Advanced 3D Printing

Warping is the curse of engineering materials. You set up a print in ABS or ASA, come back hours later, and the corners have curled up off the bed — or worse, the whole part has cracked along a layer line. It's the number-one reason people give up on these otherwise excellent materials. The good news: warping is well understood and largely preventable once you know what's actually happening. Why Warping Happens Warping is a thermal problem, not a bed-adhesion problem (though it looks like one). As molten plastic cools, it shrinks. When lower layers have cooled and contracted while upper layers are still hot, the uneven shrinkage pulls the part — lifting corners off the bed and, in tall prints, splitting layers apart. Materials with high shrinkage, especially ABS and ASA, feel this most. PLA shrinks little and rarely warps; PETG is in between. The Core Principle: Keep It Warm and Even Every effective warping fix comes down to one idea — slow and even cooling. If the whole part stays at a stable, warm temperature until the print finishes, there's no uneven shrinkage and no warp. Everything below serves that goal. The Fixes, Most Important First 1. Use an Enclosure This is the single biggest factor for ABS and ASA. An enclosure traps heat around the print, keeping the whole part warm and cooling evenly. For anything beyond small ABS/ASA parts, an enclosure isn't optional — it's the difference between success and a cracked, curled mess. This is exactly why enclosed printers like the Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro or Bambu Lab P1S handle these materials so reliably — the warm chamber does the hard work for you. Larger enclosed machines like the Flashforge Guider 3 Ultra extend this to big industrial parts. 2. Turn Off (or Right Down) Part Cooling For ABS and ASA, the part cooling fan is the enemy — it forces the uneven cooling that causes warping. Run it off or very low. (This is the opposite of PLA, where you want full cooling.) Let the chamber heat, not the fan, control the temperature. 3. Eliminate Draughts A cold draught from an open window, a door, or air conditioning blowing across the printer causes localised rapid cooling and warping — even with an enclosure if it isn't sealed. Site the printer away from draughts and keep the enclosure closed during printing. 4. Get the Bed Hot Enough A hot bed keeps the lower layers soft and bonded so they don't contract and lift. ABS and ASA want 90–110 °C. Too cool and the base releases. See our material settings guide for full ranges. 5. Use a Strong Adhesion Aid Mechanical grip on the bed resists the warping force. A purpose-made adhesive like Magigoo Original holds the base down firmly while the print is hot and releases cleanly when cool — particularly effective for ABS and ASA. 6. Add a Brim and Design Out Sharp Corners A brim adds surface area at the base, giving corners more grip to resist lifting. In design, sharp 90° corners concentrate warping stress — rounding corners or adding fillets at the base helps. A raft is a stronger (if wasteful) option for badly warping parts. 7. Increase First-Layer and Chamber Temperature for Big Parts The larger and taller the part, the more warping force builds up. Big ABS/ASA prints benefit from an actively heated chamber (not just a passive enclosure) — machines like the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro hold an actively warmed chamber for exactly this reason. Quick Diagnostic Symptom Most likely cause First fix Corners lift off the bed Uneven cooling / no enclosure Enclosure, fan off, brim Part cracks along a layer line mid-print Chamber too cold (tall part) Enclosure / heated chamber Only happens on big parts Warping force scales with size Active chamber heat, brim Started after moving the printer New draught Block draughts, close enclosure Base releases entirely Bed too cool / no adhesive Raise bed temp, adhesive Material Choice Matters If you don't strictly need ABS, ASA is usually the better choice — it has the same strength and heat resistance but is more UV-stable and a little more forgiving to print, and our Spain-made ASA is engineered with reduced shrinkage versus standard ABS and enhanced interlayer adhesion, which directly helps with warping and cracking. For parts that don't need the heat resistance, PETG warps far less than either. Choosing the right material for the job is half the battle. The Right Printer Makes ABS/ASA Easy Most warping problems trace back to an open-frame printer trying to do an enclosed-printer's job. If you regularly print engineering materials, an enclosed machine pays for itself in saved failed prints. Browse our Flashforge range of enclosed printers, or tell us what you're making and we'll recommend the right tool. As an authorised Flashforge distributor, we can help you match printer to material.

PLA is easy. The moment you move to PETG, TPU, or ASA, the same printer that produced flawless PLA starts stringing, warping, or refusing to stick. None of these materials are difficult once you know what they need — they just need different settings. This guide gives you reliable starting points for each, plus the why behind them, so you can dial in your own filament and printer quickly. A note before the numbers: every printer and spool is slightly different. Treat these as starting points, then fine-tune with a temperature tower and a flow test. Our own filament is made in Spain to consistent ISO/REACH standards, which removes one big variable — spool-to-spool inconsistency — from the equation. Quick Reference Table Setting PETG TPU (flexible) ASA Nozzle temp 230–250 °C 210–230 °C 240–260 °C Bed temp 70–90 °C 30–50 °C 90–110 °C Print speed 30–60 mm/s 15–30 mm/s 40–60 mm/s Cooling fan 30–50% 0–30% 0–20% Enclosure Optional No Strongly recommended Retraction (direct drive) 1–2 mm 0.5–1.5 mm 1–2 mm Retraction (Bowden) 4–6 mm Avoid / minimal 4–6 mm PETG: Strong, Glossy, Slightly Sticky PETG is the natural step up from PLA — tougher, more temperature-resistant, and great for functional parts. Its quirk is that it's sticky: it adheres so well it can tear chunks off your bed, and it strings if over-retracted or printed too hot. Temperature: Start at 240 °C and run a temperature tower from 230–250 °C. Too hot = stringing and blobs; too cool = weak layer bonding. Bed & adhesion: 80 °C is a reliable starting point. PETG sticks too well to smooth PEI — use a textured plate, or a glue stick / release agent as a barrier to protect the sheet. Our Magigoo Original both improves adhesion and acts as that release barrier. Cooling: Some cooling (30–50%) improves overhangs and reduces stringing, but too much weakens layer adhesion. Balance is key. Stringing: PETG's signature problem. Tune retraction and temperature together — see our retraction test. Shop our PETG filament, or the certified UV-resistant PETG for outdoor parts. TPU: Flexible, Forgiving on Warping, Fussy on Speed TPU is flexible filament — perfect for phone cases, gaskets, and grips. It barely warps, so it needs little bed heat, but it's sensitive to speed and retraction because the filament is elastic and compresses in the extruder. Temperature: 220 °C is a good middle. The softer the TPU (lower Shore hardness), the more it benefits from slightly higher temps for flow. Speed: The single most important TPU setting. Print slow — 15–30 mm/s. Flexible filament buckles if pushed too fast, causing under-extrusion and jams. Retraction: Minimise it. On Bowden setups especially, long retractions cause the elastic filament to snarl. Direct-drive extruders handle TPU far better. Cooling: Low to moderate. TPU doesn't warp, so cooling mainly helps detail. Bed: 40 °C is plenty. For flexibles, our Magigoo Pro Flex is formulated specifically to hold flexible prints without over-bonding. We stock TPU in several hardnesses: TPU Flex 93A (most flexible), D53, and the D60 UV-resistant for outdoor flexible parts. ASA: The Outdoor Workhorse (That Needs an Enclosure) ASA is the go-to for outdoor and automotive parts — UV-stable, weather-resistant, and tough. It behaves like ABS, which means one thing dominates everything else: it warps, and it needs a stable, warm environment to print reliably. Enclosure: Strongly recommended, arguably essential for anything beyond small parts. A stable, warm chamber prevents the layer-separation and corner-lifting ASA is prone to. This is exactly why enclosed printers like the Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro or Bambu Lab P1S make ASA so much easier. Temperature: 250 °C nozzle is a solid start. Hotter helps layer bonding, which matters for ASA's strength. Bed: 100 °C, with an adhesion aid. Magigoo Original works well for ASA. Cooling: Minimal to none. Part cooling causes warping and cracking in ASA — let the chamber do the work. Ventilation: ASA produces fumes. Print in a ventilated space, ideally with a filtered enclosure (HEPA + carbon). Shop our Spain-made ASA filament. The Universal Workflow: Dial It In Whatever the material, the same tuning sequence gets you to perfect prints: Temperature tower first — find the temp with the best layer bonding and least stringing. How to print one. Flow / extrusion multiplier next — get dimensions and wall thickness accurate. Flow test guide. Retraction last — eliminate stringing once temp and flow are right. Retraction test guide. If you're also calibrating the extruder itself, see our extruder calibration guide. Filament Made in Spain Consistent settings start with consistent filament. We manufacture our PLA, PETG, TPU, ABS, and ASA in Cantabria to ISO and REACH standards — tight diameter tolerance and repeatable properties spool to spool, so the settings you dial in today still work on your next order. Not sure which material suits your project? Ask us.