Jump to content

How I'm air cooling the extruder motor


Recommended Posts

Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

All of my engines were pretty hot while printing, but I was only concerned about my extruder stepper motor, it was just barely possible to touch it.

Instead of reducing the current, I remembered having an old (small) PC fan laying around, and wanted to hook this up to the printer.

The fan is mounted to a bracket, which is in turn mounted on the ultimaker. The power is being sourced by the 19V LED output, but I'm using a LM317 to reduce that voltage to about 14 volts.

This setup has exceeded my expectations, even at long prints the motor only feels a little warm to the touch, WAY less than any of the other steppers.

As you can see, this is just a work in progress I just slapped together. If anyone has other ways of cooling their steppers, let me know!

7Z9EekB.jpg

KbK4UDS.jpg

 

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    • 3 weeks later...
    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Cooling a stepper motor usually doesn't require more than a simple fan blowing at it...

    I've done that with a lot larger motors and it was still sufficient. Just make sure the fan blows at the metal back plate of the motor...

    If the motor gets really hot even with a fan, then there's probably too much friction on the axle -> lube the thang!

    I like the LM317 mount :-P

    Are there no spare fan outputs on the UM mainboard? (My UM is shipping... but still in NL atm...)

    /edit:

    Also, if you supply the motor with too much current (which is easily possible) you will hear that. The motor makes strange noises when there's too little or too much current. If possible, I'll try making a video when I get my UM

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    • 5 weeks later...
    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Hi!

    Just wanted to share how I did the same. I also used a small heatsink:

    w956.jpg

    liix.jpg

    The sad part is that if I get the new dual extruder I won't be able to put the fan this way...

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Great ideas.

    Just wondering, how do you guys recommend I mount heat syncs to the x and y motors? Is there some sort of thermal-conductive adhesive I can apply?

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Great ideas.

    Just wondering, how do you guys recommend I mount heat syncs to the x and y motors? Is there some sort of thermal-conductive adhesive I can apply?

     

    Yes, there are some thermal conductive sheets that also have adhesive, but as you can see I have mounted the heatsinks just with wire and a nylon tie.

    I will probably put heatsinks in the X and Y motors, but I can't mount the fan, because it interferes with the build platform

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    I like the way you mount your syncs onto your motors. The heat syncs I have won't quite mount that way though. Do you by chance know the name of the aforementioned adhesive?

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Hello,

    I have a similar setup:

    https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=5915739618682206690&oid=112842179594188428003

    It uses a 24V fan directly on on of the power ports of the Ultimaker's board. Then it runs very quietly and is enough to keep the extruder motor cool.

    The mount is made with a zip tie and 2 3mm holes on the back of the machine and some scotch mount tape to avoid vibrations.

    ++

    Gaël

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    Are the steppers adversely affected by the heat?

    The reason I ask is I haven't seen similar motors, in use on CNC machines, needing additional cooling.

    Also, are any of you adding acrylic/lexan to the openings of the machine to keep heat inside the build area? I have read a few posts where heat is wanted to keep the build area warm, to prevent PLA from warping

    Looking forward to receive and assemble my own machine soon

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    The fans just looks cool :cool: the steppers don't need additional cooling at all... :mrgreen:

    A motor should be able to run without much problem until either the cable insulation melts or the magnets loose their magnetization, both temperatures are much higher than the temperature the motor reaches.

    I haven't measure the actual temperature, but I don't think is higher than 75ºC or so, and that should be completely fine :-P

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    I think there's alot of over concern about the motors being hot. It is normal for stepper motors to be hot when running. If they are ran within the OE design parameters they should be OK. I trust that UM wouldn't design the system outside those duty limits. I haven't heard of any steppers burning up and lots of people are running their UM's without any special precaution.

    Does anyone have some anecdotal info about UM steppers burning up?

    Matt

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    It should take something around 100°C before the motor wiring burns up. I don't think the motors easily get that hot...

    I'm still going to add fans to them, but you can leave the heat sinks away, they are completely obsolete if you have active air cooling.

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · How I'm air cooling the extruder motor

    http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-10pcs-3m-8810-High-Performance-35x35mm-Thermally-Conductive-Adhesive-Transfer-Tapes/1108058012.html ordered these along with a batch of 20mm heat sinks, should bring the temp down a few degrees

     

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Create an account or sign in to comment

    You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create an account

    Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

    Register a new account

    Sign in

    Already have an account? Sign in here.

    Sign In Now
    • Our picks

      • Introducing Universal Cura Projects in the UltiMaker Cura 5.7 beta
        Strap in for the first Cura release of 2024! This 5.7 beta release brings new material profiles as well as cloud printing for Method series printers, and introduces a powerful new way of sharing print settings using printer-agnostic project files! Also, if you want to download the cute dinosaur card holder featured below, it was specially designed for this release and can be found on Thingiverse! 
          • Like
        • 10 replies
      • S-Line Firmware 8.3.0 was released Nov. 20th on the "Latest" firmware branch.
        (Sorry, was out of office when this released)

        This update is for...
        All UltiMaker S series  
        New features
         
        Temperature status. During print preparation, the temperatures of the print cores and build plate will be shown on the display. This gives a better indication of the progress and remaining wait time. Save log files in paused state. It is now possible to save the printer's log files to USB if the currently active print job is paused. Previously, the Dump logs to USB option was only enabled if the printer was in idle state. Confirm print removal via Digital Factory. If the printer is connected to the Digital Factory, it is now possible to confirm the removal of a previous print job via the Digital Factory interface. This is useful in situations where the build plate is clear, but the operator forgot to select Confirm removal on the printer’s display. Visit this page for more information about this feature.
          • Like
        • 0 replies
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...