Utvärdering av olika torkmetoder för torkning av filament till 3D skrivare för hemmabruk

Abstract

This work was conducted on behalf of add:north, which is a Swedish company that manufactures filament for 3D printers. Filaments are small plastic balls that have been extruded to a specific diameter with very high tolerances for use in 3D printers. As there are filaments that are very hygroscopic (good at absorbing moisture from the air), some filaments must be dried so that they do not have significantly worse printing properties than their dry counter parts. Examples of such artifacts caused by moisture are bubbles on the prints surface or small plastic strings in-between the different printed parts. The purpose of the report is to investigate which components for home-use that will result in the driest filament in six hours in a chamber heated to 70 °C, and to investigate if it is possible to design a filament dryer that is more efficient than what is available on the market today. To determine this, a moisture meter is used to measure the moisture in the plastic by heating it to 120 °C for four hours and meanwhile measuring the change in weight of the plastic. This then gives a number for how much moisture has been removed from the plastic. The filaments used for these tests is a filament, which according to add:north should be extra hygroscopic. The different solutions that are designed during this report will be compared with two dryers commonly used for drying filament, according to the same principles. The result of the work shows that it is entirely possible to develop a dryer that is better than those that exist on the market today. The drying solution that was found to work the best was better than the best commercial solution tested. It contained two 150x50mm silicone heating elements and a fan. It resulted in a 43 % drier filament than the best tested commercial solution