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  • The filament deforms due to overheating

The filament deforms due to overheating

3D Printing Help Centre

3D PRINTING HELP CENTRE

In the 123-3D help centre, we answer all your questions about 3D software and printer settings, problems you may experience during or after 3D printing and other 3D-related topics.

The filament deforms due to overheating

Are your prints not keeping their shape during printing? Then you may be suffering from overheating. A phenomenon where the filament reaches too high of a temperature during 3D printing. At too high of a temperature, the filament becomes more liquid than usual, giving it room to change shape before it has cooled down. Overheating is usually caused by a combination of incorrect settings and is easy to fix.

How do you recognise overheating?

When 3D experts refer to overheating, they mean that the filament does not cool down quickly enough after leaving the nozzle, causing the print to warp and collapse.  
You can recognize 3D prints with overheating by the following characteristics:
 

Poor print layer adhesion causing a kind of 'spaghetti' (also known as stringing or oozing)
 

The print is out of proportion or distorted
 

Details are barely visible
 
 

How can you solve or prevent overheating?

Overheating can have various causes. That is why we have made an overview with important points for attention and the most common causes and solutions.
  • Provide good ventilation

    The most common cause of overheating is that the plastic filament does not cool down quickly enough. To prevent this, you can increase the settings of your fan so that the filament cools down faster. Does your printer not have a fan? Then we recommend that you mount an external fan on the extruder or purchase a manually operated fan. In addition, you can print a fan mouth upgrade for some printers yourself!
  • Lower the print temperature

    If you still experience overheating after adjusting the fan, you may be printing at too high a temperature. In this case, we recommend that you adjust the print temperature downwards in steps of five to ten degrees so that the filament cools down faster.
  • Print at a slower speed

    If your print speed is too high, the layer may not cool down enough before printing the next layer. This is often the case when printing small objects where each layer only takes a few seconds. Solve this by reducing the entire print speed, or by setting a 'speed override' so that layers that take less than fifteen seconds are automatically printed at a lower speed.

If nothing else helps

Do you still suffer from overheating after this? Then we recommend printing the same object twice so that the print takes more time. A longer printing time means that each layer automatically has more time to cool down. We cannot guarantee a perfect print with this, but it does increase your chances considerably!

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