Filaments can absorb moisture, which can lead to decreased print quality and to mechanical performance issues of the 3D printed part. It is important to dry your material at the optimal conditions for each polymer type. It is possible to keep the material dry with a desiccant in a sealed bag, following the recommendations for PVA, but to actively dry moist materials, elevated temperatures are recommended.

Note:  As a rule of thumb, materials should be dried below the glass transition temperature (Tg) of a material, to prevent crystallization or softening of the material, that could cause the filament to stick together.

The Ultimaker spools are made of a polypropylene copolymer that can soften around 70-80°C. When drying a complete spool, it is important to stay below this temperature. An industrial oven or specific drying equipment such as a Printdry solution should be used, since household ovens can heavily fluctuate in temperature. Alternatively, it is also possible to place the spool in a cardboard box and use your build plate as the heating source.

Duration

Typically, it is sufficient to dry the spool for 4-8 hours. Moisture sensitive filaments such as Nylon, PVA and TPU95A that contain a lot of moist should be dried overnight (for 10-20 hours).

Optimal temperatures

The table below outlines the recommended drying temperature for each of the Ultimaker materials.

Note:  For more information for optimal drying conditions of third party materials, please take a look at the technical data sheets or printing guidelines, e.g. on the Ultimaker Marketplace.