Jumping from to a new filament can be jarring. You expect great results, but nailing the settings down can be a pain. With seemingly endless stream of new FFF style printers entering the market every year, it’s hard to find other users who have the settings they can share.

We get as specific as we can and constantly update our Printer Settings Page, but sometimes the standard settings aren’t enough. Every printer seems to have its own personality, no?

With all that said, we have come up with 5 resolutions to common issues that may help you get off the ground with PET+

1. Turn Up the Heat!

In general, settings for PET+ are not too far off from PLA. One of the biggest differences is that PET+ needs to be 10-50C hotter (35C on average) to extrude well. For example, on our Makerbot Replicator x2 we usually extrude at 250C and for our Type A Machine we extrude around 225C. We also make sure that a fan is not blowing onto the print as that will make it too cool for the next layer.

One issue that arises from too low of an extrusion temp is poor layer adhesion:

An end print should be a single solid piece. Pulling a part layer by layer is a sign that the layers never adhered well enough. If this happens, bump up the extrusion temperature. Make the print strong by staying hot long enough to bond to the next layer.

2. Decrease Speed

Slowing down Print Speed (or Feed Rate) is another method to help reduce poor layer adhesion. It can also help give better detail. Slowing down allows for the nozzle to heat the previous layer more and better adhere the next one. It can also reduce inaccuracies.

3. Increase Flow

This is a setting known by many names: Extrusion Multiplier. Feedstuckmultiplier. Packing Density. Whatever your slicer program chooses to call it, sometimes you just need more plastic coming out to do the job. If your layers are still not coming out right, or flaky, more molten plastic being extruded can solve the issue.

4. Brim/heated bed

PET+ has significantly less warping issues than ABS does. However, with a slightly stronger tendency to curl at the edges than PLA does, there are a few tricks to mitigate the damage.

First, a brim is a good way to reduce any pealing along the edges, especially for larger prints. We recommend 15-25mm size brims.

Second, although a heated bed isn’t required for a good print of PET+, it can certainly help with first layer adhesion and minimizing warping. Just turning it up to 60C is enough to do the job.

Finally, if the all else fails, changing the file itself to have rounded corners can stop it from peeling up. Right angle corners are more susceptible to alterations from heat than curved corners.

5. Raise the Roof

The last thing on our list is about the final touch on a print – the roof.  Depending on your slicer program, whether it’s roof or top layer settings, it’s important to make sure this is bumped up a little extra. There needs to be a little extra flow to cover any inconsistencies in the end.

 

That about wraps it up! If you have any other questions or suggestions, we’ll respond to the comments below!

 

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