Changing Material/ filament.

Fracktal Printers support a wide variety of materials. This article will guide you through the procedure to change filament.

To Change the filament we need to unload the existing filament first.

Note: While changing filament, always select the filament with higher melting point in filament change settings.

ex: If you have used ABS and want to change to PLA, while unloading the previous spool and loading the new spool select ABS as the material even though you are loading PLA. 

'

The rule of thumb is to select the material which has higher melting point. 

Reason: Sometimes the material from previous filament with higher melting point get stuck inside and hinders the extrusion.

Ex: If ABS you unload ABS filament there will little bit of residue ABS which melts around 230' C. When you install new PLA spool and select PLA option, the new spool will be loaded at 190'C. In this case the ABS particles stuck inside the nozzle will not melt and block the Nozzle. If you load the PLA selecting ABS, the Nozzle temperature will be around 250' C which will melt the ABS filament in the nozzle and will avoid blockage of Nozzle.

Please follow the steps given below to change the filament.

1. Click on the Settings button

  To load new filament first from the main menu select the control option.

   

                           

After you click on control press the spool icon to get the filament change wizard.

          The filament change wizard screen should look something like the image shown above.

Press on the filament change icon on the top right corner

         

                            

That should bring up filament change menu and should look something like the image shown below

Select the type of filament you want change with for example you want to add PLA, select PLA from the filament select drop down menu.

Note: This step is only for Dual Nozzle printers.

[Select the nozzle for which you want to change the

filament from the extruder.

 Select the required nozzle by clicking on 

the arrows or on the nozzle number.]

If there is previously a filament present then press unload icon. The UI is simple and will guide you through the steps to unload filament.

*If previously there was no material which was loaded skip this step.

Once the filament is unloaded press the load filament icon.

Press the extruder arm and insert the filament.  

Note: 1. Do not press the extruded arm much, slight pressing to make way for filament is enough.

           2. The filament will not be exactly straight and sometimes will miss the filament hole while inserting. In such slight rotate the filament to take filament near                      hole.

When you press load icon the printer should start heating the extruder to facilitate the loading of the filament and the window should look something like the image shown below.

 Press

Once the extruder is heated according to the type of filament you had selected another window should appear which something like this looks

After this window appears, press extrude to check if the filament is loaded properly and if everything goes well you can see fine extrusions from the extruder.

When finished, press done. And there you have it, a successfully changed filament!

The fine extrusions that come out should look some like the image shown on the side

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