Hello,

Currently i'm designing a new printhead for a 3D printer. This is a engineeringsproject for school, i'm in the second year of mechanical engineering.

A big issue with FFF 3D printers is jamming of the filament inside the extruder. I designed a new extruder in SolidWorks and i want to simulate the behavior of the liquide thermplastic inside the extruder. I attached a very simple design so you can see where it's about. The 6.2mm hole is for a 40 Watt heatercardridge for heating the nozzle. When the nozzle is hot the plastic melts in the heatcamber and will be pushed outside true the 0.35mm hole.

Is it possible to simulate this within SolidWorks? I want to study the behavior of the liquide plastic so i can design a reliable new extruder.

Specifications:

Material nozzle            Aluminium

Printing material          ABS

Working Temp            30degree

Velocity filament         0.76mm/sec

Heatercardridge         40Watt

Nozzle diameter          ø35mm

Filament diameter      ø1.75mm

Thanks,

John