Annealing: How to improve your 3D prints

Annealing is a process of increasing temperature to improve firmness, tensile strength and a heat resistance of a given object. It’s a well-known procedure when creating metal or injected plastic parts. With 3D prints it’s just less known – it’s applicable nonetheless.

[TheStandardstory]

I use a wooden board with screws in it as a fixture to fix my parts to avoid warping in key areas eg. relative screw positions etc. works like a charm.

[NeekSquad]

This is why I love your company you all work on giving the customers the best you can give. Keep up the great work

[dalinpowell]

I think that's it's awesome that you guys did a video about this, Even if CNC kitchen has made a similar video, I think it would be super awesome to see a collaboration video or even a video comparing your resultes and maybe even doing some different kind of materials, the more testing and results the more information everyone can use to there advantage ! I'm glad that you guys also enlighten some more exposure on this subject because I would love to learn more and this video and CNC Kitchen videos has only added to the list of curiosity and questions I have about Annealing !

[MrJeepinZeke]

Wow, that’s one of those things that feels like it should be an obvious process used a lot but I haven’t ever heard of anyone doing it. Good stuff!

[eduardopizani]

Now I understand why you dominate the technical field

[mikerhinos]

CNC Kitchen made some great videos to test that.
What would be interesting for ABS and ASA is a slow heat treatment to get into the print core, then an acetone vapor treatment for exterior.
But, that kind of test is only interesting for flat prints :(

[shadow]

To help with the warping, you can stick the model in a bucket with sand and then anneal it. It will take longer but it won't warp out of shape. It will still shrink/expand however.

[doctorpc]

Poor Stefan, he's got scary competition now.

[hegedusrp]

Did you consider annealing the part in sand to prevent or decrease deformation?

[ilyarepin]

what do you use as an annealing surface? I have a PID controlled toaster oven and tried to anneal polymax pc at 100c after autotuning it. I put the test object on the metal cooking surface that came with the oven and it melted! 100c isnt even supposed to deform polymax PC so this means the surface heated it up more than the ambient air in the oven.

[stanbekker]

Thanks! My kit mk3s works fine, you and your crew did a great job on the printer! Would love to see the print farm in action one day ;) Good luck with future designs!

[geoavia]

According to tests results of dimension change on annealing, It would be nice to have corresponding presets/options in prusa slicer...

[CanineDefenseTechnologies]

I don't know how much it actually inproves the strength, but I have hot air gunned 3d prints on certain aeras I want to bend slightly and it seems to end up stiffer and stronger

[Thomllama]

Need to try diff PLAs. 800, 850 & 870 PLA resins will give diff results. The 850 and 870 should do best in most

[PK-ptqq]

- Super - krótko, a sporo przydatnych informacji :)

[fluxcapacitor]

When one completely remelts a PLA 3D-printed part inside an oven (see free spirit 1 and CNC Kitchen videos on this) encased within an enveloppe of plaster or salt, is the resulting molecular structure amorphous or semi-crystalline? 
Said otherwise, after such an extreme step, is annealing at lower temperatures as a second step still mandatory to give maximum strength and temperature resistance to the part?

[lisakingscott]

Layer adhesion is my biggest issue.
I tried 100% printing, covering in plaster of Paris, then 'cooking' above the melting temperature. However even 100% 3D printing is not really 100%, so I found that the print would have voids at the top of the 'casting'. However the resulting casting is amazingly strong.
I had the idea of using a spit oven with a mechanism to rotate the casting in 2 axes. This would create a hollow moulding, which would be fine, but somewhat complicated to make, although the rotating mechanism could also be used for rotational moulds.
However I then realised, all I need to do is include spare material at the top of the print to ensure no voids and any excess can be trimmed, like sprues on an injection moulding. Strength is amazing and due to the plaster, dimensions remain accurate. The surface can also be sanded before casting, to create a decent finish too.

[xrmxwve]

I got to see Josef at the 3D printer convention at Bel-Air a while back, and although I didnt get close enough to say hi, We purchased an i3 mk3. Great printer!

[dondec]

I've been studying your graphs about shrinkage XYZ, but the percent shrinkage was not given numerically, and impossible to determine from the graphs. Can these values please be provided along with the Filament Brand used (otherwise we all have to duplicate your work for all intents). Thanks in advance, and neat project!

[elrondmcbong]

So if you anneal PLA with 110°C, PLA will be form stable to over 120°C? Did i read this right?

Is there a difference if you anneal them for, let's say one hour instead of just a half? Would be interesting to see, if and what impact the annealingtime has on different properties.