Helios Support is a water-soluble PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) support material for complex multi-extrusion 3D printing. It is designed to work with Styrene-based materials, or thermoplastics that need to be 3D printed at elevated temperatures. Helios Support is a 3D printer filament with excellent thermal stability that can be printed at nozzle temperatures up to 250° C.
Key features
- Good solubility in lukewarm water
- Circulating water will speed up the dissolvability process
- Excellent thermal stability, resulting in minimal risk on deterioration/crystalizing inside the nozzle
- Max thermal stability of 250° C, tested up to 256 seconds with no flow
- Can be printed in heated build chambers up to 60° C
- Biodegradable once dissolved in water
- Safe dissolution in tap water
- Can be disposed of in the kitchen sink, or household drain with an excess of water
- Good bonding to Styrene-based materials and other (thermo)plastics that print within a similar temperature range
- Good adherence to ABS, TitanX, ClearScent ABS, ApolloX, Crystal Flex, Python Flex and Volcano PLA
Applications
- Reliable multi-extrusion 3D printing of complex structures that require a water-soluble support material
- 3D printing geometries with large overhangs, or complex hollow structures
- PVA Molds
General printing guidelines *
| Nozzle size: ≥ 0.15mm | Layer height: ≥ 0.1mm | Experience level: Expert |
| Print temp: ± 235 – 255° C * | Fan speed: 0 – 30% | |
| Heat bed: ± 65 – 75° C | Enclosure needed: No | |
*) Above displayed settings are meant as guidance to find your optimal print settings. These ranges in settings should work for most printers, but please do feel free to experiment outside these ranges if you think it is suitable for your printer. There are a lot of different type of printers, hot-ends, and printer offset that it is extremely difficult to give an overall one-size-fits-all setting.
*) Once Helios Support has been used or opened from its original vacuum-sealed packaging for a while it is advised to dry the material before using again.
Filament length
| ρ: 1.23 g/cc | 50 gr coil | 0.3 Kg spool | | | |
| Ø 1.75mm | ± 17.5m | ± 105m | | | |
| Ø 2.85mm | ± 6.6m | ± 40m | | | |
PVA compatibility overview *
| AquaSolve PVA | Atlas Support | Helios Support |
| ABSpro | – | – | + |
| ABSpro Flame Retardant | – | – | + |
| ApolloX | – | – | ++ |
| CarbonFil | – | ++ | – |
| Centaur PP | No data | No data | No data |
| ClearScent ABS | – | – | ++ |
| Crystal Flex | – | – | + |
| Easywood | + | +/- | – |
| Refill PLA | + | +/- | – |
| EasyFil ePLA | + | +/- | – |
