Cooling fans on the Ultimaker 2

[leikoilja 0]

Hello, 3D printing experts!

I have a quick question to the ones from knows about cooling, while printing with PLA filament.

My problem is that I got UM2 to work with, after some "experts" have been using it. And I am wondering how much cooling in needed for my prints, while i print out of PLA. For now, turns out, that both side fans are hardware-way turned OFF and it's only the middle fan, which is working, while it's is printing with PLA(i would say the quality is best).

Could you please clerify for me how much of a cooling is needed and does it differs from when i print the first layer or any other?

Sorry, got totally confused now... And since I am hardware reconnecting all the fans, could you please confirm which way they have to blow? Are they suppose to blow cool air towards the heater or they are supposed to take warm air from the heater and blow air away?

I am using Simplify3D as a slicer, so i could easily customize the fan speeds of any layer.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Ilja

Edited February 11, 2017 by Guest

[neotko 1,406]

Usually first layer fans are off, to help adhesion (cooling can break the bond to the plate). At layer 2-3 you should be able to push 20-50% fans, and at 3-5 you should be able to use them at max. Ofc, this all depends on how good the bed adhesion is to the pla. For my fans if I use them at 100% at layer 2 I need hairspray so it stays stick to the plate, but my fans are way more powerful than un2 ones.

So. Use glue, gr5 has a video of how to apply it.

Also is very important to have the bed glass as clean as possible, grease (even from fingers) can make pla not stick. Also some users use +10C for first layer to help it sticks better (I never done that for a year). You can do that easily on s3d.

In the end it depends on the pla brand, in my experience cheap pla sticks poorly and good pla sticks perfectly.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Guest

[leikoilja 0]

Usually first layer fans are off, to help adhesion (cooling can break the bond to the plate). At layer 2-3 you should be able to push 20-50% fans, and at 3-5 you should be able to use them at max. Ofc, this all depends on how good the bed adhesion is to the pla. For my fans if I use them at 100% at layer 2 I need hairspray so it stays stick to the plate, but my fans are way more powerful than un2 ones.

So. Use glue, gr5 has a video of how to apply it.

Also is very important to have the bed glass as clean as possible, grease (even from fingers) can make pla not stick. Also some users use +10C for first layer to help it sticks better (I never done that for a year). You can do that easily on s3d.

In the end it depends on the pla brand, in my experience cheap pla sticks poorly and good pla sticks perfectly.

 

Great, thank you very much, neotko, for you reply.

Just one more thing, since I have to hardware reconnecting all the fans(since they were changed from original ones to a spare ones), could you please confirm which way they have to blow? Are they suppose to blow cool air towards the heater or they are supposed to take warm air from the heater and blow air away?

[neotko 1,406]

They should be cooling the print area, not moving heat away. Also they are axial so they hardly could push air out. Basically you need air cooling the pla, as much as possible IMO.

[tinkergnome 731]

In addition: The Assembly Manual is very handy, if you want to know, how things originally should look like...

[leikoilja 0]

Great. Thank you, guys very much!

@tinkergnome & @neotko