This may be dumb....

[tom 0]

As the topic suggests this may be a dumb idea. I'm not much of an engineer of any sort. One of the main issues with the ultimaker hot end that people keep bringing up is the heat transfer up the hot end resulting in the pla plug. Would something like a thermoelectric cooler be feasible or helpful?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

I know in computer cooling the downside is that the hot side gets hot obviously, which isn't very efficient. But for our purposes could the cool side help keep it cool further up the barrel while the hot side adds heat further down?

Just a thought....

[ddurant 0]

It's not a dumb idea!

I think there may be more-simple ideas, though.. I'm a fan of routing some of the air from the extruder fan to the area above the hot end. It's not that that area needs to be cold, it just needs to be not-hot enough to not get the PLA all mushy..

[rosieblake 0]

It's not the dumb idea...good one...