Cooling Fan Facing downward?

gjo,

Thanks! I installed some variable speed cooling fans on my enclosure. I can maintain an enclosure temperature of about 3 degrees C above ambient and I noticed a HUGE increase in printing quality. I am hoping to see some additional gains from your shroud. You should put both of these designs on Thingiverse. I think people would love to get their hands on this piece. Thanks again!

~Vu

@vuudoopham what kind of fan did you get for your enclosure? I am thinking of installing one on mine as well. Do you have it blowing in or out of the enclosure? I notice it gets really hot when printing and at some point the filament will buckle in the nozzle and the print will fail. So i’m hoping this fan will alleviate this problem.

@gjo thanks for sharing those cooling fan redirects for the module. I’ll try them as well.

@kelvin8r ,

I think what I went what I did was a bit over kill, but print quality was vastly improved. I went with these variable speed fans from AC infinity (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009P0R6VC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I actually installed a fan for pushing into the case and one to pull from the case. I pulled in from the rear of the case and pushed out the top. I started with just pushing in through the rear, but noticed much better performance with the push/pull setup. I used this to measure temperature inside the case and outside the case. It has two probes. You will need a 5 volt plug though (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XC9T6HB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). At 3/4 speed, I can maintain ~3 degree difference between inside the case and ambient. I am using to reading temps in F, but I have learned to convert things to C.

Note: I used doubled sided tape to secure the fans.
Note: At 3/4 speed the setup is kind of loud, not louder than the printer without the enclosure, but its louder than it was before.

Let me know if you want met to snap a few photos of my setup.

~Vu

@Tone - Did you ever finish development of the nozzle air deflector?

Yes, pretty much. I have it built, just need to test it out.
I think it will work well, just have to verify it.

I have another idea that might just supersede this one, build the ducting into the enclosure and then 3D print the whole housing. At the same time, separate the air flow for the other fan that keeps the input section of the filament cool. Incorporated into that idea I want to make the housing easily removable and separate from the mount that fixes it to the X-axis carriage. That will make a lighter module. It will take some time to develop.

@Tone, Can you share the nozzle air deflector as you have it now? I am more than willing to help test it.

I’ve installed it. I’ll try to get it up on Thingiverse today as is. It does have a slight alignment issue. It’s not quite centered about the nozzle and I had to bias it as I tightened the screws down. A couple other tweeks I want to do but I will get it up shortly.

It’s up now:

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So I’ve printed a few parts with it. It seemed to help with one problem part I printed before. I’ve got a bunch of improvements I plan on making. The “bump” sticks out too much so I’m going to reduce the size. I also want to swing the cooling nozzles around such that there is a better view of the printing nozzle. After studying the internals of the module I plan to add some baffles to the shroud to help segregate the cool air from the warm air. Currently the other fan is blowing over the filament cooling section and any warm air gets fed either into the outlet by the printing nozzle or into the bottom fan. In order to better route the air I’m going to design new end plates that will better route the warm and cool air and separate the module into two different regions, one that is for the filament inlet cooling section and the other one that is for the bottom cooling fan. It’s important to make sure the warm outlet isn’t close to the cool inlet thus feeding warm air in.

If anyone has any other ideas or feedback please send it.

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Maybe you could change your design to make use of the Bernoulli suction effect to draw some colder air into the air stream

The opening around the nozzle is letting the exhaust from the big fan to exit right down onto the print area. That area needs to be blocked of with something that can handle the heat.

I designed a fan duct and bracket for an external 50mm blower style fan that mounts under the side cover screws. I wanted the fan intake facing out so you could see if it’s running and so that it wasn’t up against the front of the 3D printing module.



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Updated my shroud. Added new housing end caps to improve cool air flow. Gave nozzle more space and improved view. The baffles on the Left Cover are meant to segregate the hot air from the cool air. Same with the Right Cover.

Let me know what you think.

Still at:

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Wow @Tone that looks awesome. Will have to print a set and give it a go. Thanks for sharing.

There’s still some improvements I want to make.
If you have any suggestions, requests, let me know.
Currently the left side has hot exiting the top and the right side is opposite.
I may want to make both have the hot exit the top to keep it away from the print.
Currently the slot in the valve doesn’t line up with the flow direction. You actually have to look in the back redirection port to see if the valve is oriented right.

New version uploaded. Better looking, improved nozzle visibility, improved air flow. Now includes a “wedge” to better block off air from hot side. Be sure to read the “Notes” section.

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Did this help/hinder certain prints? What has your experience been?

I think it helped but it’s a subtle difference.
I believe it help with the base layers curving up in the corner away from the fan.
I’d be interested to know what others experience has been.

I have some miniature stl’s from hero forge saved somewhere. I believe nozzle fan a mainly for fine detail work with super small slice areas. I’ll try and do a comparison.

My bed adhesion really suffered from it. I’m going to take it off for now until I get through some things I really want to make, before doing any more experiments. It would be NICE to print basic 3d mini’s, though TBH I’ve found the laser etch so darned good, I’ve just been pulling images, sizing, and using 3/4 round images on wooden tokens.