Effect of Heat Break Geometry on the Thermal Performance of A 3D Printer Extruder

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the most frequently used additive manufacturing technologies due to its low cost. In FDM 3D printers, the production is carried out by melting the polymer filament extruder in the nozzle area. Extruder consists of two main structures: Hot End and Cold End. The temperature distribution in these two regions is the most important factor affecting the thermal performance of 3D printer. Heat Break is the region where heat transfer occurs between Hot End and Cold End. In this study, the effect of two different Heat Break geometries on thermal performance was investigated. One of the designs (HB0) consists of a standard diameter cylindrical geometry. In the second design (HB1), there is a narrowed section with a diameter of 2 mm. Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to examine the thermal behavior of designs. Simulation results were verified with the images obtained with FLIR Lepton® Thermal camera. As a result, thermal camera images and thermal analysis results are consistent. Also, it was observed that the Heat Break design directly affected the general temperature distribution of the extruder. According to the results of the analysis, the minimum temperature in the heat break geometry with standard diameter cylindrical geometry was 86,512 °C. In geometry with a narrowed cross section, the minimum temperature was 51,635 °C. The minimum temperature difference between the two geometries was measured as approximately 35 °C.

Keywords: Fused deposition modelling, Extruder, Thermal behaviour, Finite element method

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-12-05