Review on TRONXY 3D Flexible TPU Filament - Vibrant Yellow Color (1 kg) 🎃 by Mark Bearden

I'm not new to 3D printing but I'm new to TPU. I've had a Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer for about 2 years now and recently added a Tronxy X5SA-400 printer. Despite all my polygraphy, I have never dealt with TPU. I've been told that it's almost impossible to print TPU on a Bowden printer, which was my first printer. After installing my new printer, I decided to try it myself. I liked my new Tronxy printer so I decided to try their filament. The price was right and I wanted to print some cosplay items for my daughter. The floss ships quickly from Amazon and comes in a sealed standard floss pouch. I opened and checked. The TPU is different from anything I've used before. The thread looks more like a rubber band than a piece of plastic. My printer has a titanium geared extruder with a 630mm bowden tube and I thought it would be a nightmare to load it into titanium, but it was surprisingly easy, easier than I find most PLA. I think it's because it's flexible that it goes where the extruder wants it, not where it wants it. I loaded the thread and pushed it out a bit. at my nozzle temperature of 230 it came out without any problems. Unfortunately, with a slight pull back, it continued to seep. As it turns out, this is the nature of TPU. Retreating is almost useless and in most cases does more harm than good. After reading about printing flexible filaments, I realized that they need to be printed slowly. <30mm/s. Cooling can help with tension and seepage, but will not fix it. Turn off the retreat, make high-speed moves. I cut my file accordingly and set it for printing. my favorite surface to print on is kapton tape and i used it to cover my bed. I applied some light Aquanet hairspray to it, but I've found that the strands just stick to it. it was the same with this TPU. it exhibited excellent adhesion to the bed. When it was printed I found a lot of strings. The speed moves helped a little but required a lot of post-processing. the processing was easy, i cut the cords with a pair of scissors. but in the end I was very happy with my results. On subsequent prints, I found temperature control very important. The tronxy tpu seemed to print great in the 205 degree range with good layer adhesion. although it is important that you have a heated bed. One of my cut files dropped my bed to 35 degrees and the pressure released immediately. I suggest you print out a temp tower or other files to help you adjust the filament settings as this will help you find the sweet spot. Overall, the yarn gets an A from me. I will definitely buy more flex materials in the future and the tronxy TPU seems to be of very high quality. Just follow a few simple steps and your prints will be just as good.