Printhead and extruders operation

You can move the printhead of your Composer to any point in the build area. To do this, on the Main Screen press Maintenance > Move. Choose a move distance and press axis arrows to move.

To move a filament back or forward, press Maintenance > Move > Extruders, choose a move distance and use extruder arrows to move. E stands for plastic filament in the plastic extruder, U and V for composite fiber and composite plastic respectively.

You can also cut the fiber by pressing the Scissors icon.

XY offsets calibration

XY offsets define relative position of composite nozzle with respect to plastic nozzle. You typically need to go through this procedure once after nozzle replacement or cleaning.

In order to calibrate, print the special service code NozzleOffsetTest.gcode from the SD card supplied with your Composer A4. You can also download the gcode here.

You will see the following:

To adjust the offsets, use this scheme:

For every axis find the rectangle where the composite thread is right in the middle as shown on the Reference scheme. The distance of this rectangle to zero rectangle is the number you need to add to/subtract from the current offset value.

To change these values go to Maintenance > Settings

After adjusting the offsets, reprint the offset test and make sure that composite thread is properly centered(as on the Reference scheme) for both X and Y zero rectangles.

Composite fiber channel cleaning

Residual dirt, fiber remnants and degraded plastic are slowly accumulated inside extruder during printing process. To clear the dirt, or remove small fiber pieces from an extruder do the following

  • Using the 2mm hex key from Tool Kit loosen the side screws of fan bracket. Remove the fan bracket carefully, fan bracket stays hang on wires.
  • Heat the composite extruder up to 200C° . Using the 9 mm socket wrench unscrew the composite nozzle from the composite extruder – turn it clockwise, do not use too much force to avoid damage of the composite nozzle
  • Check the сomposite nozzle, there should be no fiber pieces inside. If they are there, remove them with tweezers.
  • Heat composite extruder up to 250C°. Clean the guide tube in composite heater block with cleaning needle from tool kit or you can use any stiff steel wire with 0.8 diameter.

Caution!

Further only In the case of heavy clog.

  • Using the 2 mm hex key from tool kit loosen set screws and pull down the composite extruder.
  • Heat composite extruder up to 250C°. Hold it by pliers, and clean the guide tube in composite heater block by cleaning needle.
  • If some fiber remains at cutter sleeve or guide bush – clean it with tweezers.