UM2 Teflon Replacement Test!

[swordriff 119]

I need volunteer testers, Ultimaker 2 family only. Limit 40 persons, one item/person.

I need to test the IPM Coupler "Teflon replacement" for the UM2, and I need to have it tested UNTIL IT FAILS. It is composed of an undisclosed material.

Max 300C continuous. (Good luck!).

You must be able to test it with PLA and at least one more material, preferably a high tech material like from COLORFABB. (please suggest more suppliers and I will add it to the list).

List:

Colorfabb

Taulmann

Faberdashery

--

XT does NOT WORK, it sticks after few hours, thank you Christian.

 

Test report must include: Material, Nozzle type, Temp, Speed, Retraction/No retraction, time to fail, FIX for fail?

I ship 40 pcs IPM couplers FREE of charge (one for each person) if you PM me you would like to test it. Some early testers have had it work for PLA, some not.

Recent buyers are being compensated. We need to find out what works!

Please PM with "test" in subject line.

Name, Address, Material you plan to use.

 

First come, first served, basta!

 

[neotko 1,417]

Maybe it's titanium with tungsten disulphide?

 

[chrisr 18]

Exciting stuff swordriff :-) I'd dearly love to volunteer but we have a house move coming up shortly so I'm not sure I'd be able to thoroughly test the part. I'm not looking forward to dismantling my "man-cave" with all the computers and electronic stuff I have... but more pleasing than tackling all the cr@p in the attic (left overs from last house move) Think I may be hiring a big skip for most of that.

Good luck with the testing - I'm sure I'll be buying some from you once "the dust has settled" :-)

 

[swordriff 119]

Maybe it is Impossibilium Donalditis?

I have today shipped to everyone who contacted me!

I also included a new kind of nozzle for you.. sorry :-P .

About the test; No need to test how tough it is, I am only concerned with

material sticking/not sticking to its inside after retractions, and after complete cooldowns.

The length of the item is exactly the same as the standard Teflon piece, but since it is a harder material

you can increase the pressure to avoid any leak.. so screw the Metal coupling ( the one with the radial holes ) down or all the way down, this brings the hot end block a little higher inside the coupling.

BE CAREFUL: The steel coupling is very brittle, I have easily destroyed one myself. you need to HEAT the nozzle before touching the steel coupler.. It is brittle because it is thinly designed to absorb as little as possible energy from the block.

Thank you all!

 

[swordriff 119]

Colorfabb XT does not work!

 

[rigs 735]

:(

[sybold 1]

does the xt stick to it? if yes, maybe some polishing would help

 

[swordriff 119]

You mean inside?

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

* BE CAREFUL: The steel coupling is very brittle, I have easily destroyed one myself.

Me too, destroyed one by overheating it with a gas burner while cleaning.... you need indeed to be careful with this this...

 

[sybold 1]

You mean inside?

 

yes

 

[izzy 33]

Is it just ColorFabb XT that sticks to the inside or all copolyesters? I have some FormFutura which is a copolyesters to test.

Done about 33.5 hours on various PLAs so far.

[gixxer 1]

OK I've clocked about 30h with polymax now and no issues at all.

About 10h with ninja flex no issues.

14.5h single print with a colour changing abs with no issues.

First fail was on colour fab XT-CF20. Went fine for about 3h or so then started underextruding badly for no apparent reason. Switched back to polymax again with no atomic pull and no problem. I'll give the XT-CF20 another go though to see if I can repeat the failure. But from the marks on the filament it looked like the feeder losing traction on the filament. Not experienced this with XT-CF20 before but it is a very ridged filament any way.

All prints done with my custom block and E3D nozzles 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 but mainly the 0.6.

The ultimaker standard Teflon was cooked when I took it out by the way, had done about 600h I think. Diameter at exit was down to about 3mm and showed ware on the inner surface at the contact point.

I'll hopefully have time to post the full details of each material tomorrow in work.

[neotko 1,417]

I have found a company and a guy that works with titanium and they are making me a few units on Titanium with tungsten disulphide coating, that 'on theory' should have close to 'zero' sticky-ness. But I'm doing it for UMO+ heads. In two weeks or so I'll have one on my hands to do the tests and if it works for UMO+ the solution shouldn't be hard to use it on UM2. If this works, the tungsten disulfide coating supports 650ºC... And 'on paper' it has less than half the friction resistance than teflon.

Other advantage of the titanium it's that it has less heat dispersion and the tungsten coating can be applied. Also I have other heatbreak barrels coming from china done in just titanium without coating, to check the natural sticky-ness.

[gixxer 1]

Update with details.

Material - Polymax

Total Print time - 40h

Max print per model - 8h

Nozzle type - 0.6mm and 0.8mm (E3D)

Temp - 240C

Speed - 50-80mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - N/A

FIX for fail - N/A

Material - ninja flex

Total Print time - 20h

Max print per model - 3h

Nozzle type - 0.6mm (E3d)

Temp - 260C

Speed - 50mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - No

Time to fail - N/A

FIX for fail - N/A

Material - colour changing abs

Total Print time - 14.5h

Max print per model - 14.5h

Nozzle type - 0.4mm (E3D)

Temp - 260C

Speed - 50mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - N/A

FIX for fail - N/A

Material - ColorFabb XT-CF20

Total Print time - 3h

Max print per model - 3h

Nozzle type - 0.6mm (E3D)

Temp - 240C

Speed - 50mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - 3h

FIX for fail - None as yet will retest

[gixxer 1]

You can add Colorfabb XT to the list.

Material - ColorFabb XT-CF20

Total Print time - 6h

Max print per model - 2h

Nozzle type - 0.6mm (E3D)

Temp - 255C

Speed - 50mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - n/a

FIX for fail - n/a

[gixxer 1]

Material - Ninjaflex Semiflex

Total Print time - 8h

Max print per model - 8h

Nozzle type - 0.6mm (E3D)

Temp - 255C

Speed - 50mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - n/a

FIX for fail - n/a

Material - Taulman T-Glase

Total Print time - 5h

Max print per model - 5h

Nozzle type - 0.5mm (E3D)

Temp - 250C

Speed - 40mm/s

Retraction/No retraction - Yes

Time to fail - n/a

FIX for fail - n/a

[cor3ys 28]

@gixxer

What type of parts are you printing for your tests ? do they involve any heavy retraction parts ?

Edited April 29, 2015 by Guest

[swordriff 119]

It is so strange, some make it work with anything, and for some it stops printing with the IPM immediately w PLA.

Maybe something inside not correct.

[cor3ys 28]

Maybe something inside not correct.

That's what i would have thought but polymax worked and not making any adjustments failed on PLA and XT with heavy retraction.. Thats why i was wondering what type of prints Gixxer was basing his test's on. are they just basic straight forward prints or is he actually putting the IPM through stress test and using various prints with heavy retraction etc...

Edited April 29, 2015 by Guest

[swordriff 119]

Its the retraction that stops it sometimes.

I have sent you another one to try, @cor3ys.

@gixxer: thank you!

[cor3ys 28]

Hi Carl

Yes Retraction seems to kill it, perhaps other testers want to give this print ago to see what results they get http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:287891

@swordriff looking forward to giving the new IPM ago hopefully with better results

[gixxer 1]

Ive not ptinted anything as retraction heavy as http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:287891 as yet. If anything, in the past when attempting prints like the Elephant - Voronoi Style I would have problems with grinding the filament.

Id like to add that I change filament materials several times a day and never do an atomic pull. I just use the move material option to clear out the last filament from the nozzle and thats only if I'm not using a skirt/brim.

Is there any way of easily counting the retractions in the gcode? If so I'll happily let you know. Printing Elephants at work can only be done when the boss is off

It might also be a good idea to state the retraction distance used. All my tests where done at 4.5mm @ 25mm/s. Perhaps a longer retraction would cause more problems.

[cor3ys 28]

Yeh i am using standard retraction settings also, never had any issues with grinding but i am using iroberts feeder..

If you can't print elephants what about a Fox

This is what i can normally achieve with the standard Teflon

Edited April 29, 2015 by Guest

[gixxer 1]

Lol! Perhaps I'll tell the boss it's for his kids that normally works:P

I'm using Roberts feeder also.

The ninja flex semi flex is very good by the way.

[gixxer 1]

Just found a gcode analyser

http://gcode.ws/

I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it out though.