How to design your own suction head?

• Step 1. Where to place the hose?
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  The first part of the job is to find the place where the pipe can easily pass without disturbing anything in your 3D printer (do not touch the frame, an endstop, or any other sensitive part of your machine). This can be in one corner or on one side of the extruder (other solutions are possible depending on the machine, see Ultimaker 2 or FlashForge Creator Pro).
  
  If you use a fan or blower to cool down the filament extruded along the printing process, you will have to place the suction head tips at the opposite side. If you have a powerful blower to do this, like there is on the new Prusa MK3, we recommend lowering the fan speed until you don’t smell anything anymore. One the Prusa MK3, once we’ve lowered it to 50%, the smelling disappears, it means you Zimpure is doing is job properly. We advise you to print this file and to simulate the movement of your extruder by hand (machine off) so as to find the ideal location for the pipe of your Zimpure.
• Step 2. How to fix the suction head?
  
  
  Once the location is found, we must think of a way to fix this suction head. We deliver double-sided scratches with each Zimpure to hold the suction, as in the picture below for example. You can also use screws, clips...
  
  You can also think of a clip system, like we’ve made on this printer Dagoma neva or using a stock screw as we’ve done on the CR10.
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
• Step 3. Let’s go as close as possible to the extrusion nozzle!
  Once you know where to run the tubing and how to hold it to your extrudeur, the next step is to design the tips that will go as close as possible of the extrusion nozzle. The 3 dimensions that are important to measure before doing your design are the ones that are schematized below.
  
  

  
  
  

  When you design your suction head, do not make any hard section size changes.
  
  Try to keep a surface of 113mm² (It’s the inner surface of a section of the hose provided with your Zimpure: 12mm diameter).
  
  The closer you are of your extrusion nozzle, the higher your aspiration rate will be, so go as close as possible, just far enough in order to not burn your suction head with the heated cartridge.
  
  The air flow needs to be oriented to aspirate in the direction of the extrusion nozzle:
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  If you have any questions, please join our Discord channel. Nicolas or the Zimpure community will reply to you asap!