Titan Aero Troubleshooting
The most common causes of trouble with extrusion on E3D Titan Aero are as follows
Inadequate cooling and Filament Jamming
Inadequate cooling is the most common cause of problems, accounting for nearly half of all issues reported to us. Consistent performance of the extruder is heavily dependent on having a sharp temperature differential between the nozzle and where the cold filament enters. If the unit is not cooled properly, filament will melt too high in the unit and cause jamming.
The entirety of the heatsink must be kept cool at all times during printing. For this to happen enough airflow must be directed at the heatsink, and that airflow must be distributed over the whole heatsink. The use of the supplied 40mm fan and duct is highly recommended, the supplied fan has adequate airflow (4-5 CFM) The sticker on the fan needs to be pointing towards the heatsink, if the sticker is facing away from the heatsink fan it will not be providing adequate cooling.
An easy way to check that your heatsink has sufficient air flow is to simply feel the heatsink with a finger after a print has been running for some time. (Be careful not to touch the heater-block, it will burn you instantly) The entirety of the heatsink should be cool to the touch.
Like the heatsink and fan cooling your CPU, proper thermal conduction is necessary for the heatsink to work. In the case of your Titan Aero, the threaded heat-break tube should be snugly tightened into the heatsink otherwise the threads will not make sufficient surface contact to conduct heat. If you are printing in hot climates or continue to have issues, a liberal coating of thermal paste on the upper heat-break threads will ensure much better thermal contact with the heatsink. Even with thermal paste the threads can vibrate loose and cause performance issues. To combat this heat up the heatsink with a heat gun and then thread in and tighten the heat break tube with two pairs of pliers. The heatsink should contract around the heatbreak when it cools and ensure a solid connection.
Common issues are:
- Not wiring the fan directly to a 12v or 24v power supply.
- Connecting the HotEnd fan to the “Fan” output on an electronics board, which is software controlled and should be used for print cooling, not for a HotEnd fan.
- Using a 3rd party fan, it is common for users to switch to a 'silent' fan, these fans often are silent at the cost of a suitable CFM rating and do not cool the heatsink enough.
- Having some sort of obstruction in front of the fan or behind the duct which restricts airflow.
- Heat break tube is not snugly tightened into the heatsink.
Choosing slicer settings is a bit of an art and everyone has their particular preferences as to how they print. The following guidance is to help people avoid common configuration pitfalls.
A common issue is massively excessive retraction distances. In direct configurations retraction of 0.5 to 2mm is all that should be needed for ooze-free prints. We use around 0.6mm for ABS that oozes very little, and 2mm for the very floppy flexible filaments that like to ooze a great deal and need a good tug to pull back the soft filament from the melt zone. For PLA we stick with retraction settings no higher than 0.8mm.
Retractions of 2mm or more are troublesome as they pull hot filament up into the cold areas of the HotEnd where they can freeze, adhere and jam.
You should be able to print at both very high, and very low speeds with your E3D HotEnd, but you may need to adjust your temperatures. Very high speeds will require higher temperatures in order to melt the filament quickly enough as it passes through the HotEnd. Very slow prints do not require as high a temperature.
Debris, dust, scorched carbonised plastic, contaminants in your filament, all of these things can enter and accumulate in the HotEnd. Debris can then block or partially obstruct the very small hole in the tip of the nozzle. This can be as subtle as high extrusion force, or thin ribbon like extrudate, or it can simply be a complete blockage of the nozzle where no plastic can pass through at all.
There is a fantastic guide to unblocking nozzles present on the Bukobot website which shows a range of techniques and procedures. http://bukobot.com/nozzle-cleaning
There are a huge number of filament vendors out there, to cater to all needs and budgets. The E3D hotends are designed to cope with and print the vast majority of filaments on the market.
Filament must be of an appropriate dimensional tolerance in order to smoothly pass through the HotEnd. Filament that is too big will have excessive friction in the HotEnd. Filament that is too thin will buckle or snake inside the HotEnd and jam. Be aware that just making a couple of measurements on the start of a spool will not reveal if the filament has bulges where the diameter of the filament is too wide, or hard kinks that will not easily pass down the HotEnd. Filament can also be out-of-round or oval in cross section, this can lead to deceptive measurements if you do not measure your filament at multiple angles.
1.75mm Filament:
Should be within 1.65mm to 1.85mm in diameter.
Significant increases in friction occur once diameter exceeds 1.90mm.
3mm Filament:
Usually 2.85mm nominal diameter, but the hotend should handle filament that is 3mm nominal as long as it is accurately 3mm.
Significant increases in friction occur once diameter exceeds 3.05mm.
Some particular brands/colours of filament are particularly troublesome despite having good dimensions. This may be due to additives added to bulk-out the filament and reduce costs, particularly in the cheaper filaments. The exact mechanism or cause of why this happens is not clear, but it seems that some of these filament are more “sticky” when partially molten and therefore cause more jams. Ultimately the solution is here is to stick to good quality filament.
Black is often a troublesome colour as unscrupulous manufacturers can easily hide low quality recycled regrind behind lots of black pigment.
You cannot use 1.75mm filament in a 3mm hotend. Please stop asking. If you think you might be able to use 3mm filament in a 1.75mm hotend you shouldn’t be modifying or building a 3D Printer. Put the screwdriver down.
The supplied thermistor is a Semitec 104-GT2 and your firmware must be configured to use this thermistor.
For more information about how to update your firmware for your new thermistor, look through the Firmware guides.
Using an incorrect thermistor can result in temperatures being too low and increasing extrusion force, as well as producing prints that are poorly bonded.
You may find that after changing your HotEnd you may need to use slightly different temperatures, as a guide at E3D we tend to print PLA between 190C and 210C, and ABS at 230C to 240C. Your particular filament may, however, need different settings.
We recommend the use of the Compact but powerful motor (https://e3d-online.com/motors-compact-bu...) with the Titan Aero, it has the ideal torque rating for consistent extrusion. In order for the correct amount of torque to be provided, you will most likely need to calibrate the VREF of the Stepper driver, there are different methods for doing this depending on what stepper driver you are using. The best advice here is to consult the datasheet for your specific driver or speak to the manufacturer of the printer board you are using if the stepper drivers are built-in. For the most common stepper driver types, you can have a look at the calibration guides section.
If you are wanting to use a slimline or pancake-style motor please be advised that the VREF calibration and finding a suitable speed will be more difficult due to the lower amount of available torque. You may find maximum printing speeds are lower with these weaker motors.
A common issue we see is users over-tightening the Titan Aero heatsink, the heatsink only requires a few threads to be engaged, this is why one of the screws has thread lock applied. Over tightening the heatsink will cause the bearing to become permanently damaged and you may well find that the extruder is not able to be manually extruded (rotate the black gear) freely when power is not applied to the printer (and filament isn't loaded). In the first instance if you think you have overtightened the screws undo them slightly to see if the black gear is now able to be rotated freely.
If you are still having trouble, we are here to help. Please contact us either via the website live chat or via support@e3d-online.com.