UM S5 Material Station for In-Print Dynamic Material Changes (Like Mosaic Palette/Prusa MMU)?

[CalebPetersenPhD 0]

Hi, has anyone ever used the Material Station for the S5 to expand the effective number of materials you can print with during a print to 5?  Kind of like how the Mosaic Palette and Prusa MMU(2S) material-switchers work (but those unfortunately only work with 1.75mm filaments-yes you can get an adapter, but because it uses a Teflon tube you're limited to a max print temperature of 260°C).

 

I'm sure this isn't a formally supported use of the Material Station, but it would greatly add to the functionality of the Material Station and justify its high cost.  I don't see why it wouldn't work mechanically, though I don't own one at present to experiment with.

 

Thanks,
Caleb Petersen, PhD

Edited July 3, 2021 by CalebPetersenPhD

[UlrichC-DE 108]

Hello

 

One problem is that the material station only discharges cold.
The printer does a deprime when the material is changed. The print head is cooled down in stages and the material is pulled out of the print head without forming threads.
The newly loaded material passes through a prime. The material is extruded in stages again to clean the printhead.
This takes a lot of time.

 

With the current Firmaware 6.4 this process has several bugs.
Prime is too short and deprime only works partially with non-UM filaments. This reveals another problem.
If a filament forms on the material during unloading, the material station brings errors.
Manual cleaning of the material station is then necessary because the sensors are disturbed by filament residues.
The system is very sensitive. Therefore I would not recommend this concept for a constant instant material change during printing.

 

Many greetings