Is there anything special for printing TPU material e.g extruder or temperature?
It's my first time printing TPU material, so if you have any photos, it would be great if you can share them.
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$\begingroup$ You'll get more useful answers if you post the name/model extruder you are using. That way perhaps someone who's tried TPU on that printer will respond. $\endgroup$– Carl WitthoftCommented Sep 27, 2017 at 12:55
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3$\begingroup$ @CarlWitthoft I think we should avoid encouraging questions to become overly specific. Our goal is to build a database of questions and their answers, that can be found e.g. via google. "How to do X on printer Y" with a few mediocre answers specific to Y is useful to a much smaller audience than "How to do X" with a bunch of high quality answers on how to do X in general. This question has quite a bit of potential for attracting good answers on printing with flexible, and become a useful reference for many people. $\endgroup$– Tom van der ZandenCommented Sep 27, 2017 at 20:19
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$\begingroup$ @TomvanderZanden I agree with you, but to solve a specific person's problem it always helps to identify local vs. global issues. We can modify our answers along the lines of "most extruders require X but your model requires Y as well" $\endgroup$– Carl WitthoftCommented Sep 28, 2017 at 13:23
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$\begingroup$ @CarlWitthoft I agree with you, but I just want to know the basic requirment for printing Tpu Materials e.g. how should be extruder long/shorts range etc. I made my own diy makerbot replicator printer so to print tpu I just want to know if there is anything special about tpu printing extruder. $\endgroup$– Dream DeveloperCommented Sep 29, 2017 at 4:41
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2 Answers
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Elastomers do much better on direct-drive heads (pulled to the head by the motor) than on Bowden designs (where the material is pushed to the head by a motor). This is because the flexible TPU or TPE can bend in the guide tube, causing lag during advance/retract changes, and sometimes even bind up during delivery.
Look for equipment which explicitly states that it is compatible with, and designed for, flexible filaments.
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Flexible materials cause lot of issues if there is any space between extruder gear and PTFE tube. Since it is flexible it refuses to follow the path and starts bending around the opening. There are parts in Thingiverse that you can print to remove that distance. Additionally make sure that your extruder fan is working. After those two modifications, I was able to reliably print flexible filaments.
