Has anyone done any experiments with using a remote air pump instead of a downward cooling fan mounted to the toolhead yet? I’m thinking something like an aquarium air pump or a small vacuum pump with tubes going to the toolhead.
I’ve used an aquarium air pump in the past, but found that the bigger ones that provide a high enough air flow tend to put out very hot air, so I had to run the air through a copper pipe in a bucket of ice water to cool it down before sending it to the print head. Now I’m back to just using a squirrel cage blower fan.
Seen it a few times. Here’s a kit: http://www.themakerhive.com/shop/viewitem.php?productid=45
Just curious, what’s the advantage?
@Jeremie_Francois experimented with something like that, see http://www.tridimake.com/2016/05/3d-printing-cooling-with-air-pump-aquarium.html
http://www.tridimake.com/2016/05/3d-printing-cooling-with-air-pump-aquarium.html?m=1
https://plus.google.com/+DarenSchwenke has been using it. His air outlet pipe is a little different then BerdAir. He drilled his holes at an angle that focuses the cooling air directly below the nozzle on his 6 color mixing delta.
For a few months now i do the cooling in my new printer with compressed air from a membrane aquarium pump.
http://b.bonkers.de/?p=392
@610GARAGE Compressed air allows the use of a very small surface area for heat exchange. The bulky aluminum coolers are not needed. In my case it is efficient enough to print @ 260°C with my PEEK and Teflon based Merlin hotend. The whole setup is smaller and lighter than a fan cooled printhead.
Also membrane airpumps can run for years without trouble, the small fans have a fraction of the lifetime.
I’ve done it, based on Makerhive’s idea. They showed it at MRRF but ran out of kits to sell so I made my own, but I used an aquarium pump. It’s good for small parts because it shields the part from radiated heat from the heater block and it directs cooling right at the nozzle exit. I found it’s nice for PETG bridging such as stunts like this: http://youtube.com - PETG Bridging Test, 120mm Span
I’ve been playing with that not for 3D printers but trying to rig an air assist for a diode laser cutter and chip clearing blower for a little CNC router (though the problem is largely the same in all three cases). Recent lessons not covered by previous comments:
- It’s really hard to compete with a small centrifugal blower for air volume/ db if you aren’t constricting the aperture too much.
- Few small/quiet/low-pressure air sources tolerate significant back pressure, so your tubing will eat all your airflow. Pretty much only real pumps (diaphragm or whatnot) will do OK with driving through tubing.
- Air mattress/pool toy inflation pumps produce a suitable air stream, but are extremely loud, and do not tolerate long duty cycles well.
I have to mention that pumps and compressed air will have heating/cooling effects. Ideally, you want the airflow to be about 20C below the glass point of the plastic you’re cooling. Sub-cooling with compressed air expansion will cause more warping, and heated air from an inefficient pump may cool less effectively.
Not a big problem, just another dimension in the design to think about.
@Bjorn_Marl Interesting. Thanks.
@Ryan_Carlyle I initially thought about adding a peltier module after the output of the pump, so that I could regulate the blown air temperature at will (this should be possible because the throughput is small). But I never was motivated enough since it worked nicely as is