Drying & Annealing

Drying

Drying filament brings out the maximum strength and print performance of all filaments, this can also be done with an oven or printer heatbed

To dry filament, remove from box and bag, punch 5-10 screwdriver tip sized holes into the box
Place filament back into the box and put it onto the printer heatbed, heat bed for 4-6+ hours

Filament may also be easily dried in a food dehydrator or dedicated 3D print drying box

Water loss can be measured by weight, PCCF absorbs 0.5% and TPU absorbs 0.75%.

Sunny filament sells 1.0kg of filament on each spool, this makes calculation easy! - The maximum water weight loss of PCCF being 5 grams, TPU 7.5 grams

SAFETY NOTE: Drying filaments causes more fumes/particles/VOC's than printing!

Please do not use a kitchen oven as drying filaments can release extremely harmful fumes/particles/VOC's
Please use a filter; active carbon is usually sufficient, venting to atmosphere in small quantities is legal but please try to filter it first
Please do not use an untested home oven as temperature control can be up to a maximum of 50°c off target in some kitchen ovens!

Annealing PCCF

Annealing prints is a great way to equalise XYZ strength and sooth internal part stresses. This can be done with an oven or printer heatbed

Before removing the print/s, simply place any cover like a cardboard box over the print/s
Run the heatbed for 1 hour at 80°c
Increase temperature to 110°c and run for 2 additional hours
Decrease temperature to 80°c and run for 1 additional hour
Turn the heater off and allow prints to slowly cool to room temp without cooling them or removing from print bed - this crucial part of the process can not be skipped or sped up.

Note: Annealing may warp the part with some geometries/designs or improper use of the guide, please experiment gently first with test pieces