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3. Re-tighten the screws to hold the panel.
Repeat the product, going around the enclosure looking to make sure all of the panels
are flush to each other.
10. Managing Enclosure Temperatures
There's not much to a 3D printer enclosure. Although ours look fancy, functionally they're not
much different than putting a cardboard box over the printers since both designs are passively
heated by the beds. How complicated can they be? This section will explain a little about how
they work, and how to manage the temperatures to get quality prints while protecting your
lungs.
We generally get two types of customers:
1.
Those interested mostly in air quality.
2.
Those interested mostly in print quality.
Think Airflow, Not Fishtank
The problem is those two goals use two different techniques in terms of airflow. For the best
air quality, we use the same design as industrial equipment, which uses airflow to manage air
quality. Because of physics, the amount of air moving into the enclosure has to be equal to the
air moving out of the enclosure. When the air moves out of the enclosure carrying volatile
organic compounds it can then be vented to the outside or run through an air filter.
People often ask us if the enclosures are airtight and have a bottom. If your main concern is air
quality then being airtight doesn't buy you anything since the particles will just float out when
you open the door. It's only by maintaining a negative air pressure that the particles are reliably
kept away from human operators, which means having openings for air to both enter and exit
the enclosure.
If the maximum internal temperature is the goal, then being airtight also doesn't help since the
main cause of heat loss is through conduction through the sides of the enclosure, not through
small amounts of air loss. A bottom doesn't help either since while heat doesn't rise, hot air
does, and thus almost all of the heat of an enclosure is at the top. A bottom is helpful,
however, if your table is too small for the enclosure.
Copyright 2020 3DUPfitters LLC
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