Frequently Asked Questions

As you start printing larger models, you may start to notice
that even though the first few layers of your part successfully
adhered to the bed, later on the part begins to curl and deform.
This curling can be so severe that it actually causes part of your
model to separate from the bed, and may cause the entire print to
eventually fail. This behavior is particular common when printing
very large or very long parts with high temperature materials such
as ABS. The main reason for this problem is the fact that plastic
tends to shrink as it cools. For example, if you printed an ABS part
at 230℃ and then allowed it to cool to room temperature, it will
shrink by almost 1.5%. For many large parts, this could equate to
several millimeters of shrinkage! As the print progresses, each
successive layer will deform a bit more until the entire part curls
and separates from the bed. This can be a challenging issue to
solve, but we have several helpful suggestions to get you started.
(1) Use a Heated Bed
Many machines come equipped with a heated bed that can
help keep the bottom layers of your part warm throughout the print.
For materials such as ABS, it is common to set the heated bed
temperature to 100-120C, which will significantly reduce the
amount of plastic shrinkage in these layers. To adjust your heated
bed temperature, click on “Edit Process Settings”, select the
Temperature tab, and then choose your Heated Bed from the list
on the left-hand side. You can double-click on the temperature
setpoint to edit the value.
(2) Disable Fan Cooling
By now, you probably realize that cooling can be a problem