Gigabot and ULTEM

If you follow any sort of printing news or community you will know ULTEM is not an easy plastic to print with. You have to have both high bed and nozzle temperatures as well as a special bed surface to hold it in place while printing. Very few printers can print with this material because of this and even fewer large scale machines on the market can.

We recently made an attempt to print with ULTEM 1010 and 9085 using our new enclosure. We were able to get a few prints in both but we definitely have a ways to go. 

The materials we used were the following:

ULTEM 1010

• Supplier: 3Dxtech
• Link: https://www.3dxtech.com/ultem-1010-3d-printing-filament/
• Color: Natural

Recommended Settings

• Extruder Temperature: 370-390 C 
• Bed Temperature: 120-160 C
• Bed Surface: PEI or Ultem tape
• Print Speed: 20-30 mm/s 

ULTEM 9085

• Supplier: 3Dxtech
• Link: https://www.3dxtech.com/ultem-9085-3d-printing-filament/
• Color: Natural

Recommended Settings

• Extruder Temperature: 350-380 C 
• Bed Temperature: 140-160 C
• Bed Surface: PEI or Ultem tape
• Print Speed: 1000mm/min (starting point) 

The hotend on the Gigabot was stock but with a 1.75 heat break and heat sink. The first surface tested on was the printinz surface with a layer of PVA (aka Elmer's Glue Stick) on top. the model tested was the ASTM Tensile Testing Specimen by btymrak on thingiverse. 

We were able to get some decent prints with only minor lifting on the corners. To try to counter this we added a PEI sheet onto the center of the the bed. We actually had equal amounts of lifting with the pei sheet testing with both the 1010 and the 9085. We were able to get a few prints off of the pei bed.

Lessons Learned

While testing this filament we learned a few things about the Gigabot and ULTEM as a print material. 

1. You need to dry ULTEM!!! It will not work otherwise, we should have dried ours even more.
2. ULTEM parts need to be heat treated afterwards. We did not have the facilities to do so. There are full instructions on the 3Dxtech website 
3. The re:3D version of the e3D hotend will reach the required temperatures to print ULTEM, but needs to be watch to make sure parts do not loosen. 
4. The Gigabot bed with reach at max 135 C

I hope you found this interesting and if you have any questions I would be happy to answer. Thanks and happy printing!!!!!!!!