Why Do Your Prints Keep Failing? A Complete eSUN Filament Printing Guide

eSUN 3D Printing Guide for Seven Major Filament Series

Different 3D printing materials have different characteristics. If one set of techniques is used to print all materials, printing failures are unavoidable.

To reduce the cost of trial and error, we have compiled printing precautions for seven major eSUN filament series: PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, PA, PET, and PC. It is recommended to save this for future reference.

Specially Added Materials—Three Key Steps Before Printing Carbon Fiber / Glass Fiber / Glow-in-the-Dark Filaments

Whether it is PLA, PETG, ABS, or PA, if the filament name includes CF (carbon fiber), GF (glass fiber), or glow-in-the-dark (containing fluorescent powder), be sure to follow the following three principles before printing:

1. Replace with a Hardened Steel Nozzle

Carbon fiber, glass fiber, and fluorescent powder have high hardness and can cause serious wear to standard brass nozzles, resulting in an enlarged nozzle diameter and extrusion failure.

2. Avoid Using Multi-Color Systems (Such as AMS)

The addition of fibers greatly improves material rigidity, but also makes the material more brittle. Frequent retraction in a long PTFE tube can easily cause filament breakage. A single-spool external printing setup is recommended.

3. Be Sure to Dry the Filament in Advance

Engineering materials containing glass fiber/carbon fiber (such as ABS, PA, and PET), as well as flame-retardant and anti-static professional materials, readily absorb moisture. Printing directly without drying can cause moisture to boil inside the nozzle, producing bubbles and severe stringing. A drying temperature of 50°C–70°C for more than 8 hours is recommended.

PLA Series: How Can Better Printing Results Be Achieved?

PLA series materials are not heat-resistant. When the ambient temperature is too high in summer (above 32°C), PLA material can easily soften under heat and become compressed and deformed at the extruder gear, causing nozzle clogging. It is recommended to print with air conditioning on, reduce the ambient temperature, avoid enclosing the printer during printing, and lower the chamber temperature.

PLA-Silk: How Can Better Gloss Be Achieved?

1. Appropriately reduce the printing speed of the outer walls.

2. The interlayer cooling performance of silk material is relatively weak. When printing overhang structures, appropriately increase the cooling fan speed.

PLA-LW: How Can Printing Success Be Ensured?

1. Disable retraction to avoid layer separation and nozzle clogging caused by retraction.

2. Maintain the same speed throughout the print (keeping the outer wall, inner wall, infill, and support speeds consistent) to avoid abrupt speed changes in the extruder.

3. Print one item at a time to reduce the nozzle’s travel movements. This is the most effective physical method for reducing stringing in foaming materials.

*The foaming rate differs at different temperatures. The flow ratio needs to be adjusted according to the corresponding parameter settings. Please refer to the official parameters for details.

PETG Series: How Can Stringing Issues Be Resolved?

PETG has excellent toughness and weather resistance, but its melt viscosity is relatively high. “Nozzle sticking” and “stringing” are its most common issues.

1. Disable the “Z-hop” function in the slicing software.

2. Appropriately increase the retraction distance.

3. Moderately reduce the flow ratio and slow down the printing speed. Reducing over-extrusion at the nozzle can significantly improve surface spots and stringing on the model.

TPU/TPE Flexible Series: Win Through Slowness

The softer the material, the more likely it is to deform at the extruder gear.

1. Strictly limit the printing speed. This is the key to improving the success rate of flexible materials. The lower the material hardness, the slower the speed setting should be.

2. Add supports. Flexible materials cool and solidify more slowly, and their overhang and bridging performance is not as good as that of rigid materials. Supports are required for complex suspended structures.

Industrial Engineering Series—PA / PC / ABS: How Can Shrinkage Issues Be Resolved?

When printing PA (nylon), PC (polycarbonate), and ABS, the main issue that needs to be resolved is “thermal stress caused by material shrinkage.”

PA (Nylon Material): Control the Temperature Gradient

PA has an extremely high shrinkage rate and is highly prone to warping and detaching from the build plate. During printing, a temperature-controlled enclosure is required, and the cooling fan should be turned off or substantially reduced. Release thermal stress through slow natural cooling. It is recommended to use the build plate together with PA-specific adhesive.

PC (Polycarbonate): Break Through the High-Temperature Barrier

PC material has high temperature requirements. The nozzle temperature is recommended to be set to 290°C. If the temperature is too low, interlayer bonding strength will decline significantly. Adhesive must be applied to the print bed, and the printer enclosure must remain closed.

eSUN Official Filament Printing Preset Parameter Package

To reduce the inconvenience of parameter adjustment, the official eSUN filament