Extrusion Width - The magic parameter for strong 3D prints?

Extrusion width defines how wide the lines of extruded material are. Higher values require more pressure to squeeze the molten filament out of the nozzle that also presses the layers together. I investigated how different extrusion widths impact the quality and the strength of our 3D prints and discovered that this might be a way to produce strong prints in a short amount of time.

💚 Support me 💚
Join as a YouTube member!

🎙Check out my PODCAST with Tom Sanladerer

🛠Tested Materials

📚Papers and further information

⚙ My gear (Affiliate Links):
🎥 CAMERAS & LENSES
🎙AUDIO
🔴 LIVE STREAMING

🏆 Do you want to help me cover my running costs? Send me a dollar or two over PayPal, it helps me a lot!

🌼 Even watching the ads before my videos helps me a lot!

DISCLAIMER: This video was sponsored by Squarespace.

[CNCKitchen]

Don't forget to share this video on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and other social media!

[flymypg]

The re-watchability of these videos is huge: There's so much here to try and apply!

[jimhize]

I've had good results by setting external perimeters to 110%, and internal ones to 160%. Gives a mix of strength and details.

[curtisgauthier]

I have been printing a lot of parts that are single wall without infill from one of 3D LabPrint's RC planes and this video helped me solve a huge problem that I have been having where the wall lines don't stick together. I didn't realize before that increasing the line thickness above the nozzle diameter was possible but I just tried it and it's turning out great now! Thank you!

[lukerickert]

Looking at the footage of loading of the hooks I think you can reduce the data scatter if you center the load every time (with some sort of added part). It appears the load placement can change a bit from sample to sample which is going to change the bending moment in the part. Nice work by the way.

[danijel]

You should make a video where you make the ultimate strong print with all settings combined

[victortitov]

I always set extrusion width manually for all my prints. 1st layer - keeping it as wide as practical for best bed adhesion. other layers - it depends on what I need. I always chose wide extrusion for parts that need to be strong, and you seem to have confirmed that it's a good strategy, thank you very much for specific results. And narrow for best accuracy. I actually used wide extrusion for overhangs, but your tests suggest I should pick narrow extrusion for that, so I'm gonna change that habit! Every single video of yours is like a good science paper, I love it.

I also take care to keep extrusion rate constant as much as possible, by manually computing print speed for the chosen width, layer height, and material and purpose.

[prxrb]

Interesting stuff as always! I've been printing with e3d style nozzles and extrusion widths of up to ~150% nozzle diameter regularly as well ever since I forgot to do a nozzle swap at some point and noticed that things generally worked fine anyway. It's so convenient this way, as using a 0.6mm nozzle covers a huge range of usable extrusion widths and layer heights.


As for bonding strength, also consider that increasing extrusion width while holding layer height constant increases the contact surface area between layers. The cross section of an extrusion is basically a rectangle, with the sides capped by semi-circles that have a radius equal to half the layer height. These semi-circles do not touch the above and below layers. For example, assuming 0.1mm layer height (25% nozzle diameter), the percentage of each extrusion that is actually bonded to above and below layers for a 150% extrusion width is 150% - 25% = 125% nozzle diameter. And for a print done with layer height = 25% nozzle dia, and extrusion width = 100% nozzle dia, the bonded width is only 100% - 25% = 75% nozzle dia. Thus printing something with two perimeters at 150% extrusion width would result in total bonded width = 125% * 2 = 250% nozzle diameter, while doing three perimeters at 100% extrusion would result in the same wall thickness, but with a total bonded width of only 75% * 3 = 225% nozzle diameter. I wouldn't be surprised if the increase in layer bonding is more a result of the increased adhesion area than pressure effects. Practically, I dont think it really makes a difference as the general advice of using wider extrusions for stronger parts doesnt change, but it might be interesting to test if there's a difference in layer bonding between two prints done at 0.248mm layer height and 0.56mm extrusion width, one done with a 0.4mm nozzle, and one done with a 0.6mm nozzle, to try to isolate out the pressure effects.

[theheadone]

I generally use 150% extrusion width for mechanical parts, although mostly it was because I print most mechanical parts with PC-CF and the larger extrusion width helps with the first layer sticking to the bed, great video!

[panicraptor]

You should make a video on non-printed fill material, e.g. filling the inside by injecting epoxy and other glue types. Parts come out much stronger, but there are many different options for injected infills, and also different infill percentage for printed infills.

[surronzak]

You are the kind of poeple who slightly change the world, thank you very much for your work. Du bist wahnsinn

[senorjp]

Great channel. With high extrusion width, more heat is delivered to the spot under the nozzle orifice. Hot plastic warms the layer below, and then additional hot plastic replaces the cooler plastic.

[RushmereD]

When I print vase's I use an extrusion width of 1mm on a .4 nozzle, it creates a really strong print.

[daviddunn]

I've used wide extrusion width for making vase mode more successful on steeper angles in parts. I've used up to 0.8 on a 0.4 nozzle with decent results.

[nprsem]

Once I tried to change the extrusion width to a smaller value (-5%) according to the CHEP recommendation to improve the quality of small parts.
Recently watched a video by Dmitry Sorkin, where he recommends increasing the extrusion width (up to + 200%) to get rid of zigzag movements when filling small gaps (depending on the model) and printing with fewer movements (faster than just increase print speed by same amount).
And your video with examples and science enriches my knowledge even more.
Dankeschön.

[Numenor]

This is great. Looks like 150% might be the magic number. Would be nice to see the hooks tested at 150% and 2 or 3 layers. I don't imagine many people will prefer to use 200% due to the surface quality.

[powderslinger]

Hello Stephan! I am always very impressed by your videos. My plan is to review all of your videos and make up a chart regarding parameters and strength and another all about print quality so I can use your data whatever my requirements are! I love the empirical approach that you use. If I had the time and could spare the materials I would do the same experiments but I don't have to since you are so thorough and all I have to do is fine tune your results to match my system. 3D printing is SO easy but getting very good quality and or very good strength is NOT so easy! Thank you for making the learning curve much flatter!

[sneaky_tiki]

Yep, this parameter is definitely one of the top 3 parameters I adjust in slicers. Why? Engineer. Sometimes it's because of wall feature width, and how I want the slicer to path through the section. But it's also important to maintain the aspect ratio of your extrusion path. I don't have it readily available, but some research has been done, and you don't want the aspect ratio of your extrusion line to fall below 2:1 if you care about layer bonding. Also, the internal stresses and cooling properties depend on the aspect ratio.
And you can maximize volumetric flowrate this way also. Basically, it's a super important setting :)

[iKingLee]

I've used it for the 1st layer to improve bed adhesion when printing directly on glass of heated bed. No glue, hair spray or any other material needed to get items to stick to the glass.

[sealco]

I hardly comment on stuff so when I do I feel it really good or really bad. This one is really good. Very good information, show visual results, shows textual results, very well thought out and laid out. A lot of good information in a relative short time, no "jibber jabber". What would be nice to see is a comparison on infill compression strength (and other related tests). Take for example you need to created a special part for something that is not longer available, too long to get, or expensive. What would one have as options with 3D prints. For example, maybe a busing / spacer or heavy equipment floor foot or a dampener made of ABS vs. PLA. vs. PETG vs. TPU. Any what happens at different fill patterns and fill percentage. What about lower fill percentage but different pattern and/or different infill line multipliers. What about general line width and height. And document (print) time and cost (material + power). As a hobbyist, I'm usually more concerned with lower time and cost. However, sometimes quality is more important. This probably could be split up in two (or more) parts. A) Infill compression strength B) General compression strength (ie. same infill parameters but different wall counts, layer height, etc. I did see the Gradient infill video also, more good information.