What Is Happening Within Your Enclosure?
Your 3D printer will benefit greatly from being enclosed. Dust can be difficult to remove and can eventually start jamming things if you don’t, thus it protects the printer from it. It greatly reduces the noise. You won’t have to breathe in unpleasant and maybe harmful fumes because it keeps them within. It gathers all the seemingly insignificant scraps of plastic and filament and prevents them from spreading throughout the house. However, 3d printer enclosure mostly retains heat and shields your printer from temperature fluctuations that can warp or distort your prints. This may mean the difference between a successful print and a messy failure for some filaments.
Filaments With Temperature Sensitivity
The most popular material for 3D printers, PLA prints at relatively low temperatures. You won’t actually require a 3d printer enclosure for PLA, despite what the majority of 3D printing tutorials would claim, and you’ll probably still get decent results without one. But enclosures also offer all the other advantages I mentioned, and I myself would use one even if I just ever printed PLA.
Other filaments are not even close to as forgiving as PLA. For instance, ABS is renowned for being temperature-sensitive; if it isn’t printed onto a heated bed and then allowed to cool reasonably slowly, it is vulnerable to significant warping. More exotic materials like polycarbonate also require temperature control, as does nylon, another material that like being kept warm while printing.
Can Something Go Too Hot?
Therefore, if you want to print ABS or other higher-temperature materials, you definitely need an enclosure. However, if you’re dealing with PLA, is it feasible that an enclosure might really be detrimental? In actuality, it is. There may be major problems if the temperature around your printer is too high and the cooling rate of the produced layers is too slow. The top layer of PLA will have difficulties adhering to the subsequent layer if it is too hot, for strange reasons that I don’t even attempt to comprehend. As more layers are added and the weight of the upper layers causes the lower layers to bend, unsupported parts that would ordinarily be fine may sag. In the worst circumstances, layers may just collapse. With PLA, the potential of enclosure overheating exists.
I’ve discovered that the Ender 3 can successfully print PLA 3D models inside the sealed container during the winter. The major problem I have is excessive stringing, but occasionally things can also become droopy, especially in the summer when it can get a little warm in my workplace. Fortunately, there is an easy fix; I simply unzip the enclosure’s front, place the flap on top, and roll up the side panel. This allows for sufficient airflow to keep the temperature down. I close the box once again to prevent dust and plastic shavings out when I’m not printing.
To get the best prints, you must tinker and experiment; 3D printing is unquestionably still at least as much an art as a science. Are there any unforeseen issues you’ve encountered with 3d printer enclosure? If so, how did you resolve them? Comment below and let us know!
