Material Station doesn't keep filament dry

[A3000T 1]

Hello,

 

Some time ago I bought the material station for my Ultimaker S5. I thought it would keep filament dry to make printing with nylon and PVA easier. Unfortunately it does not do this. I left a spool of PVA in the material station for about two weeks and it is now wet. It crackles and pops when extruding and there are strings and blobs all over the place.

 

Is the material station malfunctioning?
How is it suppost to keep filament dry anyway? There is no moisture absorbent in the filament compartiment and there doesn't seem to be any airflow going through the machine.

 

Kind regards,

Dennis

[Dim3nsioneer 540]

There is a drying unit based on dessiccant that is regenerated regularly inside the Material Station. You do only see the exhaust on the back and a small opening inside filament compartment.

Best thing you probably can do is to put a small hygrometer inside the compartment. You should see humidity drop within minutes (unless your enviroment is already very dry).

Edited February 14, 2020 by Dim3nsioneer

[tinkergnome 876]

On 2/14/2020 at 1:01 PM, Dim3nsioneer said:

There is a drying unit based on dessiccant that is regenerated regularly inside the Material Station. You do only see the exhaust on the back and a small opening inside filament compartment.

 

Are those things not explained in the manual?

@A3000T dunno if this is related in your case, but be aware that the material station is an "always on" unit, like a refrigerator. Never cut the power  - at least not while sensitive materials are stored in it.

[Dim3nsioneer 540]

22 minutes ago, tinkergnome said:

Are those things not explained in the manual?

 

Not in the quick start manual that comes in various languages and is included as paper copy in the package. But it is explained in the standard manual: https://ultimaker.com/download/75369/ultimaker-s5-material-station-user-manual-en.pdf

 

[A3000T 1]

On 2/14/2020 at 7:01 AM, Dim3nsioneer said:

Best thing you probably can do is to put a small hygrometer inside the compartment. You should see humidity drop within minutes (unless your enviroment is already very dry).

 

Thanks for your suggestion. I got a hygrometer and left it in the Material Station overnight. Humidity went from 47% to 26%, so the Material Station is working like it should. There must be another reason why my PVA got wet.

 

kind regards,

Dennis

[Carla_Birch 103]

PVA loves water, it will soak up any little bit it can find in the air. Just opening the front of the case up is letting in new wet air that the station then drys out, but at same time the PVA will be pulling in the wet also.

 

From what i understand the station will help keep things dry but does not dry already wet filament out. So might be handy to dry out PVA still from time to time or before you put in the station also.

[jirodriguez72 6]

Just ran into the same issue with my PVA as well.... hadn't used it in quite a while and noticed it popping as it was extruding. One nice thing about the S5 being a totally enclosed printer is that Ultimaker just recommends heating your bedplate to 45-55 °C and putting the filament in a box and placing it in the print chamber for about 2 hrs. Nice convenient way to dry your filament!