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Hi,

What does accelerated nozzle wear mean ?

I’ve read this on the website of proto-pasta in the product details of the Stainless steel pla

**This filament is more abrasive than standard PLA. Prolonged use may result in accelerated nozzle wear.

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I understand this to mean that continued use of this filament will cause your nozzle to deform in shape, which will affect the quality of your printing. It would have a similar effect to taking some fine sandpaper to your nozzle tip at an angle, but may also have the effect of increasing your nozzletters diameter. I have seen similar warnings about filaments containing carbon fibre strands. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use these filaments; just that you need to keep an eye on the condition of your nozzle and possibly replace it more often than you normally would. It’s fair on the part of the filament manufacturer to make us aware of this.

Mike

https://3d hubs.com/gloucester/hubs/mike

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Wow Thanks Mike.

This is a very clear explanation. :slight_smile:

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Great way to put it @ckravitz1223 . But it is also not the same for all the types of nozzles, right?

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Nozzle wear means, that the material has a relatively rough and abrasive surface, which will work like sandpaper in the nozzle.

Continously printing with such materials will sand down the nozzle from the inside, this results in a larger nozzle diameter and the nozzle might also be sanded on the bottom. You can reduce this a little bit by lifting the printhead up two millimeters or similar during travel moves.

This affects brass nozzles, stainless steel nozzles are much more wear resistant and you can use them longer, before the diameter get’s unusably large.

These are all abrasive materials I know of:

-nearly all metal blends, especially stainless steel and iron composites

-carbon fibre blends

-to a certain extend even wood composites

I would advise you to get one stainless steel nozzle in a relatively large diameter, no less then 0,4mm.

Carbon fibres may clogg in smaller nozzles.

Proto Pasta sells some stainless steel nozzles, another great source for a variety of nozzles is e3d-online.com

Before buying a new nozzle, make sure, that it fits on your printer. Some printers need nozzles with female threads, some with male. Also the thread size (M5, M6, imperial) has to match with the new nozzle.

The downside of stainless steel nozzles is, that they are more expensive and don’t transfer heat to the filament as good as brass nozzles. You have to print slower with stainless steel nozzles and maybe increase the printing temperature a little bit.

Cheers,

Marius Breuer

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@Sean_1 I wanted to add one clarification to the previous explanations below. Our wear resistant nozzles are nickel plated brass, a balance of thermal conductivity and hardness. I see you operate a Replicator 2 so I suggest a MK8 Style nozzle to upgrade you machine and start printing with our exotic composites :slight_smile: Here is a link to the product page:

http://www.proto-pasta.com/collections/retail/products/wear-resistant-nozzle

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Hi Alex,

Thanks for the suggestion.