Hotend heatsink should be the extruder!!?
Honestly, I mostly just wanted to write some thoughts down, but I welcome criticism below.
When chasing higher flow rates, we end up with longer melt zones, but that means toolheads become longer too. Ideally we already aim for a minimal distance between the extruder and the cold-side.
I was thinking that if the extruder, or part of it was made from aluminium, the heat break could screw directly into the extruder, and we could skip having a separate hotend heat sink. This would mean a shorter filament path, a shorter and lighter toolhead, and it would probably be a larger heatsink too 🤷♀️
8 replies
I think you’ve described e3d’s hemera hotend.
You're right 😂 I've also now seen the e3d roto, which seems incredibly compact (and also rather overpriced). Maybe one day, I'll have a new idea 😅
I forgot about roto. I have put a Revo on an old printer with a Stealthburner print head conversion, and I’m currently obsessing over the Indx system whether or not to built a trident/2.4, or go Prusa core one L considering the price of a voron build ends up almost in the same place, I’m not sure I want to build. (also availability of kits isn’t great in my region)
Which country are you in (if you're comfortable putting that out there)? I think the core one variants look fantastic, but if you're looking to save money, consider buying a used Voron and upgrading that. You can sometimes find them extremely cheaply on eBay or on the Voron discord
So the extruder becomes a heatsink in itself? I think that would dramatically increase risk of filament softening while inside the extruder because heat has to enter the extruder area before it can dissipate through the heatsink.
I can see the filament softening in the extruder being a problem, but only if the 'heatsink' isn't sufficient to cool it, which really just means it has to be properly designed 🤷
It appears that e3d have already done this with the hemera and the roto, anyway 😅
The hemera seems to be discontinued, and the roto has an operating temperature of only 40°C, so it seems they've had to make some compromises to performance to integrate the heartbreak like that.
I have a feeling that 40°C limit is because the tiny motor is working too hard. Hemera XS is still being made, and I have since found the "smart orbiter 3", which is similar to the roto but basically better. SO3 says it's happy at 70°C ambiant with reduced stepper current - That's the same as my more orthodox Orbiter 2.
I think "my idea" is just old news 😅