Printing ABS ESD filament

The place to discuss filament...
Post Reply
Decorah Printer
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:16 pm

Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by Decorah Printer » Thu Nov 09, 2017 4:16 pm

Hello all,

I am associated with a certain company that utilizes ABS ESD (Electro-Static Dissipative) filament. This material allows electrical current to dissipate through the 3D part and properly be grounded. However, we have found that this material also needs to have different FFF settings (S3D) in order for filament to flow properly.

In addition, and thus leading to my questions, our M2 V4 REV E machine has been experiencing problems with the extruder clogging.
After reading many forums and asking MakerGear technicians, I have come up empty on many topics. Also, these problems have recently been occurring and were not problems previously. We have also replaced numerous parts within the last few months including, V4 filament drive, motor mount, and wiring harnesses. In just over a 1.5 years, the printer has logged about 11,000 hours.

To describe the sequences of this clogging, the printer will print about 1/4"-1" of a part before the clogging occurs. After cleaning the extruder and passing about 100mm of new filament through the V4 hot end, we attempt to print a completely different part as well as implement a different spool of filament. After the troubleshooting and cleaning, we have still experienced the same clogging issues.

We are currently printing at 250C, bed temp at 120C, nozzle diameter of .35mm, extrusion width of .4mm, and extrusion multiplier of .85. Utilizing different processes, our sparse settings are a primary layer height of .3mm, 4 solid top and bottom layers, 50% first layer height, 100% layer width, and 50% layer speed. On the solid process, everything is congruent for layers except the primary layer height is .15mm.
The recommended printing temperature can be found here https://www.3dxtech.com/content/ESD_ABS ... t_v2.1.pdf
After calculating the thermal conductivity rate to which plastic filament is extruding, the temperature should be around 248C in order to meet our demanded speed.

The only other bit of information that I think would be applicable to the extruder clogging is the machines speed. For solid, the printing speed is 1200mm/min, outline underspeed 25%, solid infill underspeed, 35%, and support structure underspeed is 18000mm/min. For sparse, the speeds are the same however the outline underspeed and solid infill underspeed are at 40% and the support structure is at 80%. Realizing that this speed is the maximum allowed speed that the MakerGear M2 allows, the justification lies with longer prints only account for lost money.

To summarize, has anyone had experience with this kind of ABS ESD filament? Has anyone experienced clogging due to retraction settings? Does anyone have suggestions to prevent clogging?

User avatar
insta
Posts: 2007
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by insta » Fri Nov 10, 2017 8:58 pm

Have you tried a 0.50mm hotend, with just about everything the same otherwise?
Custom 3D printing for you or your business -- quote [at] pingring.org

Decorah Printer
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:16 pm

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by Decorah Printer » Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:12 pm

I have read and also thought of changing nozzle sizes in order to fix these issues. However, we have not tried a different nozzle size for fear of starting over with de-bugging code problems. Although if we can not find alternative solutions, I will almost have to re-code everything anyways!

User avatar
insta
Posts: 2007
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by insta » Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:13 pm

There's no reason you have to throw away all your settings. Most of them will translate over with a 0.50mm nozzle. Save a backup of your current config, change out the nozzle, redo the bed-height wizard, tell S3D your nozzle is 0.50mm diameter, set your layer height to 0.20mm, done.
Custom 3D printing for you or your business -- quote [at] pingring.org

Decorah Printer
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:16 pm

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by Decorah Printer » Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:50 pm

Sorry for the late response, we are currently awaiting a .5mm and .35mm v4 hotend. We will change the settings and create new profiles for the .5mm nozzle. Thank you for the posts!

Decorah Printer
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 3:16 pm

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by Decorah Printer » Tue Nov 28, 2017 3:55 pm

I have received the new hotends! For trouble shooting purposes, I tried the 0.35mm stainless steel extruder nozzle. I had also increased the extruder temperature to 255C and lowered the printing speend to 10,000 mm/min.

This was a successful print and the layering was superb. The were no signs of clogging around the extruder nozzle.

I have two questions, for the 0.35mm extruder, we are using a 0.15mm primary layer height and a 50% first layer height and layer speed. The layer width is 100%. Does anyone see a problem with this?

Also, we received a 0.50mm stainless steel nozzle that we have not used yet. However in the FFF settings in S3D, I have changed the nozzle diameter to 0.50mm and primary layer height to 0.20mm. The extrusion width is at 0.40mm. In this case S3D gives an error saying that my width to height ratio does not exceed 1.2. Can anyone explain the ratio equation and provide information on 0.50mm nozzle?

Lastly, the extrusion multiplier is set at 0.85. I have not printed a thin walled cube to check however, does anyone have advise when using a M2 Rev E machine?

User avatar
insta
Posts: 2007
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Re: Printing ABS ESD filament

Post by insta » Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:53 pm

You need your extrusion width greater-or-equal to your nozzle diameter. I usually use 0.60mm width on a 0.50mm nozzle.
Custom 3D printing for you or your business -- quote [at] pingring.org

Post Reply