Abnormal loud squeaky noise

Under certain circumstances, the Filament Maker might start emitting loud squeaky noises.

The noise typically becomes cyclic, as the screw spins.

1 – What does it mean ?

When the Filament Maker emits a cyclic, loud, squeaky noise, it indicates that the screw is touching the barrel.

Beside being quite annoying for the user, this phenomenon often indicates that the Filament Maker is operating sub-optimally, and that the extrusion results are being disturbed.

This issue must be fixed before you can achieve good, reliable extrusion results again.

2 – Cause

The screw can be disaligned when a particle is too large to travel through the barrel.

The minor diameter of the screw increasing along the barrel, in order to apply a compression ratio and build pressure. For that reason, it is possible for particles to enter the barrel, but not necessarily come out. Sometimes, when a particle gets stuck and the pressure is sufficient, said particle can essentially push the screw away from the barrel, resulting in a contact on the other side of the screw.

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Stuck particle

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Force which can disalign the screw

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Risk of contact between screw and barrel

The following particles can cause this issue :

  • unmelted particles from previous extrusion runs (in case the hopper wasn’t empty or the transition was incomplete)
  • partially melted particles
  • debris dropped accidentally in the hopper
  • other contaminants (unpurged residue, degraded/burnt material…)

Please note that a particle can remain stuck for a long time, sometimes disturbing your

3 – Solution

The objective is to free the barrel from the stuck particle.

Unless the item is huge and unfracturable (e.g. a metal bolt), you might be able to push it out by purging the Filament Maker.

We recommend a high level purge, followed by a Quality Check.
Please check out paragraphs 3&4 of our Maintenance Guide.