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Mar 2015

It highly depends on the nozzle size and plastic type

I’m using 3000 mm/min (50mm/s) maximum when printing PLA using a 0.4mm nozzle @ 210C, beyond that it jams

When using the 0.8mm nozzle I was able to go 4800mm/min (that’s 80mm/s) using PLA at the same temperature

I have a prusa i3 rework

I just ran my big delta at 1000mm/s (using a smoothie board) doing a marvin in PLA in under 10 min, quality was rough but it was a really good speed test, I’m now going to up the acceleration further, here’s a link to the vid

Cheers

Jason

As you try to print faster, a high static speed isn’t really the major factor on how fast a machine can print, it’s acceleration. Your actual speed is quite likely never being reached (especially on smaller parts) due to acceleration limits. Just want to clarify that.

Fast moving delta machines are wonderful, but the limiting factor is often how fast you can extrude the plastic, not how fast the machine can move. A commonly recognized print volume upper limit for most extruders is around 8 to10mm3/s. To figure out how fast you’re trying to extrude your plastic you simply multiply your nozzle diameter with the layer height and speed. So for example, if you’re printing with 0.2mm layers at 60mm/s you would do: 0.4*0.2*60 = 4.8mm 3/s. You might be able to exceed an 8-10mm3/s volume of you really crank up the heat on the extruder. If you don’t, you will encounter rapidly increasing extruder feeding pressure which will cause extruder skipping or filament stripping. However, the problem with higher extruder temperatures is that you risk decomposing the filament and jamming the nozzle tight as a drum when the extruder stops feeding filament.

When you see someone claim they can print at some outlandish speed - do the math. The current extruder technology has limits that can’t be violated.