Abstract
In 3D printers, the Powder fusion process occurs in a sealed environment called print chamber,
that is kept at negative pressure (relative to client room); the print chamber is sealed not only to
prevent undesired contamination of the client room, but also to avoid unwanted air leaks from
the client room (or by other zone of the 3D printer itself) to the print chamber. In fact, these air
leaks may cause unwanted airflows in the printing area: they cool down only a specific zone of
the printable area, changing the energy balance in this region and therefore affecting Part
Quality.
A difference in printer air leaks worsens the printer-to-printer repeatability, which is crucial for
customers. Also, since these leaks are not controlled, it implies a poor job to job repeatability.
Hence, detecting the air leaks is crucial to ensure robust and repeatable PQ across printers. In
this disclosure we show a process to detect the Air leaks and give the customer or HP Service
engineer recommendations on how to solve them.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
INC, HP, "PROCESS TO DETECT AIR LEAKAGES IN A 3D PRINTER", Technical Disclosure Commons, (October 04, 2021)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/4636