Layer thickness..... How does it work?

I wander,

When I change layer thickness in my slice program,
What does the printer do?

My nozzle does not change, so the width of the plastic can not change. It must be the amount of plastic on top of each layer ... Correct?
Is there a max or optimum layer hight in relation to nozzle ? Mine is 0.35 mm.

Advice is appreciated

Thomas

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www.3daybreaker.blogspot.com

Orca V4.4 rebuild to Ramps with Mk8 and E3D, as well as a Rostock Delta Mini and an OLO in backorder :-)

It changes the space between layers and the rate plastic is deposited, but the width isn't fixed.
When the plastic leaves the nozzle it is stretched so you can have layer widths less than the nozzle width, in general though you want to keep it clse to the nozzle diameter.
If you extrude too little plastic then it will snap while extruding, this basically limits the minimum height.
If the w/h ratio is much less than 1.5 then layers don't stick together well, this dictates pretty much the maximum height you can extrude at.

Thanks for explaining,

So I understand that I could consider 0.35 layers on my 0.35 nozzle?

One more question on the matter: will the Z-direction also move relevant per layer? So 0.2 for the platform at 0.2 layer and 0.3 for the platform at 0.3 layer ?

Thomas

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2013 01:08AM by Replace.

---

www.3daybreaker.blogspot.com

Orca V4.4 rebuild to Ramps with Mk8 and E3D, as well as a Rostock Delta Mini and an OLO in backorder :-)

0.35mm layer height might be too high for a 0.35mm nozzle, you need to maintain a W/T of around 1.5 for layers to stick together, which would mean the width would have to be 0.525, which I would guess is greater than the free air extrusion width of the nozzle.
I'd stick with 0.25mm layers or less layer height with a 0.35mm nozzle, but I don't have one, so others might have a different opinion.

Have you ever squeezed your toothpaste tube too hard? This is layer height The layer width would be the toothpaste that comes out that falls all over your toothbrush.

Clear,

Remains this question: is the layer hight also the platform advance per layer ? Or will platform advance lass due to plastic layers getting forced a bit into each other ?

Just for info..

Thomas

---

www.3daybreaker.blogspot.com

Orca V4.4 rebuild to Ramps with Mk8 and E3D, as well as a Rostock Delta Mini and an OLO in backorder :-)

Replace Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Clear,
>
> Remains this question: is the layer hight also the
> platform advance per layer ? Or will platform
> advance lass due to plastic layers getting forced
> a bit into each other ?
>
> Just for info..
>
> Thomas

Yes.
Basically the platform or head depending on the printer moves the layer height for each layer the rate that plastic is fed in depends on that, the speed you're printing and the requested extrusion width.