What is the best 3D printing infill pattern? What should be considered when choosing an infill pattern?

The design of the filler matches the internal structure of the 3D-printed part and has a significant impact on the part printing time, wire usage, flexibility, strength, weight, and intended use. Most people mistake these factors for just shell count/perimeter and infill density, but many factors go into choosing an infill density, and for good reason, as many as 13 different infill densities are offered for a particular section.

The straight lines pattern combined with 100% filling showed the highest tensile strength with a value of 36.4 MPa. For most presses, the most robust general design is a 50% full block. Best 3D printing infill pattern, complete details inside!

What is the best 3D printing infill pattern flexible?

Depending on your model, there will be an ideal template for flexible 3D printing. Infill patterns models for TPU and flexible materials: 

  • Concentric infill pattern
  • Cross
  • Cross 3D
  • Gyroid

As mentioned earlier, the concentric rectilinear pattern works best at 100% fill density, but mostly for non-circular objects. It has fairly good vertical strength, but weak horizontal strength, giving it a flexible characteristic. Cross 3D templates have the same pressure on all sides, but Cross 3D also adds a vertical direction element, but slicing takes longer.

The Gyroid is great when you’re using lower-density infill patterns and is useful for several reasons. It has fast print times, and great shear stability, but is generally less flexible than other flexible templates. If you are looking for the best compression fill grid pattern, then Gyroid is one of the best options.

If you are looking for the best compression fill grid pattern, then Gyroid is one of the best options.

Quick Summary

ImageProductFeatures
HATCHBOX Matte PLA 3D Printer FilamentMaterial: Polylactic Acid
Color: Black
Item Weight: 2.2 pounds
Item Diameter: 1.75 mm
OVERTURE PLA Filament 1.75 mm PLA 3D PrinterMaterial: polylactic acid
Color: silk gold
Item weight: 1 pound
Item diameter: 1.75 mm

HATCHBOX Matte PLA 3D Printer Filament. What’s Special? 

Hatchbox is a filament brand based in the USA. It offers a large variety of filaments, ranging from everyday PLA and ABS to exotic blends.

Hatchbox PLA is made with a blend of plant-based polymers, offering a smooth finish while being more environmentally friendly. It is available in a large variety of colors, both 1.75 mm and 3 mm, from which we chose a spool in white.

READ ALSO: 7 Best glue stick for 3D printing in 2023

Our verdict

We tested our Hatchbox PLA on an Original Prusa i3 MK3S. The filament came very nicely packaged in a recyclable cardboard box, sealed in a plastic bag with a desiccant pouch. Unfortunately, the bag was not resealable, meaning you will need a dry box to safely store this filament in humid climates. All of our prints were successful, having a very smooth finish with a nice gloss and uniform color.

Specs and Settings

Being PLA, this filament will print well with most PLA profiles. However, with some fiddling, the results can go from good to great. We 3D printed using the “Generic PLA” and “0.15 mm Quality” settings in Slic3r PE (except where noted otherwise), with the following changes:

  • Nozzle temperature: 195 °C
  • Bed temperature: 60 °C

The manufacturer’s specs and settings are as follows:

  • Nozzle temperature: 180-210 °C
  • Filament diameter: 1.75 or 3 mm (±0.03 mm)

OVERTURE PLA Filament 1.75 mm PLA 3D Printer

Overture 3D PETG filament is manufactured and developed with an anti-clog patent to ensure stable and smooth 3D printing. Before packaging in aluminum foil, 24 hours of complete drying is required. This protects the PETG material from moisture, which can destroy it. Each PETG spool comes with a 200 × 200 mm 3D printable surface.

The large diameter of the inner spool ensures a smoother, less material feed during 3D printing. The manufacturing company has over eight years of experience in producing thousands of tons of 3D printing materials per month. Overture can produce all types of top-quality materials in high volume. This adds to the reliability and cost-effectiveness of Overture filament for most 3D printers including FlashForge, Monoprice, Ender 3, and Prusa MK2/MK3.

What is the strongest 3D printer infill pattern?

You’ll find many people arguing over which infill pattern is the best for strength. These infill patterns consist of high strength in multiple directions, usually categorized as 3-dimensional patterns. The best candidates that people have thrown out there are usually:

  • Cubic
  • Gyroid

Luckily, it’s quite a shortlist, so you don’t have to go through too many to find your perfect fit. I’ll go through each strength infill pattern to help you decide which to go for. Honestly, from what I’ve researched, there isn’t too much of a difference in strength between these, but one does have the upper hand.

Cubic

Cubics are great because they have the same power in every way. Cubic is a powerful infill pattern and has many varieties demonstrating its effectiveness as an infill pattern. Due to its structural strength, the quarter Cubic infill pattern is very popular among 3D printer users. Depending on your model, it may have corner warping depending, but overall, it prints very smoothly.

Gyroid

The main surface area of ​​the Gyroid is its unique strength in all directions, as well as its fast printing times. Compressive strength tests by CNC Kitchen showed that the Gyroid infill pattern model had the same breaking load of 264 pounds at 10% infill pattern density in both vertical and transverse directions.

In terms of print time, it is 25% faster than the Lines template. The print times of a cube and a Gyroid are very similar. It uses more material than a Cubic pattern, but is more prone to printing issues such as layers not folding.

The high shear strength, flexural strength, and low weight of this filler model make it an ideal choice for most other models. It is not only extremely durable, but also ideal for flexible printing. Specific strength tests made by Cartesian Creations show that the strongest infill patterns are the Gyroid compared to 3D honeycombs (a Simplify 3D model similar to Cubic) and straight lines.

The Gyroid model performed well for 2 walls with 10% infill density and stress relief for the bottom and top 6 layers. The Gyroid is stronger, uses less material, and prints faster. In addition to the filling mode, there are other factors to achieve maximum strength. CNC Kitchen found that the number and thickness of the walls were major factors, but still had a significant impact.

The choice is yours, but if I needed maximum payload, I would personally choose the Cubic model. If you are looking for flexibility and fast image acquisition with great functionality, Gyroid is for you.

Discovered this by testing a range of aggregates, different densities, and wall thicknesses, and realized the importance of wall thickness.

This shows that different models of fillers have a maximum difference in tensile strength of 5%, which means that the models themselves do not differ much. The main difference in the octet infill pattern is the infill density. Although tensile strength is not the only strength required, this does not mean that filler models cannot differ in function by more than 5%.

Which infill pattern is the fastest?

If we are looking for the best entry-level models in terms of speed, these models have the most accurate infill lines, the least amount of movement, and the fewest drawing resources. It’s an easy solution if you look at the sample options we’ve provided. The best model for speed is the linear or rectilinear model, which is Cura’s default model. Drawing patterns with large changes in direction takes time, so drawing straight lines is quick and easy.

When considering critical speed factors and using the lowest speed factor, we consider the optimal strength-to-weight ratio parameter. This means that in terms of weight strength, we will know which type of line cross infill pattern has the most strength based on how many lines infill pattern is used.

We just don’t want to use cheap products, they are prone to breakage. This parameter has been tested, in which CNC Kitchen has found that a conventional straight or linear template has one of the best strength-to-weight ratios and uses the least amount of material.

The Cubic division model is compiled with minimal resource usage.

Creates a pleasant feeling on the walls and in the gaps between them. This is a great template to use as the default template for articles, especially if they’re focused on performance and strength. Models with a linear or Cubic section are not only the fastest, but also require less cost and more power.

How do patterns and infill density affect print time?

Changing the infill patterns and infill percentage can affect the durability, media usage, print time, and other aspects of your object’s performance.

The key to successfully using infill patterns and infill percentages is to find the optimal point, which is somewhere between too weak and too expensive. This is the only way to minimize costs and printing time and maximize durability.

It can be tricky to adjust infill density with different densities, grid patterns, styles, and orientations, but when you use the right one for your job, printing can be a cakewalk.

What are infill patterns in 3D printing?

An FDM 3D printer works by extruding and laying filament in successive layers until a solid 3D object is built. However, most 3D printed parts are not completely dense; instead, their interior is usually a mixture of hard plastic and space. The plastic-to-space ratio is defined as the fill density of the print: close to 0% means the part is mostly hollow, and close to 100% means it is mostly solid. The density of most prints is about 30-50%.

But the geometric structure of the inner plastic is just as important as the density, and this is where the strongest infill pattern comes into play: the inside of a print can be made up of lines infill patterns, grids, triangles, and many other 2D or 3D patterns. The lines pattern you choose affects not only print time and material consumption, but also the strength, weight, and flexibility of the printed part.

FAQ

What is the best infill pattern to use?

The best infill pattern for 3D printing is a hexagonal shape such as a cube if you want a good balance of speed and strength. As you determine c your 3D printed part, the best infill pattern will vary. Lines infill patterns are best for speed and Cubic for strength.

What is the strongest 100% infill pattern?

Rectangular strongest infill pattern: Rectangular different infill patterns are the only infill percentage type that can achieve a 100% dense part because it consists of a grid pattern of parallel and perpendicular extrusions.

Final thoughts

The best fill grid pattern for the printed content. Sometimes simple octet infill lines or grids are the best fills. You must have many, use filled cubes, triangles, and other models listed in this post.

Increasing the density of the lines infill pattern will also make the part denser, but if you want to save time and material, increase the wall thickness and use a Cubic model of around 20% density. Ultimately, you need to try different padding schemes for different infill patterns to get a rough idea of what you need in each case.

Find out how to choose the right filament type in our new article.

1 thought on “What is the best 3D printing infill pattern? What should be considered when choosing an infill pattern?”

Leave a Comment