When we finish 3D printing, we want to have the best result possible without having to manually finish and clean up the project. Ping’s patented nozzle technology delivers perfect results with PLA breakaway support material.
What is clean breakaway 3D printing?
Every 3D printing project needs support during the printing process to reduce the risk of sagging or distortion of the model. An important part of designing your 3D printing project is how to orientate the print for the best and strongest adhesion between each layer without excess support material printing.
Objects are printed at an angle requiring support to enable best quality printing of internal and complex structures. Clean breakaway support materials allow you to do this without having to spend a lot of time cleaning up afterwards.
Did you know?
To get the best out of your support structure and support material in fused filament fabrication, you need to orientate your design to maximize internal structural strength. The angle at which you print your model has a noticeable impact on the surface finish by changing where the layers can be seen after the model is printed, so some experimentation with print angle can give you additional benefits in look and feel as well as structural integrity.
Why can’t you get a clean breakaway with a single material 3D printer?
As you can see in the example above, in a single material printer, the supporting material is the same as the printing material, this makes it impossible to achieve 100% clean breakaway when you have finished printing because the support and printing material naturally stick together during the printing process.
The best you can do with single material 3D printing is to make the contact points between the support material and printed object as small as possible to minimize the work required to clean up and improve the finish after breaking off the support, but you then have the risk that you will not have enough support for your project and it will not stay in shape.
With a single material printer you will always have to do some finishing work to clean up the model after printing to remove the marks left by breaking away the support material. Single material printing will never give you a completely clean finish when support is required.
How does a Ping dual material 3D printer give you a clean support breakaway?
With a Ping dual material 3D printer you can use a special breakaway material in one filament feed to print your supporting structure. The example above is the same model we showed for single material printing but the support is now printed in PLA support breakaway material.
The breakaway material does not stick to the 3D printing material, so at the end of the 3D printing process you can simply peel away the support material and say goodbye to needing to do extra work to get a good finish. With Ping’s 2-in-1-out extruder technology, there is a perfect match between print and breakaway material for the cleanest possible results.
There is no need to programme a gap between the support and the model (z=0), so the finished 3D print is fully supported without the risk of stringing or sagging. This ensures the best possible surface finish with maximum support during printing.
What are the problems with single material 3D printing of supporting structures?
- Because the same material is used for support and printing, the support will stick to the model during printing.
- To reduce the adhesion of support material to the model, single material printing designs often use thin supports that cause the model to sag or distort
- You will always need to carry out manual finishing work with single material printing of supports
Which Ping 3D printers are compatible with clean breakaway PLA support material?
To print with a clean breakaway PLA support material you need a dual material printer. All Ping dual material 3D printers can be loaded with clean breakaway PLA support material alongside your choice of 3D printing material to deliver clean, perfect finishes reliably, every time you print.
Contact us to find out how you can lease or purchase a Ping dual material 3D printer that will improve the efficiency and speed of your printing and dramatically reduce the time taken from printing to finished prototype or customer-ready design!
