Unable to Remove Broken PVA

[tkowalski 0]

I have an Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle for about 6 months now. The machine has performed very well with a few minor issues I was able to resolve. Recently, however, I have been experiencing what appears to be a common problem; broken PVA. The first time this happened I followed these instructions with success https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012325219-Removing-broken-PVA-from-the-Material-Station . It turns out I was on the last 10' or so of material so I decided to order more. Also, coincidentally, a firmware update (5.8.0) had been released to address the breaking PVA issue, which I downloaded prior to installing a brand new spool of PVA. The first print I ran, the PVA broke coming out of the rear exit of the Material Station. It's hard to see, but there is broken PVA inside of the tube shown.

 

Anyway, after following the same troubleshooting guide as before, I was unable to remove the broken piece.... It turns out, when feeding the PVA through the entry of the Material Station, it was not coming out of the rear exit where the broken piece is. I was able to see the PVA filament spooling up inside of the Material Station somehow. In other words, it was not inside of the tube. Very odd and hard to see from this picture.

 

I tried using another bay with the same problem. It appears I will have to get underneath the Material Station to figure out why the filament entering the tube when loaded from the bay.

 

If anyone has another solution for this, or if there is a technique/setting to avoid this hazard, please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Trent

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi, thank you for your message. It looks like your bowden tube got disconnected from the merger. You should be able to unscrew the bottom of the material station and connect it back. I understand you shouldn't require any special tools for this. Let us know if you have any further questions.

 

Edit; I'll sent you a manual with some instructions to help you through the process! 

[tkowalski 0]

SandervG thank you for your response. I have to admit, it is a bit disheartening to have this unexpected uphill battle with printing PVA on the S5 Pro Bundle. I was truly expecting a set it and forget it machine (at least for the first year or so).

 

I had planned on removing the bottom cover, but wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing before putting it back together. Is there a way to prevent the bowden tube from disconnecting from the merger? Perhaps I disconnected it when I was manually feeding material through the tube to remove the broken piece...

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi, thank you for your response. PVA is quite a sensitive material that requires a lot of attention, but I can imagine that is partially what you bought the Material Station for. Using the material station is already a huge step forward compared to not using one with regards to handling PVA, the latest firmware should give reliability another boost. If we see more room for improvement we'll release this as well for you to enjoy. 

 

But the fact that the bowden tube got disconnected from the merger has nothing to do with PVA on its self. I am not sure what caused it, but hopefully with the instructions you can restore it and put this behaviour behind you. 

 

The bowden tube should be pretty far into the merger, and it shouldn't be able to just get pushed out.

[Brandonmelvin 1]

I just finished pulling the port 2 merger out so I could remove broken PVA. Figured I would share what I did. Port 1 merger should remove the same way.

[makerspacecoordinator 0]

Hello

I am having similar issues with a piece of broken PLA. I feel like I'm doing something wrong...I'm on step 8. I've fed approximately 4 feet of new PLA through the extruder 1 hole of the material station (exerting so much pressure I got a blister!) and it's still not appearing in the bowden tube on the back of the machine to push the stuck filament out. Am I missing something? I don't want to cause more damage. Did the bowden tube get disconnected from the merger? I have no idea where all this material is going.

[gr5 2,172]

I don't have a MS but look at these 2 articles:

https://www.ultimakernasupport.com/hc/en-us/articles/6426059583899-Clearing-the-Mergers

https://www.ultimakernasupport.com/hc/en-us/articles/10455611615387-Clearing-the-Decoupler