LAYER SHIFTING IN 3D PRINTING

Layer Shifting

Most 3D printers use an open-loop control system, which is a fancy way to say that they have no feedback about the actual location of the tool-head. The printer simply attempts to move the tool-head to a specific location, and hopes that it gets there. In most cases, this works fine because the stepper motors that drive the printer are quite powerful, and there are no significant loads to prevent the tool-head from moving. However, if something does go wrong, the printer would have no way to detect this. For example, if you happened to bump into your printer while it was printing, you might cause the tool-head to move to a new position. The machine has no feedback to detect this, so it would just keep printing as if nothing had happened. If you notice misaligned layers in your print, it is usually due to one of the causes below. Unfortunately, once these errors occur, the printer has no way to detect and fix the problem, so we will explain how to resolve these issues below.

Common Solutions

Tool-head is moving too fast

If you are printing at a very high speed, the motors for your 3D printer may struggle to keep up. If you attempt to move the printer faster than the motors can handle, you will typically hear a clicking sound as the motor fails to achieve the desired position. If this happens, the remainder of the print will be misaligned with everything that was printed before it. If you feel that your printer may be moving too fast, try to reduce the printing speed by 50% to see if it helps. To do this, click “Edit Process Settings” and select the Speeds tab. Adjust both the “Default Printing Speed” and the “X/Y Axis Movement Speed.” The default printing speed controls the speed of any movements where the extruder is actively extruding plastic. The X/Y axis movement speed controls the speed of rapid movements where no plastic is being extruded. If either of those speeds are too high, it can cause shifting to occur. If you are comfortable adjusting more advanced settings, you may also want to consider lowering the acceleration settings in your printer’s firmware to provide a more gradual speed up and slow down.

Mechanical or Electrical Issues

If the layer misalignment continues, even after reducing your print speed, then it is likely due to mechanical or electrical issues with the printer. For example, most 3D printers use belts that allow the motors to control the position of the tool-head. The belts are typically made of a rubber material and reinforced with some type of fiber to provide additional strength. Over time, these belts may stretch, which can impact the belt tension that is used to position the toolhead. If the tension becomes too loose, the belt may slip on top of the drive pulley, which means the pulley is rotating, but the belt is not moving. If the belt was originally installed too tight, this can also cause issues. An over-tightened belt can create excess friction in the bearings that will prevent the motors from spinning. Ideal assembly requires a belt that is somewhat tight to prevent slipping, but not too tight to where the system is unable to rotate. If you start noticing issues with misaligned layers, you should verify that your belts all have the appropriate tension, and none appear to be too loose or too tight. If you think there may be a problem, please consult the printer manufacturer for instructions on how to adjust the belt tension.

Many 3D printers also include a series of belts that are driven by pulleys attached to a stepper motor shaft using a small set-screw (otherwise known as a grub screw). These set-screws anchor the pulley to the shaft of the motor so that the two items spin together. However, if the set-screw loosens, the pulley will no longer rotate together with the motor shaft. This means that the motor may be spinning, but the pulley and belts are not moving. When this happens, the toolhead does not get to the desired location, which can impact the alignment of all future layers of the print. So if layer misalignment is a reoccurring problem, you should verify that all of the motor fasteners are properly tightened.

There are also several other common electrical issues that can cause the motors to lose their position. For example, if there is not enough electrical current getting to the motors, they won’t have enough power to spin. It is also possible that the motor driver electronics could overheat, which causes the motors to stop spinning temporarily until the electronics cool down. While this is not an exhaustive list, it provides a few ideas for common electrical and mechanical causes that you may want to check if layer shifting is a persistent problem.