ReDeTec ProtoCycler User manual

UserM
UserM
anual
RELEASE 1.0

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 3
2. PROTOCYCLER LAYOUT ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
3. IMPORTANT LIMITATIONS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2
3.1. P
ULLER
W
HEELS
S
QUISHING
............................................................................................................................................................... 2
3.2. C
OLORED
VS T
RANSPARENT
P
LASTIC
.................................................................................................................................................... 2
3.3. D
RY
VS W
ET
P
LASTIC
........................................................................................................................................................................ 3
3.4. R
EGRIND
S
IZE
& E
XTRUDING
R
ECYCLED
P
LASTIC
..................................................................................................................................... 4
3.5. A
MBIENT
T
EMPERATURE
.................................................................................................................................................................... 4
4. EXTRUSION ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
4.1. S
AFETY
O
VERVIEW
............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
4.2. S
POOLER
S
ETUP
............................................................................................................................................................................... 6
4.3. A
UTOMATIC
E
XTRUSION
.................................................................................................................................................................... 8
4.4. S
POOLER
C
LUTCH
T
ENSION
A
DJUSTMENT
............................................................................................................................................ 10
4.5. M
ANUAL
E
XTRUSION
(A
DVANCED
) .................................................................................................................................................... 10
4.6. E
XTRUDER
N
OZZLE
R
EMOVAL
/ R
EPLACEMENT
..................................................................................................................................... 14
5. GRINDER OPERATION ............................................................................................................................................................................... 15
5.1. S
AFETY
O
VERVIEW
.......................................................................................................................................................................... 15
5.2. F
IRST
T
IME
S
ETUP
........................................................................................................................................................................... 15
5.3. O
PERATION
................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
5.4. S
ORTING
G
ROUND
M
ATERIAL
........................................................................................................................................................... 16
6. TROUBLESHOOTING .................................................................................................................................................................................. 16

1. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to ProtoCycler, your all-in-one recycling system for 3D printing plastics! ProtoCycler has been designed to provide
an easy to use experience and automatically take care of the extrusion process for you, using an advanced control system
to monitor and control operation. There are, however, several areas of the control and user experience that are still being
improved, and so certain limitations must be adhered to for smooth operation.
This user manual details basic setup and operation of ProtoCycler, including key limitations such as constraints on the size
of ground particles for extrusion, and safety warnings. To avoid bodily harm or damage to your machine, it is recommended
that you read this entire document before proceeding with operation. For further troubleshooting and documentation,
please check out http://www.redetec.com/support .
2. PROTOCYCLER LAYOUT
Spooler
ControlArea
GrinderCrank
UserInterface
GrinderLid

ExtruderHopper
Figure 1.1 ProtoCycler Front Layout

1
Figure 1.3 Control Area Layout
GrinderDrawer Spreader WasteChute
Figure 1.2 ProtoCycler Sides Layouts. (Left) Left Side View, (Right)
Right Side View

2
3. IMPORTANT LIMITATIONS
3.1. Puller Wheels Squishing
The plastic is pulled from the extruder nozzle using 2 wheels. These 2 wheels have soft silicone tires, and use a spring to
hold force between them for gripping the filament. It has recently come to our attention that leaving the spring engaged for
extended periods of time while ProtoCycler is not operating can lead to the silicone tires compressing, resulting in a flat
spot on the tire that can effect extrusion consistency.
IMPORTANT: Leaving the spring attached while not extruding can cause a flat spot in your puller tire which may affect
extrusion! Always disengage the puller spring and flip the puller wheel over when finished extrusion to avoid this.
ProtoCycler ships with the spring disengaged and the idler arm flipped over so that the weight is not compressing the
wheels. Before extrusion, the arm must be flipped and spring engaged, and after extrusion it must be returned to this
position. See Figure 3.1 and 3.2 for illustration of storage position vs operating position.
Note: If your puller wheels have been compressed and have a flat spot on them that is effecting extrusion, please refer to
the troubleshooting guide on how to mitigate this.
3.2. Colored VS Transparent Plastic
Due to the nature of the diameter sensors used for control, ProtoCycler does not currently support extruding
transparent filaments. For a naturally transparent plastic such as PLA, colorants must be added to make the filament
opaque.
The diameter measurement is performed through shining an LED across the filament and using an array of photo resistors
to measure the shadow. Transparent filament acts as a lens rather than blocking the light, and as the position of the
filament changes relative to the light the angle of the lensing also changes. As of this release we have plans for improving
this but have not yet implemented a solution.
Included with ProtoCycler is a sample of colorants to use with the included plastic, and additional colorants may be
purchased from ReDeTec along with plastic pellets.
Figure 3.1 Puller Storage Position Figure 3.2 Puller Operating Position

3
3.3. Dry VS Wet Plastic
All plastic is inherently hygroscopic, meaning it readily absorbs moisture from the air into it's molecular structure. This
moisture is your enemy when it comes to extrusion! Extruding with wet plastic will cause the moisture to be vaporized
during extrusion, causing bubbles in the output and vastly changing the extrusion properties. In most cases this will prevent
from achieving high quality consistent filament.
Extruding wet plastic will likely produce unusable filament! Depending on the grade, the plastic may absorb moisture
from the air very quickly. Thus it is very important to follow a strict regimen of properly drying, and managing your
dried plastic before extrusion.
The drying process is simple and may be done using an oven, toaster oven, or food dehydrator. If using an oven or toaster
oven the moist air must be removed for proper drying. Plastic manufacturers will give specific recommendations on drying
temperatures and times. Temperatures and times used for ABS and PLA are shown in Table 1.
Plastic Temp Time (hrs)
PLA (4043D) 80°C (175°F) 4
ABS (250-X10) 80-90°C (175-194°F) 4
Table 1. Drying Guide for ReDeTec Supported Plastics
After drying, plastic must immediately be stored in an air-tight container or bag with desiccants until extrusion, otherwise it
will quickly reabsorb moisture from the air again.
All pellets purchased from ReDeTec inc. come pre-dried with desiccants in a sealed bag. This ensures that the plastic is dry
and ready to extrude right away, but do not forget that while exposed to air the plastic will be absorbing moisture, and if
left out for too long will need to be re-dried. Absorption rate is fully dependent on the ambient humidity, so you can slow
this process by operating in a dry environment.
Ground plastic parts on the other hand, will have had plenty of time exposed to the environment, and must always be dried
for best results. Best practice is to collect sorted, ground bits in a bag or container until you have enough to dry and extrude
a full batch.

4
3.4. Regrind Size & Extruding Recycled Plastic
VERY IMPORTANT: The size of pellets/regrind particles entering your extruder is very important. If media is too large in
any dimension, it can jam your extruder. Using 100% regrind can also lead to jamming. De-jamming is a difficult process
which may require partial disassembly of your unit.
1. The appropriate pellet size that can be used in your ProtoCycler’s Extruder is 0.125" to 0.2" in diameter. Pellets
that do not fit in this size range will not pass through the Extruder Hopper Filter.
Particles over 0.2" in any dimension may jam your extruder
While having some portion of pellets be undersized is fine, the extruder hasn't been tested with high
concentration of small particles yet.
WARNING: The Extruder Hopper Filter does not replace the act of proper pre-sorting. The Extruder Hopper Filter is a
final protection for the Extruder to reduce the chances of issues. It is your responsibility to ensure proper sorting
before using ground recycled plastic.
Use the sorting mechanism to ensure all of your regrind particles are small enough. See section on sorting in Grinder
section.
2. Regrind must be mixed with virgin pellets. 50% recycled plastic is the recommended regrind ratio, though up to
70% with well ground regrind has been successful.
Extruding 100% regrind may jam your extruder
High consistency in size of your regrind will improve filament quality
3.5. Ambient Temperature
The ambient temperature of ProtoCycler's surrounding environment has a large effect on its ability to cool filament. Too
high of ambient temperature and the filament will not be cooled enough and may be stretched by the spooler. Too low of
ambient temperature may cause overcooling, making the filament too rigid to be spooled properly.
22C-26C is ProtoCycler's ideal ambient temperature range. Operation outside of this range may cause problems with
spooling.
If you are unable to operate in this temperature range, you will likely have to tune cooling/spooling for the conditions in
which you are operating. Refer to the troubleshooting guide on tuning spooling/cooling. It is important that you then try to
keep the ambient temperature as constant as possible, or you may need to re-tune again.

5
4. EXTRUSION
4.1. Safety Overview
Please thoroughly review the safety precautions before proceeding with extruder operation. Failure to do so may result
in serious injury or irreparable damage to your device!
Figure 4.1 ProtoCycler General Safety Practices
Figure 4.2 Extrusion Safety Practices

6
4.2. Spooler Setup
Please follow the images in Figure 4.4 on the next page for an illustration of these instructions.
3. Pull out the Spooler base from the side of your ProtoCycler and retrieve the spooler parts from the packaging
(parts shown in Figure 4.3).
Figure 4.3 Spooler Parts
4. Slide the spooler shaft through the bearing in the motor mount bracket in the direction shown.
5. Slide the Spacer onto the shaft so it rests against the bearing and is clear of the pin hole in the shaft.
6. Slide the Pin into the hole in the shaft and hold it there.
7. Slide Spool Hub 1 onto the shaft as shown, ensure the pin seats properly into its groove.
NOTE: Spool Hub 1 does NOT have a nut in it!
8. Place a spool over the shaft so it rests against the tapered face of Hub 1.
9. Thread Hub 2 onto the shaft and spin until it is contacting the spool. Now tighten until the hubs are tightly holding
the spool, while ensuring that the spool is being held straight.
10. Slide the shaft into the bushing in the Support Bracket.
11. Ensure the thumb screws in the Spooler Base are as loose as possible, then place the assembly into the base as
shown. Tighten the screws so they are nice and snug.
12. Insert the Spooler Base back into the side of the ProtoCycler and plug the stepper motor into its receptacle, also
located on the left side of the unit.
13. Set the spool geometry settings in ProtoCycler's User Interface.
Failure to correctly set spool geometry may result in improper spreading of filament onto the spool.
 Plug ProtoCycler's power cord into a grounded outlet and turn on the main power switch.
 From the UI Home, select "Settings" and then "Spool size".
 In the SPOOL SIZE window, you may now set the width and diameter of the spool. The width figure is the
width contained inside the spool (ie the width filament will be spread over) and the diameter is the inner
diameter that filament will be spooled on. Change these values by using the left and right buttons.
 Return to the top and push the right button to save the spool geometry settings.
The spooler is now set up and ready for extrusion.

Figure 4
Figure 4.4 Spooler Assembly Block Diagram
7