Air cooled and water cooled hot end

Hi Friends,

I am confused with the terms of Air cooled and water cooled hot ends.

Could you please explain what are these hot end and how they are working?

I google it, but couldnt find the answer.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
Selva

A hot-end is the part of the extruder that melts the filament. Starting at the bottom and working upward, it has a nozzle attached to a heater block, a heat-break, usually stainless steel, that is intended to prevent the heat from creeping up the hot-end assembly toward the motor, and a "cold" part that attaches to the motor. Above the heat break, it is desirable to keep the temperature as close to ambient (or lower) as possible. To that end, the cold-end of a hot-end will often have a heat sink. An air cooled hot end has a fan blowing air across that heat sink. A water cooled hot-end has water circulating over that heat sink.

Most printers use air cooled hot-ends. Water cooled hot-ends are mostly useful for printers with heated build chambers where the ambient temperature would make air cooling unworkable.

Water cooled systems add tubing, pumps, heat exchangers, reservoirs, and ultimately increase the moving mass of the extruder carriage, so unless your printer really needs water cooling, it's best to avoid the extra complications.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

They are referring to the method that cools the section of the hotend between the hot end (part that melts the plastic) and cold end (where the plastic enters the assembly and where it is mounted to the carriage. Air cooled hotends use small fans to blow air across a heatsink to carry heat away from the cold end whereas water cooled use a jacket around the cold end that has water pumped through it and to a radiator to carry heat away. The most common is air cooled

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Prusa i3 Rework - Ramps 1.4 - E3d Lite6 - Full Graphic LCD Controller

Thanks for the reply. It has fully satisfied my question. Again I got some links which gave good explanation.

[reprap.org]

OPAM Water cooled hot end : [www.youtube.com]

Water Cooled Makergear RepRap Prusa: [www.youtube.com]