I just got my FFCP and I was printing my first part and just happened to feel the x and y axis motors. they felt way hot for my liking, so I got out my IR temp gun and shot them. The X motor was at 136f and the y motor was at 146f. are these motor temps to hot or am I just being a freak
aero3D
April 23, 2016, 8:27am
2
Quite normal, though I don’t like the temps they get either but the same on many printers including my Finders and Ultimaker. Zortrax motors always stay cool but then printing is not as quick. If you slow the print speed down you should find the temps will drop accordingly.
C or F?
motors at 60-90C are pretty normal.
Hi George,
That’s a perfectly normal temperature for stepper motors. They are designed for precision movement not for efficiency. You needn’t worry unless they get up around 190°F. Then the chassis it’s bolted to will fail. The motor will still be fine at that temperature.
Regards,
Mike
1 Like
That’s not the way stepper motors in the FFCP work. They have a constant current driver. The heat they generate is (practically) constant (P=I²R). Doesn’t matter how fast or slow they move. Only if you stop the printer and disable the stepper motors do they cool down.
aero3D
April 23, 2016, 10:44am
6
Ah OK thanks. Did not know that. Learned something new. Strange how my Zortrax can be printing for 48 hours straight and the motors are barely warm.
That’s not surprising. They probably run the motors with the current set well short of the maximum current. The heat is proportional to current squared so running the motors at 1/2 of their max rated current only gives half of the max rated torque but the motors put out 1/4 of the heat.
Zortrax is a very successful and reliable design from what I have heard, and is operated at very conservative speeds. Their philosophy seems to value print quality and reliability over speed. So they probably run the motors well away from their max ratings.
2 Likes
aero3D
April 23, 2016, 11:37am
8
Thanks for the explanation
jasonk
April 23, 2016, 1:10pm
9
Mine run hot too, I think it’s normal.
After having printed a 800 meter filament, I can say that they continue to do it just right.
The “problem” in the FF is that it has a dual head and which is considerably heavier than, for example, the Ultimaker, which has one head and also a bowden (the heavy motor is not on the track).
Yet I get print speeds up to 100mm/s. So despite the heavy dual, you can significantly boost the speed. Quality loss? Not when everything else is good! The quality is really beautiful once you’re know the machine.
Soon I 'm going to change to my own made bowden system. Will still be testing a lot, but given that both stepper motors go off the rails, I expect to achieve speeds to 150mm/s (which is certainly the goal).
Good luck, you have a very good printer!
Its not really the weight of the head that is the limit on speed, its
1. The pressure in the extruder, as you up the speed, the pressure in the extruder barrel goes up. there are examples of where people have split the barrel of PEAK based extruders, due to excessive pressure,
2. As speed rises, the outflow of energy from hot end has to be replaced, hot plastic extruded carries away energy, which cools to hotend, as it cools the plastic becomes more viscous. The energy needs to be replaced, and if heater is is not up to it, it will limit the top speed yoi can exrrude at.
With the weight i was referring to warming up the steppers.
1. Thanks for this information, that I did not know. 100mm/s is no top speed for the hardware themselves, i have seen customized versions that reach 200/300mm/s.
2.This problem I had already encountered. Above 100mm/s, the quality is not good. You also see that the nozzle getting trouble to work so quickly. Some models you can still get good, like a cube or a vase, but the complex models, the quality is no good. Still, I’m have the subject properly investigated and believe is achievable to get a speed of 200mm/s with still a good print quality.
In addition, the Flash Forge is just a damn good printer. Let him work like a beast and it seems to handle it all good so far. The only thing I find regrettable is the dual head which seems very heavy. Would on the other hand not live without it, do like dual projects such as bronze and copper or PLA and Ninjaflex.
How fast do you think i can go?
I usually follow this guideline, if you can touch the motor with the back of your hand for at least 5s without it causing too much pain, then the temperature is within limits.
Sra1
April 27, 2016, 1:18pm
15
I dont have a ffcp, but I did have hot steppers.
I don’t know if any of these are an option for you, but here’s what I did:
- Tuned the stepper driver current vref
- Added fans - my Y axis lugs more weight than X, it also runs hotter, probably related. I added a small fan to the stepper, same kind as they use on graphics cards in PCs.
I personally purchased 5x5 mm heat sinks with 3M glue for all the steppers on my Replicator 2X… they do tend to get really hot at times… but that’s only because I do prints right after prints… so these heat sinks allow faster cooling into the chamber… but overall they will get really hot and there’s nothing anyone can do about it lol! unless you run hydro-cooling on each stepper… but money wise it doesn’t speak to me…
