Build Plate Wire Smoke

[hcel 0]

Hi,

This morning i went to print something, and smoke started appearing from the wires connected to the heated buildplate, followed by a burning smell. I turned it off straight away. Is this something that is covered by warranty, the maching is less than 2 months old and has hardly been used?

Thanks

Russ

 

[tmrevlje 1]

Well that's scary :shock: there go my ideas of overnight prints :-P

 

[IRobertI 520]

There have unfortunately been a few cases where a bad connection to the connector has caused a bit of melting of the connector. Get in contact with support to have it sorted out.

 

[hcel 0]

There have unfortunately been a few cases where a bad connection to the connector has caused a bit of melting of the connector. Get in contact with support to have it sorted out.

 

thanks, i have contacted support so ill see what happens,

 

[pm_dude 27]

Well that's scary :shock: there go my ideas of overnight prints :-P

Put a smoke detector above your printer hahaha. I dont know if it would detect little smoke but fire should get it started

[jbeale 0]

If something is smoking, that's obviously a safety hazard. I often do long and unattended runs on my printer, sitting in a room with no smoke detector but I'm going to change that right away!

Meanwhile, a photo of what bad connector wiring looks like, would help. I assume the clips are not fully inserted in the connector, so the wires can short out as the cable flexes when the platform moves up and down the Z axis?

Is there no overcurrent fault protection on the heater? Or, given that the heater power seems to be 150 watts or so, maybe just the normal current when concentrated in a small area by wires touching, causes the damage.

 

[jbeale 0]

And by the way, don't assume that a 3D printer will not cause a fire, because one already has. The house was lost, along with a pet. http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6608/beware-your-3d-printer-they-can-cause-fires/

 

[Daid 306]

Is this something that is covered by warranty

 

Yes it is. Best would be to contact support trough the ticketing system.

 

And by the way, don't assume that a 3D printer will not cause a fire, because one already has. The house was lost, along with a pet. http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6608/beware-your-3d-printer-they-can-cause-fires/

 

Holy shit. That's bad.

Note that we did some extensive testing on this area. First off, when I finally put my eyes on the firmware over a year ago, I fixed a lot of safety features. So the firmware is already better at detecting problems. But no amount of firmware will protect you against all problems.

Next, our power-supply protects against short-circuits, and will shut off. So you can never introduce more then 220W of power in the UM2. (Or 120W in the UM Original)

Next, the UM2 hotend, if you just keep heating it, nothing will melt. It will stay in 1 piece. The teflon will deform, and it will smell a bit, but nothing starts to burn. We tested this by leaving the heater just wired to 24V for a day.

(This is an important change from the UM Original, where the hotend can melt the Peek and drop down on the printer bed)

The heated bed cannot reach more then 110-120C. That's a simple one.

The electronics has room for extra safety measures (which completely can switch off the heaters&motors), but we didn't implement those yet.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

And by the way, don't assume that a 3D printer will not cause a fire, because one already has. The house was lost, along with a pet. http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6608/beware-your-3d-printer-they-can-cause-fires/

 

Every electronic device can cause a fire (which is not meant to trivialise any fire caused by a 3D printer!). A lot of fires are e.g. caused by TVs.

However, best thing one can do with a 3D printer is to remove any material around the printer which can easily burn such as cardboard etc. And don't put it close to curtains or other textiles...

And the 3D printers can be built in a way they are safe. I have e.g. a 12V PSU for my heated bed on the UM1. The maximum temperature it reaches is 108°C. If I would have used a different setup with a 24V PSU, it would heat up much faster but in the case of an electronics defect which leads to permanent heating of the bed, it would go way beyond 100°C...

 

[Cohen 4]

Hi,

This morning i went to print something, and smoke started appearing from the wires connected to the heated buildplate, followed by a burning smell. I turned it off straight away. Is this something that is covered by warranty, the maching is less than 2 months old and has hardly been used?

Thanks

Russ

 

Did you check if the cables were firmly screwed down in the connector? Is there any damage visible?

 

[jbeale 0]

However, best thing one can do with a 3D printer is to remove any material around the printer which can easily burn such as cardboard etc. And don't put it close to curtains or other textiles...

 

Certainly something to consider. I believe the printer that caught fire was enclosed on 4 sides with acrylic. Some people are doing that to stabilize buildplate temperatures, but like many plastics, acrylic is flammable. Plexiglas (a brand of PMMA or poly(methyl methacrylate), a form of acrylic) starts softening around 102 C and ignites at 300 C, according to http://www.plexiglas.net/product/plexiglas/en/about/faq/Pages/fire-behavior.aspx

PLA filament self-ignites at 388 C according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion

Plastic shards and dust can build up whenever the extruder grinds the filament. I guess the plastic would melt before it burns so it wouldn't be dust anymore, but still seems an argument in favor of the UM design, separating the feeder from the hot end.

Some people put a 3D printer in the garage or workshop, where smoke detectors should not be used because car exhaust or dust from power tools can set them off. You can however use a heat alarm mounted somewhere near the ceiling, which triggers both at high temperature, and high rate-of-rise of temperature. Amazon has them for about $25. Just on general principles, having a fire extinguisher on hand is not a bad idea either.