This topic contains 26 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by 
BHudson 1 year, 1 month ago.
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Head hours are displayed in the advanced tray Head tab.
Quoted figures are from testing in our factory, we leave a loop of gcode running the head indefinitely.
In theory the head should be the first to fail due to the temperature changes. In the past we had that issue with seals failing but this has not happened with new production.
@lawbayly On my production printer, I have seen close to 1500 hours before I had a failure that required serious maintenance, not including the head. I don’t have new production heads, but all my heads to date are running about 500 to 600 hours before a failure. I have not had a new extruder fail at all. Between my three printers, I have run through over 18 pounds of material and have had only one serious issue with my production machine. The Beta units have their quirks but once brought up to production status they have been just as reliable so far.
There are some preventive maintenance items that must be done - a purge after every 20-30 hours of PLA or ABS printing, cleaning the bed after every print, adding a tiny amount of lubrication to the rails the bearings slide on after about 100 hours of printing, and cleaning out any debris from the printing process and from the nozzles.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t had failed prints, just not hardware failures except that one on the production machine. I run my machines for long prints quite often and leave them overnight without issue.
I operate two Betas and four Production Robox.
I am the US/Canada Technical Support engineer for the Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/benOn the lubrication front, I’m not keen on using the supplied oil. Whether its the environment here or just in general, but I find that it attracts a lot of dust which in turn leads to crud building up in the fine threads.
I’m trying PTFE dry lubricant at the moment (this particular lubricant is made by the people that make WD40). The PTFE is dissolved in a solvent, which makes it liquid until the solvent evaporates. Due to the nature of the applicator it’s best to spray some into a small pot and then apply with a stiff modelling brush, then leave until the solvent has evaporated.
At the moment it seems to work well, the threaded rods are dry to the touch but seem to resist the dirt accumulation I was experiencing before. I’ve also used it on my rifle bolts and it seems to work just as well there.
I recently came across totally lubrication-free polymer bearings from a rather large manufacturer named Igus on a prototyping trade fair here in Frankfurt. They are primarily used in industrial plants and robotics, but Igus just began promoting their use in 3d printers as well. I was seriously impressed on how smoothly they glide on metal and asked Igus to supply some samples to CEL. Fingers crossed.
@dr-woo IGUS was consulted early on with the Robox design process. The cost of an IGUS bearing for the Robox is something in the order of 100 times what the linear bearings cost. IGUS makes great products, but the cost of using them on the Robox would have meant that the cost of the printer would have increased significantly. There is also the problem of accuracy. Linear ball bearings have a small amount of spring in them that helps the bearing stay centered on the rail. IGUS bearings do not have this play and must be individually adjusted to ensure that they run smoothly. I have used them in several occasions and while they are great when used properly, the amount of tweaking required to get them to be as accurate as the linear ball bearing used currently would further drive the price of the printer up.
@dmullerdesign The only lubricant that should be applied to the Z axis threads is white lithium grease. The included machine oil is only intended to be used on the bearing guides and not on the screws or the upper gantry bar. I have been experimenting with PTFE grease on the threads but I have not found any discernable advantage over white lithium except for the smell.
I operate two Betas and four Production Robox.
I am the US/Canada Technical Support engineer for the Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/ben@bhudson I wonder why you have all those insights on the Robox development? 🙂 No offense, just curiosity.
Isn’t there a cheaper alternative to IGUS, e.g. from a chinese supplier? I know that IGUS also has radial ball bearings, so linear ball bearings should be available/possible too.
@dr-woo I have insight on this one because I suggested it about a year ago or more when the original set of linear bearings failed on one of my Beta units and someone at Robox, I forget who, told me what I just told you.
The problem with a cheap Chinese alternative is that the formulas of the plastic are critical and from what I can tell, the Chinese haven’t yet solved that issue and IGUS isn’t sharing.
Linear ball bearings with IGUS plastics would not provide any benefit over the existing linear ball bearings, would wear out faster because they are softer than steel, and would likely be larger. And anything with IGUS on it will cost you an arm and a leg.
I operate two Betas and four Production Robox.
I am the US/Canada Technical Support engineer for the Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/benCouldn’t you have told me this two days ago? I just asked the IGUS sales guy to “bomb” CEL with samples 😀
@dr-woo Sorry! If I had known you were going to do that I would have shared! CEL has a bunch of samples already; I saw them when I was there for training. I am sure they can use more doorstops. 😉
I operate two Betas and four Production Robox.
I am the US/Canada Technical Support engineer for the Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/ben@bhudson Well, it wouldn’t have helped as the search functionality in this forum is pretty useless and broken anyway (I always only get only the first twelve results, second page is empty).
The Igus Igludur stuff is (now) also available a 3d printable filament, and it’s not even that expensive if I recall correctly. Comes in various flavors. I grabbed a sample on their booth at formnext (recent prototyping and tooling trade fair here in Frankfurt).
@dr-woo I have a sample of that material also. I haven’t tried it yet. I did get a 6mm reamer so that I can try to 3D print bearings for one Robox just to see if I can do it.
I don’t use search; I just keep an eye on the most recent posts. It usually lets me keep a finger on the pulse of the forums and is really all I have time for at the moment.
I operate two Betas and four Production Robox.
I am the US/Canada Technical Support engineer for the Robox.
See my 3D Hub site at https://www.3dhubs.com/phoenix/hubs/ben
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