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Heat Creep  

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Galinette
(@galinette)
Eminent Member
Heat Creep

I faced a lot of "clogs" recently, printing PLA with small layer height in an enclosure. After looking for the issue in several forums this is definitely a heat creep problem.

I added tunable ventilation in the enclosure to reduce the temperature and this fixed 100% of clogs mid-print.

However, I still have clogs at the beginning of the following print when it "cleans" the nozzle extruding a large quantity of material at the front edge of the plate (don't know how this step is named?)

I think the heat creep happens right at the end of the previous print, when everything stops. It could be solved by running the heatsink fan for a short time after the print end. Is this something possible to set up in the software?

Thanks!

Posted : 20/01/2022 10:05 am
Neophyl
(@neophyl)
Illustrious Member
RE: Heat Creep

It already does that on the MK3 series of printers.  The extruder/heatsink fan is run until it cools down to iirc about 50 degreesC.  Its why you should never just switch a printer off after printing as the residual heat can creep up if its not cooled and make printing next time difficult.

That functionality is done in the printers firmware though and not set in the slicer.  

Posted : 20/01/2022 11:30 am
SailorEric
(@sailoreric)
Trusted Member
RE: Heat Creep

For what it's worth I was having heat creep issues with PLA during prints that involved thin layers at lower speeds. Granted I print in pretty extreme conditions in the tropics. Sometimes as hot as the inside of an enclosure. I printed one of the extruder stepper coolers with a 40mm fan. My thinking was that the stepper motor was getting very warm and perhaps if we removed that heat it would keep things cooler in the extruder itself and that might be enough to pull some heat off the heat break. Well I can say that the same files in the same conditions no longer have any problems so it was a solution for me.

 

Posted : 22/01/2022 4:42 pm
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