TPU95A will print best with an Ultimaker 2+ or Ultimaker 2+ Extended, or an Ultimaker 2/Ultimaker 2 Extended has been upgraded to the + machine with the Extrusion Upgrade kit.
TPU95A is a material designed to give you flexibility not seen with other materials such as PLA or ABS. One of the most important things to bear in mind when printing with TPU95A is that not all print shapes will work equally well with it. Because it is so flexible, it will encounter more resistance going through the bowden tube than many other filaments. For the best results with TPU95A choose files with straight sides rather than overhangs, and as little retraction as possible. Generally speaking, TPU95A should print slow and hot. The recommended temperature settings are a bed temperature of 70 C, and a printhead temperature of 235 C.
It’s important to use glue on the bed to help maintain good adhesion. For prints with only a small amount of surface area be sure to add brim to your print. Twenty lines or or so should do the trick; you can open the Expert settings in Cura and set your desired number of brim lines.
If you do two prints back to back right away, the second print should start fine. However, if you leave the material in your printer unmoving for a long period of time (for example if you leave the material in the printer overnight after finishing a print), you will not be able to begin your next print the next morning. The pressure of the feeder on the TPU95A will dent the filament at the feeder; it won’t be ground down, but it will be pinched just enough to make extrusion difficult. Removing the filament and trimming the end so that it reinserts passed the pinched point should allow your next print to print well. We recommend removing the material from the printer if you do not intend to print again right away to avoid this.
Flowalistik’s low polygon Pikachu is a good example of a print with very little surface area on the first layer. In order for the print to stay adhered to the bed long enough to finish printing, you need to turn on the brim function. I recommend a 20 line brim for this piece.
Without a brim, or with too small of a brim, your Pikachu will look like this.
The other thing to keep in mind, is that filament does take a period of time to cool. Because the Pikachu model has one ear taller than the other, the last part of the ear is going to need more cooling time.
You may see a bit of a blob on the tip of the ear for this reason, or at the top of a tower or building print you might do. You can clean this up, or, as an alternative, you could print two at once.
Since flexible materials don’t retract very well, don’t be surprised to see lines of stringing if you’re printing multiple options at once, or between the ears. They should clean off easily.
You can find Flowalistik’s Pikachu model here, or download the gcode at the bottom of this page to print 2 Pikachu side by side.
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