Take the heads off and Soak them in alcohol and then repetitive head cleanings & pattern checks. A weight test is very effective at showing blocked nozzles as well.
If it helps I can give you a copy of our cleaning instruction guide and schedule, which is written up from our training. The engineer who trained us had used these machine in anger in industry and then joint the reseller in the UK servicing machines.
I just ran a pattern test at 1:40pmEST, did a heads cleaning wizard and ran another pattern test at 2pm. See images attached. I think the support (left) has two definite voids. The right head (model) many but they’re spread out. There is definitely a difference between before and after the heads cleaning wizard. I think I ought to run that about 20 more times…! What do you think? Thanks, Juliana
Thanks - it’s hard to beat 99 pounds ($129US) each! I have wasted at least that much and more in my time. I’ll send them a note and see if they can do this kind of thing. Thanks for the link. -J
Thanks for the input. We half-tried the alcohol but the job wasn’t monitored and the alcohol dried up while it was soaking (bad but maybe not catastrophic). We re-hydrated with more alcohol, reinstalled the heads and I’ve been doing head cleaning and pattern checks. I haven’t run a weight test (aka load cell calibration) yet but it’s on my list of things to do. I just found a video on line for it; thank you YouTube! -J
I’ve been running an Alaris30 since 2010, and only had to replace one head this calendar year. Since I only run VeroWhitePlus, I can’t speak to the Durus materials, but my practice has been to more blot with a denatured ethanol dampened cloth, with about a 30 second soak against the heads.
When the one head failed abruptly following a crash, I tried to resuscitate it by flushing it with alcohol, after removing it from the machine. This was not successful, and actually demonstrated a negative result. Consider trying the the ‘solvent’ they sell for long term storage. It’s actually a base like the support, without the curing agents.
Hard to make out from the images exactly, but I was told the print head will need replacing if:
Up to 5-7 nozzles blocked in one place MAX.
Up to 12 nozzles blocked in total across one head.
You can fit the print head yourself.
The printer overlaps the print pattern to compensate for some blocked nozzles, but if more are blocked than detailed above this will have an effect on the parts.
Thanks for these good ideas. Our heads were swapped about a year ago so I think I might have some Durus model material gunk in either head so I have to do the heavy-duty cleaning on either/both. We half-tried the alcohol but the job wasn’t monitored and the alcohol dried up while it was soaking (bad but maybe not catastrophic). We re-hydrated with more alcohol, reinstalled the heads and I’ve been doing head cleaning and pattern checks since then (about 2 weeks). Unfortunately, they’re printing worse than ever now. I have some NaOH here from when we had a Stratasys 1600 SST system (soluble support meant we kept a bath of NaOH for dissolving it). Hopefully it can burn away any of the old gunk and new gunk. It is tempting, however, to pack them up and send them off to the print head recovery company… For $129 (99pounds) each, it seems like they know what they’re doing and I’m just fiddling around. Thanks for your input. So, you don’t expect the NaOH to burn up anything on the inside of the head? I could try using a syringe to push it through the ports… or, we could pay those nice people to do it. Hm. Decisions decisions. -J
Hi Julianna,
I have limited experience with the objet, so I can only speak from observation. First question/comment is that im surprised you dont have it on a service plan. If you’re getting such a low use out of the heads, maybe you should contact stratasys?
how are you identifying that the heads are failing? aka what led you to believe that thats the issue
