Jul.15, 2012
This water-cooled hot end is still work in progress. Fan cooler has been used on the RepRap 3D printer such as Huxley and Mendel to prevent the hot end stuck problem and help cool the print layers to improve quality of the printed object, especially for printing small objects.
At RepRapPro Adrian Bowyer has been experimenting with a RepRap extruder with a water-cooled head, instead of a fan.
"It's a variant on Jean-Marc's brilliant design. On a long print the water (about 1 litre) stabilises at around 8 C above ambient."
This is much lighter and more compact, and the cooling is more efficient. It consists of a brass block that replaces our normal aluminium cooling block that attaches to the fan. The brass has water channels drilled in it, and some soft 3mm i.d. silicone tube connecting it to a small 12V gear pump. The inflow and outflow temperatures are only a fraction of a degree different, meaning that multiple heads could be chained in series and all cooled by the same flow.
Get the CAD file for the cooling block here.
Source: RepRap
Posted in 3D Printer Accessories
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