Stringing in printed parts

Sometimes a small amount of plastic is unintentionally extruded while the print head is moving between printing different areas. This can leave wispy strings of plastic across open voids. Mostly stringing is a cosmetic issue only, but stringing inside the optics modules will affect the imaging performance and can prevent automatic scanning and stitching.

Removing stringing

It is very difficult to remove stringing because the strands are usually very thin and so will bend rather than break. A very good pair of tweezers will sometimes be able to grip the strings tightly enough to pull them off.

Preventing stringing

Strings of plastic inside the optics module are often an indication that the printer needs maintenance or optimisation. There are many tutorials available for printer optimisation, in particular matching the print temperature to the filament used. For example this Prusa guide. (We do not recommend the suggestion there of using a heat gun to melt the strings instead of correcting the print settings - the OpenFlexure Microscope parts must keep their dimensional accuracy)