Today I thought I would try to 3D print something with a large nozzle, you may not really have context to what this entails or even means. So here are some explanations as to why this is important.
I am going to assume you've seen a FDM 3D printer, it takes filament from a roll, goes through the machine, and gets extruded through a very hot nozzle, the extruded material then gets cooled by a fan and hardens. By moving the nozzle around, you can make shapes and print things in 3D, right, easy.
So what's a nozzle, as said before it's a piece of the 3D printer that's very hot (200-300 degree Celcius), the filament melts and get extruded through a pinhole size. You've got many sizes such as the default 0.4mm nozzle that is commonly used, then you can get 0.1mm to get very precise shapes, and 1mm which you trade accuracy for speed.
Well it's rather obvious, and I don't want to waste your time with why you would like to print fast, but there are things you might not know. Firstly, Bigger diameter usually means stronger part, imagine a brick wall, more layers you have more mortar you get, and mortar doesn't add structure to a house the brick does. This is an analogy obviously, but it's something to do with layer adhesion, the less layers to adhere, the stronger your part will be. CNC Kitchen did some tests you may want to check out.
Is it worth changing the nozzle to print something else, honestly I'm dubious, and just wanted to test this, to change the nozzle, you need a unload the filament (which I had to do regardless), remove the nozzle, put the other one, recalibrate the first layer height, change the configuration in the slicing software, and you add error in you process. You also print more material, as there is less space for infill. Then you need to change the nozzle back at the end. So overall a costly maneuver, and what are the gains ? 37% of the time gained on a print, so instead of 12 hours, it takes 7 and a half. For 30-40 minutes setup of human work, it would have been simpler to keep the other nozzle on, and let the robot waste his time (looks like I'm a bit of a cruel boss).
In my case the initial reason I've decided of doing this are three folds : - Testing the setup, and having experience printing through big nozzles - I've a roll of not very nice PLA that easily clog small nozzles, so this let's me use it - Some time gain in 3D printing
Finally, I guess if you have multiple 3D printers, I would have one with a large printing bed and big nozzle to print big parts. But changing the setup is otherwise not worth it.