Conductive Filament (ESD)

[visu-al 2]

Hello

I was trying hard to get this filament working on my UM2 (Roberts FeederV2):

(conductive with high resistance for ESD protection)

It seems to be ABS filled with carbon and i was able to print some stuff with it @ around 245°C and with a lot of glue and brim

Overhangs are printed very nice

There is just one remaining problem i can't solve:

It does not stick good to anything (because of the carbon i think)

[Edit:] It warps strongly

I tryed:

 

• on glass (some different bed levels and different temps up to 110°C)
  
• on painters tape
  
• on kapton tape
  
• on double sided tape
  
• glue stick (some different approaches)
  
• reversed kapton tape fixed on double sided tape
  
• [edit] on hairspray
  

Maybe do you guys have a nice idea how to stick this stuff to something or isn't it possible because it just warps to crazy ?

Thank you all!

 

[anon4321 16]

What about hairspray?

 

[visu-al 2]

sorry just forgot to mention that, was one of my first approaches

 

• hairspray
  

:wink:

but i didn't test all kind of hairsprays

 

[swordriff 119]

Maybe you can add a 5mm raft, print THAT in "ordinary" PLA (on glue and 60C bed).

Then plugin STOP AT height,

Change material and nozzle (if you have that upgrade), and

possibly your material will stick to other material (PLA you printed as a "raft")

What do you think?

OOPS: if its ABS based, maybe make the raft in ABS. not PLA

 

[visu-al 2]

@ swordriff

Very good idea Thank you! I will try that, but unfortunately we don't have any regular ABS here, so i need to take some of my own at home with me tomorrow.

OOPS: i don't think it's an option because it needs to be conductive -> i can't print even the first layer with non conductive material or i wouldn't have nice contact on the most important surface, the bottom (want to create electronics packaging)

 

[swordriff 119]

En Guete!

 

[visu-al 2]

din hundertsta post

I just made this mess with 40 lines of brim:

It warps like crazy

That's how it looks from the bottom:

 

[swordriff 119]

Did you first print ordinary ABS?

 

[visu-al 2]

No, i don't have any

 

[visu-al 2]

Also ordered this:

http://www.3dxtech.com/3dxnano-esd-petg-cnt/

..hoping that PET will stick better and warp less in this form

 

[anon4321 16]

I've had good luck with hairspray and 75c bed when printing XT which think is PET

 

[visu-al 2]

OK i recieved now the Filament from 3dxtech.com :

After doing a testprint @ 245°C i was shocked.. absolutely no conductivity unlimited resistance WTF?

But then i remembered that they mentioned that you can change restistance with temperature..

So i set temperature to 260°C and this worked:

 

It has no warping, no shrinking, no problem to stick to the glass on 75°C bed temp. and it's strong i couldn't break it by hand.

 

Now i'm able to print my ESD protection stuff.

 

But to import this i payd about 100$ to shipment and taxes!!

 

[swordriff 119]

Your DMM shows 0.307M , is that megaOhm? There is less resistance in a nasse kerze

 

[visu-al 2]

Yes, so it's about 300 kOhm.. it's a little to much but i can't print hoter then 260°C.. hmm

 

[swordriff 119]

Oh dear... it will conduct 40micro-amps at 12V.

hmm... not practical in many circuits..

How do you plan on using it?

 

[visu-al 2]

ESD protection is also ok with this higher resistance if your product cannot charge up much and fast..

 

[visu-al 2]

We make just holders to insert electronics-platform-units for shipment in usual ESD boxes

 

[superace 2]

Actually ESD plastic can have lots of really good usages. For example fixtures for testing PCB without any risk of ESD damage. Pogo-pins (Test pins) can be inserted directly into the fixture as long as the Ohms are not too low.

Just remember if you do any RF testing ESD plastic will behave in various ways depending on thickness and conductivity.

 

[swordriff 119]

Thank for the enlightenment!

Sounds really good!

 

[visu-al 2]

I just measured our official ESD equipment and it was always in the megaohm range, even higher then my actual prints so i can be sure now that it's ok for this purpose

 

[visu-al 2]

Today i found a big blob around the nozzle like i did before sometimes when something goes wrong..

..but this time it was conductive filament reaching the heater cardrige and i think it made a short between the conductors cause just at the heater entrance, the conductor was burned up and disconnected the heater un-repairable.

I made a ticket and ordered a new heater.

What do you guys think? Was it because of the conductivity of the filament like i think?

 

[swordriff 119]

Without seeing a picture, i think you have a small or big gap between the Teflon and the brass heater block (inside the steel coupler with the radial holes), causing filament to escape and encapsulate the nozzle area..

the conductivity of your filament is nowhere near causing trouble for the sensors at the low voltages we are speaking of here. maybe you pulled the cables while hot end cold... ?

 

[visu-al 2]

No, the blob was created by not sticking on the glass so the printhead took everything with him moving around and stopped after some hours without an error and without showing print finished..

i did not pulled the cables, i just removed some of the chunk wich also was going around the whole nozzle block around the sensor and heater cables.. maybe pulling off this chunk broke the heater cable..

 

[visu-al 2]

 

[swordriff 119]

-Gopf...