How fast can you 3D print a part but still have acceptable quality?
How fast can you 3D print a part but still have acceptable quality? That’s the question I set out to test. The faster you can print something, the sooner you can get to the next print and if you’re printing for profit, throughput matters.
Also, what is an acceptable level for tooling prints (shelfs, brackets, flower pots, etc) as these could be printed much faster at lower quality than ornaments or models, but what’s the minimum acceptable level?
In an effort to maintain acceptable quality and improve print times/throughput, I wanted to benchmark the effect layer height adjustments had on print quality. I wanted to know where I need to set the layer height for fine detail ornaments or models.
I used my Creality CR-10S for the testing. No other variables were changed other than layer height. Slicing was done in Cura 3.6.0. I used Hatchbox red PLA, nozzle size of 0.4, nozzle temp of 200, build plate temp of 60.
Take a review of the photos and you can make some of your own conclusions, but in general, I was really amazed at how clean 0.12 and 0.2 were.
0.12 had some curl on the base layers given the time to print and cooling, so a raft may be required if you need that level of detail or adjust cooling settings. Also, I was printing in my basement and the room temperature was cool and I believe this caused the curling at the corners.
0.6 was terrible as expected, I just wanted to see how bad it would be. Anything above the nozzle size wasn’t expected to be useable, and 0.52 had layers separation.
0.4 I would use for quick draft prototypes to prove out a concept. 0.32 will probably become my default for printing as the results are good enough for 80% of the prints I’d do. I’ll pick 0.2 if I really need to have nearly invisible layer lines.
Let me know what else you’d like me to compare. I’m looking at comparing infill density vs print times next. What would you like to see compared? Leave a note in the comments.
