Jump to content

Print core for each material


John_Mag

Recommended Posts

Posted · Print core for each material

Hi.

I have been informed by my material supplier that Ultimaker are recommending that we get a seperate AA0.4 print core for each material that we use. We have a Ultimaker S5 and currently use PLA, TPLA, NYLON AND TPU along with fibre reinforced nylon (CC0.6 for this). It seems a bit strange to need a seperate print core for each material.

On a seperate note does anyone know how to tell when the core needs to be renewed due to wear? 

Regards

 

John

 

  • Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Print core for each material

    The recommendation is in principle ok, because different materials have different pressure temperatures and there can always be a rest in the nozzle.

     

    But if you clean the PrintCore regularly or after every change from one type of material to another, i.e. with hot/cold pulls, then I don't see any problem.

     

    I don't use dedicated PrintCores and also don't do a Hot/Cold Pull very often and don't have any problems with it. But that doesn't mean that this is the correct way. I think this is rather a question of faith how to handle it. With dedicated PrintCores for every kind of material you certainly don't do anything wrong, if it's really necessary, I can't say, but I personally haven't noticed any disadvantages after one year.

     

    When a nozzle is worn out, you can see from the print quality, as the nozzle no longer has the intended diameter and has become wider. So far (1 year) I haven't seen any wear on my PrintCores.

    • Like 1
    Link to post
    Share on other sites

    Posted · Print core for each material

    First of all PLA and TPLA are 99.99% the same thing as far as I'm concerned.  It's like water versus water with food coloring.  They have very similar temperature characteristics, same melting point, same softening point, they act the same in almost every way except the TPLA is slightly more flexible and slightly weaker.  This makes it quite a bit tougher.  So definitely one core for both of those is fine.

     

    So I swap between nylon and pla with the same core all the time.  I already swapped twice today.  It's really not a big deal.  When I switch to PLA however I don't tell the printer that it's not nylon right away - just slide out the nylon, slide in the pla, then do "move material" and wait until all the nylon seems to be gone.  Only then do I select "pla" as the "current" material.  I do this because I feel you need the higher temp to get most of the nylon out of the nozzle.

     

    I don't print much TPU so I can't really speak to that but changing cores all the time seems a bit silly.  I have used the same core for maybe 8 different materials including PP, ABS, PLA, TPU, Nylon, CPE

     

    As far as I can tell the cores last forever.  I've had a few cores that I've used for I think about 2 years now?  They are build very well and will probably never wear out - they just might snap at the heatbreak some day - other than that I expect them to last years.

     

    • Like 1
    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...