¶ Prime Tower
In the Neo version 2024.3.0930, a Prime Tower Base has been added to enhance the stability of the Prime Tower.
¶ Concept and Function of a Prime Tower (Wipe Tower)
A prime tower (also known as a wipe tower or purge tower) is an important concept in 3D printing, primarily used to clean the residual material from the nozzle during printing. This ensures that the nozzle remains clean when switching materials or at the start of printing. The main functions of a prime tower include the following:
¶ 1. Removing Residual Material
- Material Switching: When switching between different materials, the nozzle may contain residual material from the previous print. Extruding a certain amount of the new material onto the prime tower can clear out these residues, ensuring only the current material is in the nozzle.
- Print Start: At the beginning of a print, the nozzle may contain residual material or impurities from the air. The prime tower helps clear these impurities, ensuring the material is pure when starting the print.
¶ 2. Preheating the Nozzle
- Temperature Stability: The prime tower also helps preheat the nozzle to the appropriate temperature, allowing the new material to extrude smoothly. This aids in maintaining temperature stability throughout the printing process.
¶ 3. Calibrating Extrusion Amount
- Extrusion Calibration: By observing the extrusion marks on the prime tower, the extrusion amount of the nozzle can be calibrated to ensure accurate extrusion during the print. This helps improve print quality and reduce defects.
¶ 4. Preventing Material Mixing
- Material Separation: In multi-material printing, the prime tower helps separate different materials to avoid mixing that could cause print defects. By extruding different materials onto the prime tower, each material remains pure during printing.
¶ 5. Improving Print Quality
- Reducing Defects: By clearing residual materials and preheating the nozzle, the prime tower can reduce defects such as bubbles, voids, and poor layer adhesion. This improves the overall quality and reliability of the printed object.
¶ Prime Tower Settings
- Position: The prime tower is usually located at the edge or corner of the build plate to avoid interfering with the main print area.
- Size: The size of the prime tower can be adjusted based on the printer's extrusion amount and printing requirements. Generally, the height and width should be sufficient to accommodate enough extruded material.
- Material: The prime tower can use the same material as the print or a more easily removable material (such as PVA) to facilitate removal after printing.
¶ Prime Tower parameters
| parameter name | parameter value | parameter meaning | Parameter Adjustment Impact Illustration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enable Prime Tower | Enable Prime Tower when printing the model. | ||
| 2 | Prime Tower Height Type | TA full-height prime tower refers to each tower within the prime tower being printed to its designed full height. This means that the height of each tower is consistent and reaches the maximum height set during the design phase. A normal-height prime tower, on the other hand, indicates that each tower within the prime tower is printed to a normal range of its designed height. This means that the heights of the towers may not be completely uniform but are all within a reasonable range. |
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| 3 | Circular Prime Tower | Activate the circular prime tower. |
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| 4 | Prime Tower Type | Interlaced Nested |
The alternate sequential prime tower refers to arranging each tower within the prime tower in an alternating order. For example, if the prime tower consists of four towers named A, B, C, and D, the possible arrangement would be A, C, B, D. The nested prime tower refers to arranging each tower within the prime tower in a nested manner. For example, if the prime tower consists of four towers named A, B, C, and D, the possible arrangement would be A nested within B, B nested within C, and C nested within D. |
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| 5 | Prime Tower Size | The size of the prime tower, when it is a circle, refers to the diameter of the circle. When it is a square, it refers to the length of the square's sides. |
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| 6 | Prime Tower Line Count | The number of coils in the printed prime tower. |
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| 7 | Prime Tower Base Size | The width of the prime tower base. A larger base enhances adhesion to the build plate, but also reduces the effective print area. |
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| 8 | Prime Tower Base Height | The height of the prime tower base. Increasing this value will result in a more sturdy prime tower because the base will be wider. If this setting is too low, the prime tower will not have a sturdy base. | ||
| 9 | Prime Tower Base Slope | The magnitude factor used for the slope of the base, with the slope being the priority. When the number of layers reaches the same size as the prime tower, the base will stop increasing. As the value increases, the base will become thinner. | ||
| 10 | Prime Tower Line Width | The line width of the printed prime tower. | ||
| 11 | Prime Tower Flow | The flow compensation for printing the prime tower. | ||
| 12 | Prime Tower Speed | The printing speed for the prime tower. | ||
| 13 | Prime Tower Acceleration | The acceleration during the printing of the prime tower. | ||
| 14 | Prime Tower Jerk | The maximum instantaneous velocity change during the printing of the prime tower. | ||
| 15 | Wipe Inactive Nozzle | Wipe off oozed material on the prime tower after using one nozzle. If this feature is enabled, the printer will wipe the residue from the previous nozzle on the prime tower after pre-filling the next nozzle. | ||
| 16 | Wipe Nozzle After Switch | Wipe off oozed material on the first printed object after switching extruder. | ||
| 17 | Prime Tower Purge Volume | Purge filament to compensate for lost filament during nozzle inactivity. |
¶ Prime tower and adhesion
The relationship between the Prime tower and adhesion in Neo is one of mutual constraint. When the adhesion type is set to Skirt/Brim, the Brim and Skirt are printed outside the base of the Prime tower. Conversely, when the adhesion type is set to Raft, both the Prime tower and its base are printed on top of the Raft. Please refer to the diagram below for specifics.
