Hi, we have 7 Zortrax M200 printers and recently one of them has started producing really poor prints. It doesn’t matter what part is printed, it’s poor quality and you take the file to another printer and it prints perfectly.
Photo above is how the filament is coming out of the extruder (when loading filament). The other machines have a nice smooth surface finish. This is like its blistered and becomes quite brittle.
The following tests/checks have been completed even to the point where parts have been swapped between machines and the problem cant be replicated on the other machine.
Removed nozzle & hot-end and clean thoroughly, twice. (swapped out with another machine as well, didn’t make any difference).
Checked extruder cable connections, replaced extruder cable with new cable (did this twice with 2 new cables just to be sure) still no difference.
Carried out the extruder motor test (with x -axis motor) no change, so swapped with a known working extruder motor, still no change.
Swapped out filament (ABS) from working machine, still poor print. Also swapped this machines filament into known working machine and print was perfect.
Checked resistance of the heater which is 15ohms.
Any help on where to look now would be appreciated.
have you checked the extruder fans? If not - please, run the fan test via menu and check if both fans are operational. Then increase the fan speed to 100% in Z-SUITE and print a calibration cube again (make sure the fan works during the print as well). In general, the model looks overheated, so despite the fact the resistance on the heater seems fine - it still might require replacement. Please, swap this component as well so we can look further into the matter if there is no improvement.
I ran the fan test and neither fan would work when enabled. I removed the extruder fan and connected it to a printer that I have run the test on and both fans worked. When I connected this fan to this printer and ran the test, the fan worked. As mentioned before I have changed the extruder cable twice with new cables with no luck. Are there any further test I can do to check the power supply for the fans, or is this a circuit board problem?
thank you for checking what I asked for. As fans themselves are fine - I would suggest swapping the extruder PCB now, as this component is responsible for proper operation of all components plugged into it. As a last resort - the motherboard might be at fault, but we should not suspect its failure for the time being. Please, check the PCB first.
