U2 Print Quality Issue - Right hand side

[rachael 0]

Hi Guys,

We received our new Ultimaker 2 last week and have been having a few quality issues that I'm hoping someone might be able to help us with. We are new to 3D printing so apologies in advance for any obvious oversight!

Our first print was an Ultimaker robot and we noticed that the print quality on the right side of the robot was noticeably worse than the left. The small details such as the ear area and hand were lumpy.

We adjusted the print setting and tried a better quality print. Again, although the overall quality of the robot appeared to be better, the right hand side was still worse than the left. We tried to print a robot using the far right of the print bed to see if this made the whole robot worse but it was again localised to the right ear and hand areas and the rest of the robot was a comparable quality to the proceeding ones. We then flipped the robot around in Cura (facing backwards) to see if the error was translating the model to the print, however the issues remained on the right hand side of the print (the robot's left ear came out messed up that time - see robot 4)

Can anyone suggest what may be causing this and what we can try to remedy it?

Thanks in advance,

Rachael

 

[IRobertI 517]

It's a cooling issue. The right fan doesn't quite reach the right side of a small print. Printing multiple copies simultaneously can help as that will give the plastic more time to cool.

Personally I'd suggest you try printing something else and see how that goes, the UM Robot isn't the best for printing to be honest.

 

[sigi 0]

Personally I'd suggest you try printing something else and see how that goes, the UM Robot isn't the best for printing to be honest.

 

No, no, no! The Robot is very good to have lot of fun:

:-P :-P :-P

 

[hacklordsniper 1]

Would it be good to make some kind of duct to "carry" the airflow to the nozzle? I understand that right fan is more far from the nozzle, but i have also seen prints of this robot on UM2 that look perfect ?

 

[rachael 0]

It's a cooling issue. The right fan doesn't quite reach the right side of a small print. Printing multiple copies simultaneously can help as that will give the plastic more time to cool.

Personally I'd suggest you try printing something else and see how that goes, the UM Robot isn't the best for printing to be honest.

 

 

Would it be good to make some kind of duct to "carry" the airflow to the nozzle? I understand that right fan is more far from the nozzle, but i have also seen prints of this robot on UM2 that look perfect ?

 

Thanks guys, I have been scanning some other threads regarding cooling and it seems that a duct/alternate fan set up may be the way to go.

Here's the link if anyone is interested: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2839-the-physics-of-cooling/

We are just printing a duct off now so I'll let you know how we get on.

 

[gr5 2,094]

That discussion looks to be mainly for the UM Original but you have the "2", right?

Make sure all 3 head fans are working next time you print. The 3rd fan at the back of the print head should come on as soon as you power up the UM, before even the lights. Make sure in your Cura settings and on the UM2 material settings

the fans are at 100%.

Probably you are printing a bit too hot. The default bed temp for PLA is 75C but that's too hot. 70C works much better. I always print at 70C. Some people swear that 65C is better. Your PLA should be no hotter than 240C. I usually print at 220C for higher quality prints.

That's my answer but while here I'll discuss temperature versus speed briefly. The hotter you print the faster you can print because cooler plastic has a higher viscosity (cooler pla is like toothpaste, hotter pla is like honey). So the feeder needs much more energy to get the PLA throught the nozzle at higher speeds or colder temps. So you can't do both. You have a trade off between temperature and speed.

 

[gr5 2,094]

Oh - and the side 2 fans dont' come on by default until the 4th layer or so and they gradually get more powerful. Because the nozzle is on the left side of the head the right side gets slightly worse airflow but it should be fine on the UM2 if you lower your bed temp to 70C.