¶ Slice Parameters Summary - Cooling
Cooling
¶ 1. Enable Print Cooling
¶ 1.1 Enable Print Cooling
Concept Description: This setting enables the print cooling fan when printing, which can improve print quality on layers with short layer times and bridges/overhangs. This setting will enable or disable the fan on the printhead during printing. The purpose of the fan is to cool the material while printing, allowing it to solidify faster.
Materials with a lower glass transition temperature range, such as PIA, require cooling while printing. Fans help achieve this by blowing cooler air from the environment onto the hot material just leaving the nozzle. Otherwise, it will begin to collapse due to heat, causing deformation and possibly even complete failure of the print. Where the material is suspended in mid-air, such as where there is an overhang, there is nothing to stop the sag, so cooling the material immediately is critical.
For materials with a higher glass transition temperature range (such as ABS), it is still recommended to turn the fan on, but the fan may spin at a slower speed for certain parts of the print. Most printers have precise control over fan speed, so it's more than just an on/off switch. You can usually control precise fan speed. Fans should be completely disabled only for materials with very high glass transition temperatures. If you enable the fan at this point, you may experience squeezing issues and make your final print brittle.
¶ 2. Regular Fan Speed
¶ 2.1 Regular Fan Speed
Concept description: That is, the speed when the fan rotation reaches the threshold. When the printing speed of one layer exceeds the threshold, the fan speed gradually increases toward the maximum fan speed.
The speed at which the fan on the print head spins, unless the layers are very small. This is the fan speed that most prints will use, but if the layers are smaller, the fan speed will be increased to the maximum fan demand to cool the layers faster.
• The higher the speed, the better the cooling effect. This reduces leakage and stringing.
• Higher speeds will create better overhang and reduce pillow effect.
• Lower speeds will reduce warping of some materials and result in a stronger print. Fan speed is almost always maximum when printing on materials with a lower glass transition temperature range, such as PLA. These materials have virtually no disadvantage of rapid cooling because the heat from the nozzle easily maintains the temperature above the glass transition temperature range.
¶ 3. Maximum fan speed
¶ 3.1 Maximum fan speed
Concept description: Refers to the fan rotating at the minimum layer time (Set the shortest layer time to print the layer) Speed, when the threshold is reached, the fan speed gradually increases between normal fan speed and maximum fan speed.
How fast the fan in the printhead rotates when printing layers with minimum layer time. With the shortest layer time, you want to cool the layer as quickly as possible to reduce the time it takes for the layer to cool before the printer puts the next layer on top.
If the time required to print a layer is between the Regular/Maximum Fan Speed threshold and the Minimum Layer Time setting, the fan speed will be interpolated between the Regular fan speed and the Maximum fan speed.
Once the minimum layer time is reached, the maximum fan speed will also be reached. This way the print will get maximum cooling so it can cool down as quickly as possible before the next layer is placed on top.
¶ 4. Regular/Maximum Fan Speed Threshold
¶ 4.1 Regular/Maximum Fan Speed Threshold
Concept Description: This setting determines the print time of a layer at which the print time is so short that the fan speed will begin to increase toward maximum fan speed. Layers that take longer to print than this will use regular fan speed.
Fan speeds for layers with shorter print times will interpolate between regular and maximum fan speed settings until the shortest layer time, where the fan speed will reach maximum fan speed.
In effect, lowering this threshold (toward shorter layers) will cause the fan to spin more frequently at regular fan speed. Increasing this threshold will cause the fan to spin at higher speeds more often, even if the layer is not very small.
It is best to maintain some distance between the minimum layer time and the regular/maximum fan speed thresholds. If the threshold is set to "minimum layer time" (Set the shortest layer time and print the layer), then when the number of layers is slightly lower than the threshold , the fan will suddenly stop. This results in visible banding on the surface of the print as a hard border appears when the fan suddenly opens. Conversely, if there is some difference between the two settings, the fan speed will change more slowly and the banding will not be visible in the print.
¶ 5. Force Cooling for Onerhangs and Bridges
¶ 5.1 Force Cooling for Onerhangs and Bridges
Concept Description: This setting automatically optimizes bridge and overhang fan speeds for better printing results.
After being turned on, the relevant speed range of the fan will be automatically adjusted, allowing the target model being printed to have significant changes in fan speed when printing the overhang and bridge parts, achieving the effect of forced cooling of the model parts.
This setting can ensure the printing effect to a certain extent, and can greatly improve the printing quality of models with overhangs and bridges.
¶ 5.1.1 Force Cooling Overhang Threshold
Concept description: When the overhang of the print target exceeds this value, the cooling fan is forced to reach a set specific speed. If the setting value is 0%, it means that all outer walls will be forced to cool regardless of the degree of overhang.
¶ 5.1.2 Fan Speed for Overhangs/Bridges
Concept description: When printing exceeds the overhang threshold, the fan speed will increase to the set value.
¶ 6. Small Features Fan Speed
¶ 6.1 Small Features Fan Speed
Concept description: Feature outlines shorter than this length will be printed using a smaller feature speed.
¶ 7. Bridge fan speed
¶ 7.1 Bridge fan speed
Concept description: The percentage speed of the fan used when printing bridge surfaces and bridge walls.
This setting controls the fan speed during bridging of walls and skins. This fan speed takes precedence over the normal fan speed otherwise used.
Typically, you will want to turn the fan speed as high as possible during bridging. The fan speed needs to be higher than the rest of the print. This prevents sagging as the material sets faster.
However, for some high-temperature materials, turning the fan higher may result in insufficient extrusion or even complete clogging of the nozzle.
¶ 8. Supported Skin Fan Speed
¶ 8.1 Supported Skin Fan Speed
Concept description: The percentage fan speed used when printing the surface area directly above the support. Using high fan speeds may make supports easier to remove.
This setting configures the fan speed when printing skin on top of a support. If the model has an overhang, you'll want it to be supported. The supported part should rest on the support but should not be glued to the support. If the material is too hot, it will sag a lot and really lean against the support. This makes it stick to the support too much and also reduces the accuracy of the drape.
With this setting you can increase the fan speed for parts where the model is placed on a stand. This cools the material faster, reducing the model's adhesion to the support and improving the quality of the drape. For unsupported overhangs, similar functionality is available by enabling Bridge Settings.
¶ 9. Initial fan speed
¶ 9.1 Initial fan speed
Concept description: The speed at which the fan on the print head rotates at the beginning of printing (first few layers). The fan speed will then slowly transition to regular fan speed.
¶ 10. Regular fan speed at Layer
¶ 10.1 Regular fan speed at Layer
Concept description: The speed at which the fan on the print head rotates at the beginning of printing (first few layers). The fan speed will then slowly transition to regular fan speed.
After this value is set, the fan speed will start at the value set by the "Initial Fan Demand" when printing starts. During the first few layers of printing, with this setting, the fan speed will gradually increase to regular fan speed.
Typically, the initial fan speed will be significantly reduced because the initial layer needs to remain hot during the printing process. If the initial layer cools, the material will start to give off warnings. This will pull the first layer away from the build plate, causing the print to fail. However, if the second layer cools too quickly, it will still shrink and pull the first layer up through shear friction, deforming the print target.
The purpose of this setting is to allow multiple layers to be printed at lower fan speeds. This way, warping is prevented until the print is stiff enough to resist warping.
• Increasing this setting improves bed adhesion.
• If your build platform plate heats up to high temperatures, you may need to lower this setting to prevent elephant feet or leaks.
¶ 11. Minimum Layer time
¶ 11.1 Minimum Layer time
Conceptual description: The setting of the shortest single layer cooling time is actually the shortest duration allowed for the printed layer. Once set, the printer must print the layer no faster than this speed. This is necessary to allow the previous layer to cool sufficiently before the next layer is printed. This ensures that the previous layer has fully cured to prevent sagging.
This setting has three effects:
• If a layer prints faster than indicated by the Normal/Maximum fan speed threshold setting, the fan speed will increase to the maximum fan speed. Once a layer is so small that a minimum layer time is required to print, the maximum fan speed will be used. Fan speed is interpolated between the two.
• If a layer takes less time to print than the Minimum Layer Time, the print speed will be slowed down so that the Minimum Layer Time is still required.
• If the printhead slows down too much (prints slower than the lowest speed setting), the printhead will wait at the end of a layer, with the option of raising the printhead a little.
¶ 12. Minimum speed
¶ 12.1 Minimum speed
Concept description: Refers to the minimum printing speed. This setting will exclude deceleration due to the shortest layer speed. Because when the printer decelerates too much, the pressure in the nozzle will be too low and poor print quality will result.
¶ 13. Turn on the auxiliary fan
¶ 13.1 Turn on the auxiliary fan
Concept description: Refers to turning on the auxiliary fan during the printing process.
¶ 13.1.1 Auxiliary fan speed
Concept description: Refers to the set auxiliary fan speed (percentage) during the printing process.
¶ 13.1.2 Special area auxiliary fan speed
Concept description: Refers to the speed (percentage) of the auxiliary fan during the printing process for special areas (overhangs, bridges, etc.).
¶ 13.1.1 Auxiliary fan opening height
Concept description: Refers to the set height at which the auxiliary fan rotates at normal speed during the printing process.
¶ 14. Turn on the cavity fan
¶ 14.1 Turn on the cavity fan
Concept description: Refers to turning on the cavity fan during the printing process.