"High speed" sells printers, but quality is decided by how your filament handles speed. Here's the real engineering picture.
What actually limits speed
- Melt rate: each material melts at a given rate; push harder and extrusion becomes inconsistent
- Cooling: PLA can shed heat fast (full fan); ABS/ASA cannot (fan off) — their speed ceiling is lower
- Acceleration: a 300 mm/s "speed" that never accelerates is marketing; effective average speed is 40–60% of the max
- Layer time: tiny layers overheat; min layer time matters more than max speed
Realistic speed ranges (VOXFIL data)
| Material | Effective speed | Limiting factor |
|---|---|---|
| PLA / PLA+ | 60–150 mm/s | Cooling |
| PETG | 40–90 mm/s | Flow consistency |
| ABS / ASA | 40–80 mm/s | Layer adhesion (fan off) |
| PA / PA-CF | 30–60 mm/s | Melt rate |
| TPU | 15–40 mm/s | Flexibility |
The farm's rule of thumb
Print farms optimize for success rate × speed, not speed alone: 5% faster with 10% more failures is a loss. Start at the conservative end of our ranges, print a calibration part, then step up 10 mm/s at a time.
Every VOXFIL material page lists speed, cooling and temperature data measured on our own lines — use our numbers as your baseline.