I’ve been having a go trying to print something my company would usually have molded in just a few standard sizes, a dust boot. This one is for a particularly low volume project and has several deviations from our standard design, an excellent value proposition for 3D printing!
I’m attempting this on a Form 3 using Flexible80A, no experience with that particular material, though I had done several functional parts in the past using the original Flexible. This is absolutely the first part though where dynamic flexibility has been a design goal (previous parts were maybe gaskets/seals, just had to stretch over something and stay there). As you can maybe imagine from the below picture, this thing is intended to compress and extend. To that end, the wall thickness in the accordion section is only 0.8mm! The flexibility seems to have led to some print failures…
This one is actually my most recent attempt, and failed in what I’m guessing is a similar (though less dramatic) mode to my first failures. At first, I was orienting the part vertically, wide end near the build plate.
My post mortem on that first print: I had a couple ridges of material sticking up from the tank, and about 1/2 the part hanging from the build plate, there was clear evidence of tearing.
My assumptions: Despite the many (thin and rubbery) supports that had been placed between ridges, the whole part extended and then compressed substantially during the z-stage motion between layers (I did see this before letting the print finish overnight). At around 3/4 of the way through the print, this eventually caused too much error (assumption) and I ended up glued to the bottom of the tank. Then as either the z-stage kept progressing upwards, or maybe when it went to return home at the end of the print, tore the boot in half. (tear could also be fatigue related, but at only ~1000 cycles I’m hoping not for my sake XD )
This most recent attempt (pictured above), suffered a similar fate, with a small section of the last surface failing, and sticking/silhouetting to the bottom of the tank. In the horizontal orientation, there’s much less compression/extension going on, but still some due to how thin the walls already are. I plan to try again this evening with more internal supports (also stepping down touch points from 0.5 → 0.4mm, since the walls are quite easy to tear). One downside of having to go horizontal is the cure is ineffective on the underside, unless supports are removed first; a difficult proposition in the green state with this material/part.