Ultimaker S5 How to troubleshoot faulty material station?

[FrancisGS131 0]

My company recently bought some UMS5 pro bundles, and we believe that the material station is causing some issues. Currently, when filament is inserted, there are several instances where the hardware inside the material station would "dig in" on the filament without actually extruding it. This resulted in filament powder being scattered inside the bowden tubes. 

 

I haven't been able to get a successful print due to numerous errors/blockages/gears digging into the motor, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to troubleshoot the material station. We believe the root cause of these errors are because of the decoupler or a motor inside the material station. Is there anything I should take into account before I remove the side panel of the material station and start poking around?

 

As a side note, I submitted a support ticket to UM but they're taking forever to respond and hence this post.

[Carla_Birch 116]

I don't own the material station, but have you give just using the S5 without the material station for a print a try? If all prints fine than you can be sure its then the material station, if you are still unable to print then the problem could be something other than the material station.

 

I'm personally someone who likes to remove factors from a problem so you can close in on the real problem faster, so doing the above can half the number of problems it might be.

[UlrichC-DE 109]

Hello

 

Unfortunately, I can't welcome you as warmly as an Ultimaker employee would.
It's the weekend, etc.

 

If the printer does not extrude, this is in most cases a clogged printhead.
This can happen quickly if, for example, the feeder is not set to the center position and a kind of cork forms over the print head. The phenomenon is then. At first it works, but during printing it starts to clog.

 

Another thing is that it is difficult to clean the print cores properly.
Not everything can be cleaned with hot-pull and cold-pull alone.

 

If there is still a piece of filament left above the print nozzle, the effect is the same.
Also, if the Bowden is too short, the problem comes.

---
I also had a lot of problems with my first material station back then.  
---

If the filament supply to the first feeder is already disturbed, the only way is via the support.

I couldn't really help either, but here's the deal.

 

Many greetings

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @FrancisGS131, thank you for your post. Hopefully as an Ultimaker employee I am able to give you a warm welcome! What filaments do you have installed in the material station? Do they all give you issues or just a select few? When the decoupler is obstructed you should get an error message: ER52. Are you getting any error messages? 

 

Do you have the flow sensor enabled on your Ultimaker S5? 

 

And finally, I'll give the support team a heads up regarding your ticket. 

[FrancisGS131 0]

Hi @SandervG, thank you so much for the warm welcome and feedback. We have only tried printing with Tough PLA and Ultimaker ABS so far. I do not think it is an issue with the filament since I tried printing with the same filament using other printers, and they came out fine. We don't think the issue is with the hot end either since we swapped to a new hot end and the outcome is still the same. I also believe the flow sensor is enabled - I haven't received an ER43 error code that was saying otherwise. 

 

So far, the printer has outputted error ER52, ER61, and ER63. It came to a point where the printer kept giving an error and asking to reboot on startup. I manually removed the filament by turning the printer off, cutting the filament at the insertion point, and gently pulling it forward/out through the Bowden tube (ER61 - Material Station failed to unload material – Ultimaker Support). We have since been using extruder 2 to continue printing operation – it seems that the problem is isolated to just extruder 1 and its subsystems.

 

I will try taking Carla's advice by printing on extruder 1 without the material station. However, if the issue is in regards to the material station, do you have any advice on how to go about troubleshooting it?

 

Thank you,

Francis

Edited September 7, 2021 by FrancisGS131

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi, thank you for your response. When you insert filament and you start a print using the material station, does it feed all the way to the print head, or does it not pass the decoupler in the material station? It might be that the tip of your filament is not straight that gets it caught behind a tiny edge somewhere or that there is an obstruction in the filament path (like debris or an old piece of filament) which you might be able to fix yourself. But if both are not the case I think there might be another mechanical issue and you might need to have a reseller look at it. 

 

But what you could do in the meantime;

- Make sure the bowden tubes are clean, free of debris. 

- Make sure the feeders are clean from debris and dust (perhaps from worn down filament)

- Check if nothing is impeding the movement of the decoupler,

- If the bowden tube is firmly inserted (you can check this by gently pulling at it until the slider of the decoupler is fully outwards and if the tube stays in place)

- Check if the slider operates smoothly. Moving the sliding mechanism up and down should go without friction. 

 

If all seems to check out we would probably need to review your log files to learn more about what is troubling you. Alternatively, your reseller could also look at the material station for you. But I can also imagine there is also value in learning how to troubleshoot your equipment yourself.  Hope this helps!