Can anyone help us?

[Mithartridge 0]

Hello, my name is Mitch and I work for Bluebox Energy which is based in the heart of the south of England.

We have the Ultimaker 2 extended 3d Printer. It is set up in a built enclosure and we print with ABS. We print with the inbuilt setting for ABS with the fans speeds slightly lower and we have put blue tape with ABS (broken down with Acetone) on top of the bed plate.

After a month or so of successful printing, the the 3d printer has reverted back to old habits and developed new ones. Attached I have some photos.

My question is to anyone that can help. Is there something we haven't thought of? or anything we can do?

Mitch

(Project Engineer)

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[gr5 2,170]

You have underextrusion on some of those layers - the layers that split and also the layers of lighter color - second picture from last above.  That's probably causing all of your issues.

Lots of things can cause underextrusion.  The most likely are:

1) The white teflon coupler - consider replacing it - you should have gotten 2 spares with your printer or you can get some at 3dsolex.com - not expensive.  But if you print only ABS you might want to get the IPM.

2) spool of filament getting near the end - with the higher curvature towards the end of the spool it takes much more force to get it through all the parts.  consider moving the spool to the floor and printing more slowly (half speed).

3) Change in settings - did you recently speed up your prints?  Or lower the temperature?  I assume not - but it's also possible your temp sensor is falling apart very slowly - they tend to read high (higher resistance is higher temp and if the connection is loose they tend to read easily 10C high or 20C high or even worse meaning the nozzle is much cooler than you think).  You can test with this video if you have a piece of PLA laying around:

 

Edited July 31, 2015 by Guest

[Mithartridge 0]

Thank you!