UM3E build plate temperature

[Stan5079 0]

Hi all,

At my work we have a UM3E which until now have always worked fine. Today I created a project in Cura and tried to start it on the printer. However, in the heating up proces the printer canceled because it took to long to heat up to the specified temperature (in that case 107°C). Our printer is located in a room with a stable temperature, i believe 18°C, but I'm not sure. Here are some measurements I did:

If it is helpful, the infrared thermometer measuring locations can be found here.

Thanks in advance.

Greeting,

Stan Mertens

[gr5 2,071]

I assume you are printing ABS or similar high glass temp material. It can be printed at 90C but it works MUCH better at 105C to 110C. To get it up to that temperature you basically need to cover the machine.

For example sometimes I use a 1 gallon plastic bag (with nothing in it) to cover the *front* of the machine (Ultimaker sells a nice front cover as well). And for the top of the machine I use those boxes that copier paper comes in. It's the perfect size. No cutting necessary. Flip it over onto the top of your UM3 such that there is a big gap towards the back for the machine to let the bowden in.

[Stan5079 0]

Hi gr5, thank you for your comment. And sorry for my late response, I've been busy at work!

We are indeed printing with a high temperature material, in the case of the measurements with white PC. I understand that we can 'boost' the temperature by covering the machine. But should that be necessary? It looks obvious to me that the printer should be able to warm itselve up to more than 90°C, but I can be wrong. Also, we've printed with PC and many other materials before without this problem.

By the look of your posts, points and owned printers. Could you tell me if the temperature raise on our printer is considered 'normal'?

Also, I've made a screenshot of the notification we get from our UM3E.

Looking forward to your response. Thank you!

[gr5 2,071]

4.5 minutes to 60C looks normal. 15 minutes to final temp looks normal (it takes a long time!).

If your air temp is for example 20C and there is even a slight breeze from air conditioners then 90C seems like a reasonable top temperature.

If you are printing ABS or Nylon or other materials that need the heated bed at 100C or 110C then you also benefit greatly by covering the front and the top. So that seems reasonable to me. You can speed things up by using a hair dryer or a heater in the bottom of the printer during this process (be careful as once it heats up the bed might crush your heater). I always thought it would be good to have a silicone heater in the bottom of the print bed hooked up to AC power. But never tried it.

You can also speed things up by putting a cloth (a t-shirt?) or some insulating foam or packing materials on the bed while it heats up but that requires that you sit at the printer and also you won't be heating the air around the bed so I don't do that very often.

[Stan5079 0]

Hi Gr5, thanks for your comment again.

We will be testing out some tips of yours and I will tell you how it goes. Next week I'm on vacation, so this can probably take a while. But I will come back to you with some results in maximum three weeks.

Thank you for your help so far.

If anyone else has ideas to improve the heat within a UM3(E) I'd be happy to hear.

[fbrc8-erin 267]

Ultimaker highly recommends printing PC with a door on the front of the printer, per their guide on adhesion sheets and doors for their materials: https://ultimaker.com/en/resources/49779-installing-the-advanced-3d-printing-kit-for-the-ultimaker-3

Putting a door (or other enclosure) on the front of it will help the bed reach temperature faster, as gr5 said. It does take a quite a while to get to 107 (I like printing with PC), but it goes a lot better with the door on.

[gr5 2,071]

By the way, there is power management on the UM3 series such that it will never send full power to the bed and both nozzles at the same time. And nozzles take priority. So if you are doing a manual preheat, and you also preheat the nozzles, the bed will take significantly longer than if nozzle heat is off. That's why when you choose PRINT it heats up the bed first until it is within about 3C of target temp before starting the nozzles.