1kg of Solid Black eSun PETG Refilament, complete with an eSun eSpool. Easy to assemble and helps protect the planet. This additional eSpool will have your refilament ready hassle-free, so you can begin the last collection of spools you’ll ever need - a reusable one!
With the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels and manufacturing processes relating to consumables, it’s refreshing to see a company like eSUN focus on environmental friendliness with their addition of the eSUN ReFilament range. These windings of 3D Filament utilise a clever spooling technique that allows eSUN to completely remove the actual spool, resulting in a winding of filament that offers the exact same specifications and print quality, but rather in a far more environmentally friendly way that is aimed at reducing the obvious impacts that plastic production has on our world.
These windings of eSUN ReFilament are made from PETG, which is a tough filament that’s capable of withstanding a lot of real-world mechanical forces and stresses, with a particular strength against impacts. This, in addition to the way that it’s easier to print with than ABS, makes it a great choice for 3D Makers who want real-world value from their filaments, allowing you to print all kinds of designs from motocross handle guards to scratch plates on doors and vending machines. This, when compared to the ever-common PLA Filaments that almost every 3D Maker on the planet uses, opens up really cool potential applications for 3D Printing, as with PETG you can print both for functionality as well as decoration, and with such an excitingly vibrant range of colours, you can actually print for both at the same time, creating good looking prints that actually perform real-world functions.
Of course, you can’t use your new filament without a spool. As avid 3D Makers, we found there's only so many leaning towers of spools we can collect before the people of Pisa start getting jealous. eSun’s eSpool solved our small uprising problem and we believe it’ll do the same for any space issues you may be experiencing. Using eSun’s ReFilament, although wonderfully eco-friendly, often required Makers to previously go through the hassle to print their own spools or else contend with the unnecessary waste of empty spools piling in the corners. That’s why we’re sharing the eSun eSpool with you. It is a reusable spool that arrives in five sturdy parts. The eSpool is easy to assemble and allows you to switch between ReFilament windings whenever you like.
eSun’s clever spooling technique will enhance your 3D printing with an eco-conscience, let you enjoy the additional features of PETG ReFilament, avoid the hassles while saving money, and, most importantly, allow you to continue making the awesome ambitious prints you love.
eSUN PETG ReFilament - Technical Specifications: |
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– Polyethylene Terephthalate |
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– Glycol-Modified |
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– 1.75mm |
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– 1.23 |
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– 64 |
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– 20(250°C/2.16kg) |
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– 49 |
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– 228 |
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– 68 |
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– 8 |
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– 1kg |
eSUN PETG Filament - Suggested Print Settings: |
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– 210 to 250 |
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– Brass / Any |
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– Standard: 0.4mm |
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– 70 to 90 |
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– 30 to 60 |
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– Off, But Print Slowly | Fan On for Bridging |
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– On 100% from Layer 2+ |
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– Not Necessary |
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– N/A |
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– N/A |
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– Sanding / Polishing Compound / XTC Coating |
ESUN REUSABLE ESPOOL FOR REFILAMENT – TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: |
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– eSUN |
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– Transparent |
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– Polycarbonate |
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– Snap Together |
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– 5 (2 x Sides / 3 x Columns) |
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– 160g |
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– 200mm Diameter | 73mm Width |
Helpful Tips for Printing with eSUN PETG Filament:
3D Printing with the durable and slightly flexible PETG polymer is quite a unique experience, as it offers very similar characteristics to ABS, but uses similar printing specifications to PLA. This is why many 3D Makers argue that PETG is the perfect balance between ABS and PLA polymers, offering high strength but also being relatively easy to print with compared to some of the filaments and polymers with stricter parameters.
However, if you really want to get the most out of your PETG prints, and enjoy both durable and aesthetically awesome-looking results, we’ve collected following insights, which we feel are some of the most important factors, and which we feel are the most important factors to experiment with when “dialling in” your 3D Printer:
- PETG Printing Tips – First Layer Adhesion: Although it may come as second nature to try and get the squishiest squish-factor around for all kinds of filaments and polymers, PETG is a little different, and actually shouldn’t be squished too hard for the first layer. In fact, it’s good practice when printing with PETG to have your first layer print at around 125% of the defined layer height. This will give it the ability to “grab” the following layers more effectively, and because PETG layers tend to bond well to each other, this dramatically helps with the overall print quality. This is primarily due to the glass transition temperature of around 85°C for PETG, as well as how the heatbed draws heat away from the first layer due to the direct contact with the thermally conductive heatbed.
- PETG Printing Tips – Effective Bridging: With PETG Filament, one of the more difficult factors to get right is bridging between parts, as PETG tends to sag quite dramatically due to the high temperatures required for printing. However, it’s important to note that this is more so for opaque than transparent colours, as the colourants can affect the overall chemical composition of the material being printed. As such, it will take some time to dial in just right, depending on the colour and brand you’re using, but for most cases, it’s prudent to print bridges quite slowly, turn the fan on if you’ve got it off, and then define a bridge overlap of around 1mm. This will help prevent the bridging strands from curling upwards as they’re printing, while also adding some strength to the edges so the strands stick well and don’t pull themselves loose.
- PETG Printing Tips – Strength vs Aesthetics: This factor is certainly one that we love about PETG, and is also a factor that seems quite undervalued in most 3D Maker communities, but with PETG filament you can actually distinctly choose whether you want to focus more on durability and strength, or aesthetics and detail quality. In fact, choosing which you would like to focus on is as simple as defining whether the fan is turned on or off for the print, as printing PETG with the fan on tends to produce a great surface finish, while printing PETG with the fan off helps with layer bonding and lamination, lending itself well to high-strength parts instead. Of course, you could always choose the best of both worlds by printing for strength and post-processing for aesthetics, but if you’re not interested in post-processing your prints afterwards, then the above rule is quite easy to utilise for whatever application your print is being made for.
- PETG Printing Tips – Infill & Top Layers: While it’s typical for people to assume that higher levels of infill result in higher strength prints, the truth is that high infill doesn’t always equal strength, and oftentimes an object with a good internal structure is far stronger than a solid object. As such, it’s important to tailor your infill percentages according to each specific print, and then tailor the number of top layers according to the level of infill. The reason for the differing amount of top layers is because if you are printing with less than around 40% infill, the top layers can easily sink into the infill pattern, resulting in blotchy or patchy top layers. So, if your infill is set to 40% or lower, consider adding up to three extra top layers, allowing for the first one or two layers to fall into the infill spaces, with the remaining top layers producing a strong and aesthetically pleasing top surface.
Although this section of 3D Printing Tips is longer than usual, we feel that these are all equally important for 3D Makers who really want to get maximum strength or detail quality from this fantastic polymer. However, this list isn’t at all exhaustive, and we encourage you to go out and find even more great insights, and be brave in your experimentation. You may even reveal a completely new secret that nobody knew about, and because 3D Printing is still a relatively new hobby for most people, your findings could certainly earn you some internet points if shared with the right communities.
Additional Resources for 3D Printing PETG:
If you’re still eager to learn more about the intricacies of 3D Printing with PETG, we’ve taken the time to collect together some of our favourite resources, guides, tutorials and discussions, and we feel that each of these offer some unique insights that can help you achieve great success with this slightly tricky but very awesome 3D Filament. Just remember, however, that each of the following resources will have their own unique take on printing PETG, and may have used different brands or colours in their tests. As such, they may understandably differ from our tips, which we created using eSUN PETG Filament, but can still offer great assistance if you’re running into troubles, or are just looking for further information over and above what we’ve provided. As such, we hope that you enjoy these as much as we do, and can gather some good tips to help you get your 3D Printer dialled in and printing strong, beautiful or otherwise impressive PETG prints:
- The following guide is an awesome amalgamation of hundreds of Makers’ hard work, all collected and summarised into a single, easy to understand, rather informal, PETG Filament Printing Guide – with the primary focus being on eSUN PETG, making it very relevant for ultra-cool customers who choose to shop at DIYElectronics.
- This is another PETG Printing Guide, created by a brand known as Rigid Ink. However, it’s important to note that they very likely used their own Rigid INK PETG Filament, so some settings and tips will likely vary from our own.
- This PETG Filament Guide from Tractus is quite unique compared to others, and does an awesome job at explaining what PETG is, how it’s used in various industries, as well as some great technical specifications to help you understand more about this unique but exciting polymer. Bear in mind, however, that their settings and specifications are somewhat specific to their range of 3D Printers, so they may exactly match our suggested settings and parameters.
- Finally, this is a handy MatterHackers PETG Post-Processing Guide, detailing some of the post-processing options you have with PETG prints, as well as tips and basic instructions on how to do each of the different processes.
- Special
- Normal
- Plastic Type
- PETG
- Plastic Diameter
- 1.75mm
- Plastic Weight
- 1kg
- Colour
- Black
Shenzhen eSUN Industrial Co., Ltd was established in 2002 in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and has rapidly become one of the leading international suppliers of 3D Printing Filament. They specialise in research, development and production of degradable polymer materials, and have grown their catalogue of filaments to include PLA, ABS, PC, PVA, and a wide range of other polymers and copolymers.
Their list of exclusive filament formulas include unique materials like wood, aluminium, bronze and other materials to create highly specialised filaments that can stretch, bend, be moulded or otherwise behave in very unique ways. Their filaments are also commonly characterised by their absolutely round shape, extremely low diameter tolerance, uniform colours and impressively stable melting points. These characteristics, in combination with their long-term insistent policy of “Best Quality, Reasonable Price” has garnered them a large share of the market, with their reputation commonly preceding them within knowledgeable online and offline 3D Printing communities.
eSUN’s popularity in the industry has also helped to produce sustainable partnerships with many internationally famous 3D Printer manufacturers and distributors, with DIYElectronics having sole distributorship rights to provide their 3D Printing Filaments to South Africa and neighbouring African countries.