Guide des Materiaux Z-Temp Guide des Materiaux Z-Temp

The Materials Guide chart is updated frequently as we test new materials; please refresh your browser if you've vewed it before. For more in-depth discussion and more frequent updates, we invite you to visit our User Forum, which has a dedicated section for materials compatibility.

You can view and download the chart in PDF format here.

General Notes:

• If using the Zortrax V2 hot end rather than the ZT-HE, you may need to use higher temperatures than those shown in the chart.
• We recommend using the shim supplied with your Z-Temp™ to increase the initial nozzle distance with most PLA materials (PolyMax being an exception). If you don't use the shim, you may experience feed stepper clicking on the first layer due to back-pressure, and/or the layers will not be where the z-code expects them to be (vertically speaking), resulting in problems.  Z-Suite assumes that the first layer will be very thin due to the "liquid" nature of ABS and pushing into the perfboard holes. PLA and TPU have a more "gel" consistency, so the first layer will be thicker and you may get a lot of "bumping" of the nozzle over previous layers during raft building. The print may end up OK, but the shim will result in a nicer raft without nozzle bumping. The issue of back-pressure from the nozzle-bed distance being too small will be less of a problem with the ZT-HE than the V2 hot end, and some PLA may work without the shim (PolyMax, for example), but we still recommend using the shim. Using the shim will also make it much easier to remove parts from the bed after printing.
• We use the Z-ABS™ slicing profile almost exclusively. It provides more layer thickness options than other profiles, and we have not seen significant differences in printing speed, retraction etc. - not there aren't any, but we haven't noticed. Also, the nominal extrusion temperature of Z-ABS has remained more constant at 275ºC than other profiles, which seem to change from Z-Suite version to version.
• We print with dual fans blowing on the print (printable dual fan mount here), for more uniform cooling than produced by a single fan. Be aware, however, that when the fans first start at the end of raft printing, the extruder temperature can drop as much as 10-20ºC and can take several minutes to recover to the set temperature, as discussed here. When using materials with a narrow usable temperature range this can cause extrusion failure, especially with the V2 hot end. The "Auto" fan setting in Z-Suite actually results in higher airflow levels than "100%" manual fan. With the ZT-HE hot end, usable temperature range is greatly expanded and the "fan shock" effect will not usually be an issue, but if using the V2 hot end, 100% or lower fan may be a better choice than Auto for some prints.
• We use layer thicknesses of 190µ and 290µ in our testing.

The Materials Guide chart is updated frequently as we test new materials; please refresh your browser if you've vewed it before. For more in-depth discussion and more frequent updates, we invite you to visit our User Forum, which has a dedicated section for materials compatibility.

You can view and download the chart in PDF format here.

General Notes:

• If using the Zortrax V2 hot end rather than the ZT-HE, you may need to use higher temperatures than those shown in the chart.
• We recommend using the shim supplied with your Z-Temp™ to increase the initial nozzle distance with most PLA materials (PolyMax being an exception). If you don't use the shim, you may experience feed stepper clicking on the first layer due to back-pressure, and/or the layers will not be where the z-code expects them to be (vertically speaking), resulting in problems.  Z-Suite assumes that the first layer will be very thin due to the "liquid" nature of ABS and pushing into the perfboard holes. PLA and TPU have a more "gel" consistency, so the first layer will be thicker and you may get a lot of "bumping" of the nozzle over previous layers during raft building. The print may end up OK, but the shim will result in a nicer raft without nozzle bumping. The issue of back-pressure from the nozzle-bed distance being too small will be less of a problem with the ZT-HE than the V2 hot end, and some PLA may work without the shim (PolyMax, for example), but we still recommend using the shim. Using the shim will also make it much easier to remove parts from the bed after printing.
• We use the Z-ABS™ slicing profile almost exclusively. It provides more layer thickness options than other profiles, and we have not seen significant differences in printing speed, retraction etc. - not there aren't any, but we haven't noticed. Also, the nominal extrusion temperature of Z-ABS has remained more constant at 275ºC than other profiles, which seem to change from Z-Suite version to version.
• We print with dual fans blowing on the print (printable dual fan mount here), for more uniform cooling than produced by a single fan. Be aware, however, that when the fans first start at the end of raft printing, the extruder temperature can drop as much as 10-20ºC and can take several minutes to recover to the set temperature, as discussed here. When using materials with a narrow usable temperature range this can cause extrusion failure, especially with the V2 hot end. The "Auto" fan setting in Z-Suite actually results in higher airflow levels than "100%" manual fan. With the ZT-HE hot end, usable temperature range is greatly expanded and the "fan shock" effect will not usually be an issue, but if using the V2 hot end, 100% or lower fan may be a better choice than Auto for some prints.
• We use layer thicknesses of 190µ and 290µ in our testing.