3D print abs cooling fan

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS, ABS) is an industrial thermoplastic that finds applications in a wide variety of applications. If you are familiar with LEGO bricks, you are already using ABS. It is especially known for its high impact resistance and is one of the most popular materials for 3D printing.

While printing with ABS plastics is notoriously difficult, after a few tries and getting your 3D printer set up correctly, you will definitely end up with some great 3D models. Products made of ABS plastic after treatment with acetone have a smooth and glossy surface, which makes them aesthetically similar to parts obtained by injection molding.

In this article, we'll look at tips to help you get great ABS 3D printing results on the popular, inexpensive Ender 3 3D printer.

Ender 3 motherboard cooling

Make sure the motherboard fan is on by default. If not, then read on.

At first glance it may seem that motherboard cooling and 3D print quality are completely unrelated things, but when it comes to ABS with Ender 3, this is the first thing to check and fix.

The default installation for some reason turns on the electronics cooling fan only when the partial cooling fan near the hotend is turned on. The fact is that when 3D printing ABS, the cooling fan of the part must be turned off. We will discuss why this is so. And this, in turn, means that the board fan will also be turned OFF. This causes the electronics to heat up, affecting the performance of the 3D printer.

The fix is ​​very simple. You just need to connect the part cooling fan wires and the hot end wires as shown in the picture above.

Ender 3 Quality Print Table Surface

Ender 3 comes standard with a heated print bed. This is important for 3D printing with ABS plastic. The heated bed promotes good adhesion of the first layer and maintains an elevated temperature in the 3D printing area, which significantly reduces the likelihood of deformation when printing parts from ABS plastic.

Standard Ender 3 has a surface similar to Buildtak. Thanks to this coating, the first layers of ABS at the end of 3D printing can be easily removed even without the use of an additional layer of glue or hairspray. You can also look into using PEI-coated sheets, which also work well for good surface adhesion.

If you are using Creality Glass or any other glass surface, hairspray or glue will greatly improve the adhesion of the first coat.

As with the Ender 3 Pro, the default table cover is a flexible magnetic surface. This is a great option for 3D printing PLA plastics, but be aware that these coatings lose their magnetic properties at temperatures above 80° C. For greater safety, glass is recommended.

If you've tried everything and still can't get good first coat adhesion, your table may be damaged. But this is not a cause for concern. You can always just switch to Creality Glass or any other glass surface. Also, consider upgrading the table adjustment springs. You can also consider the option of automatically correcting the position of the extruder, but this is already a more complicated way.

Suitable slicing settings for 3D models

If you're already printing with PLA, you're already halfway there. ABS printing is very similar to PLA, only a few settings need to be changed for optimal results.

• Nozzle temperature: ABS material melts at temperatures between 220 and 240°C. The higher temperature allows the part to cool gradually, reducing the chance of any defects. It is recommended to set the table temperature of the Ender 3 3D Printer between 100 and 110°C.
• Cooling Fan 3D models: ABS tends to deform when cooled quickly. For this reason, it is necessary to turn off the partial cooling fan near the hot end. This allows the ABS to cool gradually, reducing the chance of warping.
• Brim or raft: The use of additional bases of the first layers helps to mitigate the effects caused by thermal shrinkage and will also provide better adhesion of the first layer in the table.

To check the quality of the slicer settings, we recommend choosing one of the test 3D models for printing.

Enclosure for Ender 3

And finally, for high-quality 3D printing with ABS plastics, you should think about an enclosure or, at least, isolated corners, in which there will be no drafts.

Ender 3 is an open frame 3D printer and is not ideal for printing ABS plastics, because during 3D printing, the model is affected by all sorts of external factors, such as wind and overly curious pets.

But most importantly, the housing helps keep the ambient temperature high enough to prevent warping and delamination of the layers by reducing the effects of thermal contraction. It retains the heat from the heated table and also prevents any external influences.

Even a cardboard box can be used as an enclosure (not recommended due to safety and flammability, but even this option will help). The main job of the case is to maintain a uniform, high ambient temperature so that the ABS cools naturally.

We hope that the features of 3D printing ABS plastics on the Ender 3 mentioned above will help you. Good luck in the world of 3D printing and DIY experiments!

Nozzle Best Circular Airflow Model

How to upgrade the blower unit of a 3D printer and maximize print quality?

One of the parameters of the 3D printer that affects the quality of the model is the cooling of the filament. Airflow is responsible for lowering the temperature of the plastic. It is proposed to increase the capabilities of the cooling unit by installing powerful fans and upgrading the air duct.

Why do I need airflow for a 3D printer?

The principle of FDM printing is to heat the plastic to a softening temperature and extrude it through a nozzle onto the worktable. Further, the polymer solidifies, the layers at the same time are connected, forming a homogeneous three-dimensional object. But the heated plastic has fluidity, and if the previous layer does not have time to cool down to the curing temperature, the model begins to lose its desired shape. The heat of the heated nozzle also has its effect: the already cooled layer softens again when the extruder moves directly above it.

Temperature deformation is especially noticeable on miniature and thin-walled objects. This is due to the following points:

• small parts are constantly exposed to heat coming from the nozzle;
• thin model elements heat up faster.

To prevent the temperature rise of already finished layers and to cool the last of the printed ones faster, 3D printers are equipped with airflow.

What is a cooling unit?

The blower unit consists of the following components:

• fan;
• air duct.

Fan speed and start times are set in the slicer. The duct creates a directional flow, providing cooling to the desired area.

Important! Slicer airflow settings are set by default. But for each type of plastic and the shape of the 3D part, it is recommended to set special parameters, which makes it possible to maximize the quality of the model.

There are no universal values, each user of a printing device selects them empirically.

How can I improve print quality with airflow?

To set the cooling of the model as correctly as possible, consider the following:

1. Type of plastic. ABS and PETG have a high melting point and require less airflow. Large objects sometimes print with the fan turned off. Parts made of PLA, especially small ones, may require 100% airflow; when printing several figures at the same time, the fan speed can be reduced to 60-70%.
2. Model size. When printing large-sized objects, the plastic has time to cool down so much that when the next portion of plastic comes from the extruder, the previous layer does not heat up to the critical fluidity temperature. Accordingly, the formation of a part with a small surface area should occur with blowing, the intensity of which will be the higher, the smaller the size of the print area.
3. The shape of the feature. Here, the wall thickness, the presence of supports and the density of filling are taken into account. Models with small, thin, openwork elements are printed, be sure to turn on the fan. The same requirement applies to parts with less than 30% infill. The higher the percentage of filling, the less airflow is allowed.

Important! When setting the fan operation mode in the slicer, all the above conditions are taken into account. Experienced users recommend keeping statistics on settings and print results. So by trial and error, over time, the maximum quality of the final result is achieved.

It is not always possible to achieve the desired result by changing the software settings of standard equipment. The maximum effect is achieved by installing high-power fans and other designs and replacing air ducts.

The best airflow models for a 3D printer nozzle

Three airflow options are most often used to modify the plastic cooling system:

1. Direct (one-sided) with an improved air duct and a more powerful fan.
2. Double-sided.
3. Circular.

Either one is suitable for improving the print quality of a 3D model.

Straight

The simplest option is to replace the stock fan with a "snail" or the same, but more powerful, and leave the standard air duct. But another solution is also proposed: the installation of an improved duct. It has a reshaped spout, which allows for a more directed air flow, and a seat for a fan.

By redirecting the air jet, more precise cooling of the target area is achieved with minimal impact on nozzle temperature. And due to the installation of a productive fan, a wide adjustment of the blowing speed is provided.

Double ended

Dual outlet ducting is another way to improve your airflow system. But separating the air stream into two significantly reduces the power of each. This means that a stronger air blower is needed (the standard one will definitely not cope). Most often, seats for two fans are formed in the duct box - one for each outlet. Double-sided blowing does not have a noticeable disadvantage of one-sided blowing, when, depending on the direction of movement of the extruder, there is a different cooling intensity of the plastic.

Circular

Circular, or annular, cooling is a uniform blowing of the zone from all sides. The air flow is directed in such a way that it does not affect the nozzle. The standard fan also needs to be replaced here. Instead, they put one or two more powerful ones, for the installation of which a seat is provided on a modified duct box.

Users of 3D printers who have applied this solution note the following drawback: the circular air duct greatly obstructs the view, making it difficult to control print quality.

Important! Any increase in fan power results in increased noise during fan operation. The same can be said about installing two coolers at once. Experienced users recommend paying attention to expensive models of well-known brands, whose developers have made every effort to reduce the noise of their devices.

***

Changing the blower setting has an effective effect on 3D print quality. When software settings are not enough, you should pay attention to the modernization of the cooling unit. Users offer different solutions, tested on their own experience.

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