Ultimaker 3 Print cores jammed with Filament

[praveen 8]

Hi All

 

the same issues with the Ultimaker 3 and 3 Extended, the material is jamming the Whole print Head.we have faced almost 5 to 6 printers with the same problem

May I know what is the reason and How to avoid this type of problems.

 

Please find the below-attached images and give some solutions ASAP.

[Brulti 177]

Wow, ok, that's an impressive blob...

 

Can we have more details: what material were you using? Did it happen with the same material on all your printer? The same spool of material? Same printcores? What settings were you using? What did you try to print? Was there any other signs of troubles with your printers?

 

Do you keep your materials away from moisture, in a box with some desiccant or something? It is especially important for PLA and PVA, as those, especially PVA can go bad very quickly if left in the open for even a few days, depending on how humid it is where you live.

 

Did you service the printers recently to make sure there was no problem: cold and hot pulls on the cores to clean them, clean the bowden tubes, etc?

[praveen 8]

Dear Brulti

Thanks for your quick reply!

We are using PLA and ABS, It has happened different materials sometimes with ABS sometimes with the PLA materials.it is not happening with same print cores.we are trying to print Mechanical and Medical prints. we are storing the filament in the Dry box with silica gel packs. and there is no moisture, we keep the filaments in the dry box while printing also, we have not even opened the filament in atmospheric. and my room temperature is 28 to 35-degree centigrade.

 

We have cleaning the Printcores by heating and sometimes the capacitive sensor cables were broken and sometimes the print cores not detecting to the printhead.

[Brulti 177]

Then I think that we can rule out a bad spool of material as the culprit for your troubles. Though, just out of curiosity: do you have a sensor in the dryboxes to measure the level of humidity? And, if you do, what is the average humidity? PVA should be kept below 55%. ABS doesn't reacts much to humidity, if at all.

 

ABS requires a brim, an enclosure and glue to print well. PLA only requires a clean glass bed and no enclosure. It is possible, if a print came off the glass bed and stuck to the printhead, that it created a back flow, forcing the material back up into the printcore and the whole printhead assembly, resulting in the mess you've experienced.

 

What do you use to wash the glass bed when it becomes dirty or when you've used glue for a print?

Did the printers managed to print anything before messing up? Was there a partly finished print sticking to the printheads when you found the mess?

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @praveen,

 

It almost always happens when the bed adhesion is not sufficient. Usually when a print is being made, the model stays on the bed and the head moves over it and extrudes and deploys new layers. When the model gets loose, the new layers are no long spread out over your model, but because it moves along with the model it just stays and extrude on the same place. Because the model is probably stuck to the nozzle, it can not escape and you get a blob. 

 

If this has happened more than once, I would suggest you look into your build plate. 

Is it the original glass? Is it level? Is it clean (no old glue, no grease)? Do you use the correct temperatures? Do you use extra adhesives like glue or sheets? Is your first layer not too thin or too fast? And it is also recommended to, if possible, inspect your first layer to see if it adheres properly. 

 

Hope this helps! 

[praveen 8]

Hi SandervG

Thank you for the quick response,   We are using the Ultimaker Glass plate and we have to select Autoleveling procedure. before giving the print we are cleaning the build plate neatly.                              

 

We have used the printer in the room temperature 28 to 35-degree centigrade and The first layer is sticking to the build plate properly, we are using Glue-type of thing for sticking, the initial layer speed is 10mm/s, Print speed 40mm/s, Travel speed 100mm/s, the Initial layer line width is 0.4mm.

 

We are following every step provided in Ultimaker website and forum also.

[SandervG 1,521]

Thank you for your reply.

How do you usually clean your bed? Is there also air conditioning in the room? 

Initial layer line seems quite fat, by default it is 0.17mm on an Ultimaker 3. 

 

Also, I would recommend to get in touch with your reseller, he should be able to help you and possibly replace parts damaged by this flood. Good luck! 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Prints lifting off the bed is the absolute main culprit to cause the flooded head. If it makes you feel better, I have had worse in that it got both cores.

 

But, every time the flooding happened it was because of the print lifting off the bed. User error, sorry to say.

 

What happens is the print comes loose from the bed. Then it gets caught on the nozzle and swirls it around as it keeps feeding material. What this means is that there is a glob of hard(ish) plastic on the end of the nozzle and does not move away. The machine keeps feeding material as though it is still printing and the blob on the end of the nozzle prevents the material from going down and away. With nowhere left to go, it just goes up and into the printhead.

 

So, clean, clean clean your glass. Depending on the material you are printing with, you may need to use an added sticky stuff to the surface.

 

I clean the heck out of my plates at every print. Then  mount. Then clean again with alcohol to get rid of any hand oils while handling it before mounting. Then, for the most part, I use a PVA slurry.

 

There are a lot of other ways to stick your prints though. But, clean is the very first step. Steps 1 and 2 are not negotiable. The sticky stuff you use is. And that will depend on your environment. And, that is why @SandervG asked about that.

Edited July 5, 2018 by kmanstudios

[Brulti 177]

What product do you use to clean the glass?

 

Best method is a sponge with soap and warm water, alternative method is to use window cleaning products but do not use the ones that are blue in color, they contain some chemicals that prevents adhesion. Use the yellow ones, like what Karcher sells, works like a charm.

 

Also, glue is mandatory for ABS, but you shouldn't need it with PLA.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

31 minutes ago, Brulti said:

soap and warm water

That would be my choice.

 

32 minutes ago, Brulti said:

Also, glue is mandatory for ABS, but you shouldn't need it with PLA

I use the PVA slurry with the PLA for two reasons:

 

1. Too clean on the glass and it puts a layer of prevention between the glass and print.

 

2. Sometimes purchased glass may not have the same 'sticky' quality and this helps.

[Jakeddesign 14]

I always use glue stick, even for PLA.  prints pop off just fine once cooled, and it just doesnt seem worth the trouble to risk an unstuck print.  I have around 2k hours on my Ultimaker 3 and have not had this happen.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

17 minutes ago, Jakeddesign said:

I always use glue stick, even for PLA.  prints pop off just fine once cooled, and it just doesnt seem worth the trouble to risk an unstuck print.  I have around 2k hours on my Ultimaker 3 and have not had this happen.

I am also assuming that you would be cleaning your plates as well. I have found any PVA substance will not bond well with oils on the glass.

[Brulti 177]

I tend to just make sure that the glass is clean, the yellow karcher liquid works very nice, never had a PLA print pop off, never needed glue for printing with PLA. *Shrugs* Your mileage may vary, what counts is that what you do works for you. ?

[kmanstudios 1,120]

3 hours ago, Brulti said:

never had a PLA print pop off

I have actually had PLA put a divot in my glass it was stuck so hard.

[Brulti 177]

14 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

I have actually had PLA put a divot in my glass it was stuck so hard.

 

I had that happen with ABS myself, stuck too hard on the glass, had to use an x-acto knife to take it out.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Yeah, I was surprised that PLA would do that. That is when I started to err on the side of caution. Environment can play a huge part of printing and even the water supply can have an affect on the cleaning of the glass.

[Brulti 177]

True, thus why I tend to always wipe my glass with the yellow window cleaner from karcher. Even after I cleaned glue from some print with sponge and soap. I know that whatever chemicals they use in the yellow stuff is always the same stuff, won't harm the glass and it doesn't affect the sticking quality of the glass. Been doing that for a year now, never had a problem when I did a proper cleaning.

[Jakeddesign 14]

On 7/5/2018 at 11:07 AM, kmanstudios said:

I am also assuming that you would be cleaning your plates as well. I have found any PVA substance will not bond well with oils on the glass.

Absolutely.

 

I have a squeeze bottle of water stored next to the printer.  a little bit of water on a paper towel after every-other print and it is clean and ready to go to.  New application of gluestick and I can hit print. ?

[kmanstudios 1,120]

If I may suggest a good cleaning with alcohol after the water. As pure as you can get. )

[Jakeddesign 14]

On 7/9/2018 at 11:43 AM, kmanstudios said:

If I may suggest a good cleaning with alcohol after the water. As pure as you can get. )

 

Sometimes I do that.  But I really dont have much issues getting oils etc on the build plate.  Occasionally if I get some stuck on PVA particles I might take it to the sink to wash with soap.

[CXCimager 4]

I have the same problem and I realized it was a change to the glue I am using. 

My question is how to fix the damn printhead? I don't want to buy a whole new print head, but the wires attached to the printhead door broke (the red/white that go to the printhead, not the ones that go to the front fan.)
How do I fix THAT?

 

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Have you checked with your reseller? They may be able to tell you how to do that. Also, if you search @fbrc8-erin's stuff, she has loads of things that are great to learn on.

[CXCimager 4]

On 7/24/2018 at 11:33 AM, kmanstudios said:

Have you checked with your reseller? They may be able to tell you how to do that. Also, if you search @fbrc8-erin's stuff, she has loads of things that are great to learn on.

@fbrc8-erin was indeed able to help me. I was able to rebuild one of my print heads and she was able to supply me with parts to rebuild the second one so I now have an extra printhead and I understand how they are built much better. Thanks for the tip!

[kmanstudios 1,120]

I  am glad that got worked out ?

@fbrc8-erin is awesome!

[fbrc8-erin 298]

Aww, thanks @CXCimager and @kmanstudios. Always glad to help!