heater cartridge

Has anyone ever used these heater cartridges ? Here's what they say on the website:

Cartridge heaters are the industrial way to heat up your hot end. They will heat it up faster, more consistently and look a lot nicer in the process than power resistors. They are insulated with magnesium oxide and encased in aType 304 stainless steel sheath that is 5mm in diameter.

12v Power Required Maximum Temperature of 600° C.

Here is the link, I noticed they sell them on eBay as well. I just wanted to know if anyone's used them or if they work better. Also has anyone bought extruders from qu-bd.com I also would like to know if they are a reliable company with good products. Thanks.

[store.qu-bd.com]

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My kit (I bought used/partially completed) came with one of these heaters for the poor hot end. It has lower resistance than the heat resistors and will therefore draw more current and it makes sense it would heat up faster. It's also longer and would extend past the nozzle a bit on both ends so there will be some inefficiencies from that. I bought a new hot end and it came with a regualr resistor so I have both options available.

I'm currently leaning toward using the resistor because that seems more common/known and reduces the amount of current running through my little Sanguinololu board (which has been a concern of mine after looking at those little traces).

I'll be interested in what you find out.

I have a similar one in 6mm dia length 24 mm on my J_head. Works flawlessly but it is mandatory to be in PID mode.
In bang-bang mode, it heats so quickly that it would overshoot by 12°C or more. In PID mode, pronterface reports regulation to be less than 1°C so it is perfect. came with very nice wires long enough to go directly to the ramps

A 12V 30W version is sold by some german vendors so would heat a little slower.

here is mine. lot cheaper too :
[www.paoparts.com]

Thanks for the info alj_rprp that's what I've been looking to find out. Also how is it mounted. Is it ran through the j- head heater block similar to the resister. I will be at my shop soon and I am thinking about making a custom block to fit the heater cartridge.

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alj_rprp. Are you located in the US. I was thinking after I make a modified j-head to fit and use the heater cartridge I could make another one for you.

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thanks, but I'm in europa.

the cartridge fit in the resistor hole, it is just a bit longer.
My J-head has a grub screw to fix it. I used fire cement to insure that there is good thermal conductivity both on cartridge and thermistor.

i had bought a qu-bd, which didnt work at all, it came with one, and man that thing heats up really quick compared to the power resistor. then the leads broke off so i ordered another, then the hot end kept jamming so i bought the europa hot end off ebay, and ive never looked back, although i have considered sticking the heater cartridge in, but i need a .5mmx6mm copper shim in order to fit it correctly. also it would probably keep the hot end hotter while blowing air on the print which is always good.

Hi Buddy, That is the exact one I use in the BerryBot3D. I only have 10 prints on my new machine but it did work great yesterday about 11 hours printing Mr. Yoda. I was holding very good temp 245c. Good luck Buddy!
Werner

yeah mine just never worked well with pla, i think my barrel was not polished enough. i may give it a go, but i have two of the europas basically and the guy who makes them is the best, he sends me new stuff to test all the time. the advantage of the europa is it has a water cooled heat exchanger, so it keeps the weight down by removing the fan and heatsink and adding a smaller copper block with lightweight silicon tubes for water to run through it. this allows the temperature to be controlled better and allows the meltzone length to be changed(bigger for faster printing, smaller for more detail). i will probably make the qu-bd into a plastic welder.

Aduy could you post some detailed pics of your setup. It sounds great and I'd like to get a better look. Thanks.

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ok heres some pics of my prusa, i had to redo some gears since the first photo, and i also added a fan too cool the print as it goes along, which makes it look way way better and less melty. notice the fan shroud is acetone vapor smoothed and its two colors. also heres the ebay page [www.ebay.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2013 03:57AM by aduy.

Correct me if I am wrong but 12V and 40W is too powerful if you are using a ramps board. That's almost all the 5amps just for the hotend.
Or am I missing something?

40W on 12V, that is 3.3A and with PWM on, only about 60% duty for 200°C.
steppers are 1.6A max but also not on 100% duty. so that falls under the 5A at 100% duty.

Classic resistors are 6.8 Ohms so give just below 2 amps. And with less wattage, they have a higher duty, because the heat to furnish to the head is the same.

In any case that works flawlessly here. The circuitery may limit current to what it can furnish.

As I said before, there is a 30W version available too.

alj_rprp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 40W on 12V, that is 3.3A and with PWM on, only
> about 60% duty for 200°C.
> steppers are 1.6A max but also not on 100% duty.
> so that falls under the 5A at 100% duty.
>
> Classic resistors are 6.8 Ohms so give just below
> 2 amps. And with less wattage, they have a higher
> duty, because the heat to furnish to the head is
> the same.
>
> In any case that works flawlessly here. The
> circuitery may limit current to what it can
> furnish.
>
> As I said before, there is a 30W version available
> too.

Ahh...good..also just realised I had 50W not 40W in my mind...don't ask me why..one of those days

May have to get one and try it out.

Thanks

Cheers
Jan

im using a 220v version on my heated bed 8x100mm cartridge.
i got some 20x20mm aluminium square bar and drilled an 8mm hole off centre to one side.
drilled and tapped 2x 4mm holes into the block which i attached to my aluminium bed with 2x countersunk screws.

it works like a dream.
Im using painters Blue tape on the surface of the bed.

just need to stop my x axis going off on a tangent now and i will be up there with the elite.

Is JT a spam bot?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2013 12:11PM by REPRAP SQUAD.

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I am using a 1.75mm hot end from GRRF (a German RepRap company) that comes with a 12V 20W heater cartridge. While that doesn't give you the advantage of much faster heat up compared to power resistors, I like the fact that the cartridge is designed for this purpose and will most likely not break apart like a power resistor after taking it out for whatever reason. Also, it is a tight friction fit, so no fire cement, high temperature silicone or the like is needed, although at first, I was worried that it might fall out (which it didn't so far after 2 or 3 weeks).
The thing I don't like is that it sticks out of the heater block way too much on both ends. About 10 mm overall are exposed, so a lot of energy is wasted.
But other than that, I am quite happy with a heater cartridge as it also has the added benefit of not needing solder joints and heat shrink tubes subjected to high temperatures (yeah, saw a solder joint break on a resistor).

That's what I'm thinking about doing. Adding it to my list when I machine the new set of j head hot ends. I'm going to make the heater block a lil bit longer to compensate for the length. Which I believe will make the use of the cartridges more efficient. I like the overall concept. I think I will buy one of each for testing through the modified j head hot end I'm making with interchangeable nozzles. One 20w, one 30w, and one 40w. I will be testing them extensively to see what the most efficient system is. If anyone is interested I will keep them updated. Thanks for all your input.

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The efficiency comes down to how much heat you lose, which is proportional to the surface area of the heater block. Smaller heater blocks using resistors are more efficient than cartridge heaters, which are all too big for this application IMHO.

What makes you think JT is a spam bot? Doesn't look like spam to me.

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I dunno I think I read part of what he said wrong I was half awake. I know he's not now. I agree nopehead. Also there is a guy on the prusa forum under Prusa i3 sgraber mod - in aluminum [group buy] needs some info on dibond in the UK. [forums.reprap.org]

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Sir I made some changes in extruder head and now i need 2 heating cartridges to use in a single extruder head. so, Can I connect 2 heater cartridges to ramp 1.4 board?
what are the possibilities of something happen to wrong with ramp and arduino, if i do in this way.