musings-on-retracts.html pay special attention to their recommendation to get temps correct first, then tune retraction.
- It is critical to have proper hotend heatsink cooling. If hotend cooling is insufficient, your printer may experience "heat creep" causing filament to melt above the heatbreak and stick to it. This may present as jams or basketweave, a good example of this issue occurring here: https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware/issues/602
- Some parts with many retractions in a short period of time can churn filament up into the cold side of the heatbreak causing a stick. If your slicer supports it, we recommend enabling settings that limit retractions in close succession. This will ensure molten filament continues going the correct direction.
What guarantee do I have that your material will work in my printer?
Our filament is made with only pure resins, no fillers. Our filament is held within the industry standard of +-0.05mm, but we try harder to make sure it is held within +-0.025mm. Our filament is filtered during extrusion to prevent any possibility of debris getting into your nozzle and causing a jam. Please feel free to contact us with any questions / concerns / refund issues or even to just say hi. We care and we listen!
What does / does not the guarantee cover?
This guarantee covers manufacturing defects for a period of 30 days from the original purchase date. If during the 30 day period you would like to return it for any other reason, the spool will be prorated. For any other reasons that this guarantee doesn't cover, please contact us. We are willing to work with our customers to make sure they are satisfied.
Items being returned must be re-packed to prevent damage during shipping. It is the senders responsibility to pack these items properly.
Items that do NOT qualify for a return:
- Beta filaments / test filaments
- Bags that lose vacuum
- The product is too difficult to get working
- Tangled filament, (we can help with this, please contact us)
- Unexpected print quality, (we can help with this also, please contact us)
- If you package was not insured
- If the filament was respooled
- Print appearance (shiny vs matte) unless specifically stated in the product listing
Items that are NOT insured are not covered for a refund if damaged / lost in shipping.
