Just wanted to give you a sneak peak at a new hot end we are developing for high temperature materials. I just got done running it up to 470C for a test. It reached 220C in under a minute, 300C in 1.5min, 350C in two minutes and 400C in 2.5 minutes. Are you ready for Ultem?
That sounds awesome and definitely along the line of things I personally want to explore... please keep use updated.
OK I'm getting a bit excited here...
Tensile strength that is 1.5 times that of aluminum, heat resistance of up to 150°C, international evaluation certificate for its FST (Flame, Smoke, Toxicity) attributes.
http://usglobalimages.stratasys.com/Main/Files/Material_Spec_Sheets/MSS_FDM_ULTEM9085.pdf
Giddy up!
That's the idea. Will need high ambiant temp for good strength though.
http://www.3dxtech.com/ultem-9085-3d-filament/ says we need Bed Temp: 110 - 120°C which is comparable to ABS but as Andrew says here, "we probably need to heat the chamber to close to the glass transition point which is 186ºC...
Except the glass transition point is actually 217ºC according to 3DXTECH.
Either way, as Andrew says, with Ultem's Tg being so high, it will have a huge tendency to warp unless the model is held at high temperature throughout the print."
If that is true, that's pretty warm for our existing cabinet as a whole, including all of our PLA printed parts that have a deflection temp of 50°C. and could even affect the room the printer is placed in, so an insulated cabinet starts to make sense - I have connections with the local Rockwool plant, which would be ideal for that.
Sounds like we need to vent it too.
None of this sounds insurmountable, but it does mean more or less building a new Gigabot to suit those temperatures, assuming that the recommended ambient temp is around 186ºC
It also looks like the only filament size available is 1.75mm... again not insurmountable.
About .1011" growth for the 29" alum horizontal frame members between 21ºC and 186ºC
this is awesome!
Any updates?
Update - The original goal of having a hotter hot end is great for printing with super high temperature materials but not good for flowing larger amounts of plastic. We found that flowing more plastic requires a longer melt zone and subsequently we gave birth to the this beauty -
https://re3d.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000352303-Naming-a-new-larger-hot-end