Massive clog/PLA explosion

[Maid_DeLa_Mer 0]

Howdy All! I'm desperately looking for some help and advice, because I suspect my UM3E is about to be out of commission for a hot minute. I started a print last night using glow in the dark PLA from MatterHackers and Ultimaker PVA, and when I returned to work this morning, chaos had struck. The glass plate had been pulled out of it's socket, there were globs of PLA everywhere, and the entire print head kit has been filled in with PLA. It's so bad that the print head fan bracket has been pushed open and twisted to the left.

 

Any chance that this is something I can fix, or do I need to bite the bullet and prepare myself for a costly repair/replacement bill? Also, any idea how/why this happened? I'd like to avoid such a horrible situation in the future if at all possible...

 

[SandervG 1,148]

Hi @Maid_DeLa_Mer, welcome to our community! 

Looks like you had a problem with bed adhesion. When your print gets loose, there is a chance your model gets dragged along with your printhead and extruded filament is no longer deposited where it should on your 3D print. But instead is all being collected at the same place, creates a blob etc. 

We took precautions in the design of the Ultimaker to reduce these risks to a minimum, but unfortunately we can't eliminate it entirely. 

That is why you should be able to count on your reseller for the help you need. I would recommend to get in touch with them first, before you try to clean it. 

If your print cores or print head is beyond repair/cleaning, you should count on your reseller to get your Ultimaker back in working condition again. 

 

If you want to clean it yourself, you should heat up the PLA again and peel off the soft chunks. This can be done by turning on the print cores again, using a blowdryer or something down those lines. But I would recommend to first get in touch with your reseller, so when something (perhaps inevitable) breaks during cleaning, you have at least consulted your reseller first to try and clean it, and the damage is not just on you. 

 

Long story short; reason: Bed adhesion failt. Solution: Your reseller should help you without any (high) cost. 

 

Hope it helps, good luck!