3D Printing Differential Cooling
Hi,
Here's an excerpt from a report I completed on rapid prototyping. This section was on differential cooling and an easy way to overcome it. I thought some might find this useful when 3D printing at home as warping is a common problem.
Differential Cooling Problems
A common and often ignored (or accepted) problem with most 3D printers on the market is print warping. The cause of this problem is differential cooling. As can be seen in the following image the PLA plastic, when its extruded, is at a temperature of 116⁰C. The extruder itself hovers around the 200 - 200⁰C mark.
The PLA sets quick when it’s on the print bed hence dropping from 116⁰C to ambient almost immediately. As the extruder performs its multiple passes, building up the levels, it continually adds hot layers of PLA on the set layers. In other words the PLA is continually heated and cooled. To overcome this many manufacturers have a heated print bed to try and keep this PLA at a constant temperature. In practice though this is not a total solution. Printers such as the Makerbot Replicator still suffer from print warpage. The ideal solution is to have a sealed printing chamber in conjunction with the heated bed to keep the print area temperature constant.
My XYZ Da Vinci Mini used in the preliminary print tests isn’t sealed and does not have a printed bed so it needs a different solution. Thankfully excellent results can be achieved by simply placing a halogen globe next to the print chamber to maintain a constant temperature. The globe shown below was used to perform these initial print tests. This is available from your local hardware store for as little as $10.90.
The ambient temperature on this particular day was around 18⁰C. Shown below are the overall thermal properties of the printer when in use.
With the aid of a thermocouple accurate measurements were taken when the printer was in use. The meter shows the ambient temperature in the top right corner and the temperature within the print chamber.
The following shows the temperature above ambient. In this case it was 6.5⁰C above ambient. These tests were performed over the total time of this printed piece and the temperature remained constant throughout.
The images shown below illustrate the difference made by the addition of the halogen globe. The yellow piece was done with no globe and the black is with the globe. The warpage can clearly be seen and the end result with the globe is much more acceptable.
Here's an excerpt from a report I completed on rapid prototyping. This section was on differential cooling and an easy way to overcome it. I thought some might find this useful when 3D printing at home as warping is a common problem.
Differential Cooling Problems
A common and often ignored (or accepted) problem with most 3D printers on the market is print warping. The cause of this problem is differential cooling. As can be seen in the following image the PLA plastic, when its extruded, is at a temperature of 116⁰C. The extruder itself hovers around the 200 - 200⁰C mark.
The PLA sets quick when it’s on the print bed hence dropping from 116⁰C to ambient almost immediately. As the extruder performs its multiple passes, building up the levels, it continually adds hot layers of PLA on the set layers. In other words the PLA is continually heated and cooled. To overcome this many manufacturers have a heated print bed to try and keep this PLA at a constant temperature. In practice though this is not a total solution. Printers such as the Makerbot Replicator still suffer from print warpage. The ideal solution is to have a sealed printing chamber in conjunction with the heated bed to keep the print area temperature constant.
My XYZ Da Vinci Mini used in the preliminary print tests isn’t sealed and does not have a printed bed so it needs a different solution. Thankfully excellent results can be achieved by simply placing a halogen globe next to the print chamber to maintain a constant temperature. The globe shown below was used to perform these initial print tests. This is available from your local hardware store for as little as $10.90.
The ambient temperature on this particular day was around 18⁰C. Shown below are the overall thermal properties of the printer when in use.
With the aid of a thermocouple accurate measurements were taken when the printer was in use. The meter shows the ambient temperature in the top right corner and the temperature within the print chamber.
The following shows the temperature above ambient. In this case it was 6.5⁰C above ambient. These tests were performed over the total time of this printed piece and the temperature remained constant throughout.
The images shown below illustrate the difference made by the addition of the halogen globe. The yellow piece was done with no globe and the black is with the globe. The warpage can clearly be seen and the end result with the globe is much more acceptable.
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