24
7. Overheating
The plastic that exits your extruder may be anywhere from 190 to 240
degrees Celsius. While the plastic is still hot, it is pliable and can easily be formed
into different shapes. However, as it cools, it quickly becomes solid and retains
its shape. You need to achieve the correct balance between temperature and
cooling so that your plastic can flow freely through the nozzle, but it can quickly
solidify to maintain the exact dimensions of your 3D printed part. If this balance
is not achieved, you may start to notice some print quality issues where the
exterior of your part is not as precise and defined as you would like. As you can
see in the image above, the filament extruded at the top of the pyramid was not
able to cool quickly enough to retain its shape. The section below will examine
several common causes for overheating and how to prevent them.
7.1 Insufficient cooling
The most common cause for overheating is that the plastic is not being
cooled fast enough. When this happens, the hot plastic is free to change shapes
as it slowly cools. For many plastics, it is much better to quickly cool the layers
to prevent them from changing shape after being printed. Anet3D printer includes
a cooling fan, try increasing the power of the fan to cool the plastic faster. Please
read “Cura Tutorial” to learn how to increase fan’s power
To Next Page
Loading...
