The AMS PTFE tubes should be replaced every 2 months to ensure the filament movement is not restricted in any way.
When using more abrasive filaments, like carbon fiber-infused materials, or glow-in-the-dark filament, the PTFE tubes should be replaced every 1 month, or whenever clear wear is present.
Performing this maintenance regularly will ensure the smooth operation of the machine and a longer lifetime of the parts in the AMS.
This wiki article provides detailed step-by-step guidance on the procedure:
A video guide is also available:
Did you recently replace your PTFE tube in your AMS? How was the experience?
Heck Iāve been neglecting my poor AMS, Iāve done a refresh once at 1500hrs . I cut the PTFE along in sections to check how close it was and saw it was close on the bendy sections as youād expect when a flat filament end is fed through. No holes but it was close.
I canāt complain about my AMS reliability, it is mostly stock with only the sacrificial button tops with 20mm PTFE add-on. The month or two interval is a bit vague considering there are people whoāll do 20hrs and those whoāll run 24/7. Hours would be closer to a good metric and a bit less stressful to low use owners who shouldnāt need such hands-on maintenance every month.
More than onceā¦ Your question is rated positively.
Without guarantee: 2 months is definitely on the safe side if used permanent. But that is only based on the experience and parameters of the fillament I use. Print speeds will also play a role, as more filament runs through the printer as well.
I shortened the PTFE tube AMS Filament Buffer (but donāt ask me by how many cm). Due to this change, the following is the case: The PTFE Tube AMS fillament buffer is the PTFE tube that receives maximum wear and is therefore the time indicator for changing the PTFE hoses in the AMS itself.
My time is limited, so clear words to save time and nice words rarely helps anyone:
My opinion should be clear. Multiple M5 printers if AMS is used as matirial changing system by singel color prints - The fact that it is often used for this is also more than apparent in the forum. Maintaining the X1 is too time-consuming and was never properly thought. Upgrades do reduce mainternace time are missing.
Recommendations on an AMS for a single role were made - e.G. to get out of TPU lacing in the AMS Internal Hub Unit. Since in a single fillament AMS no AMS Internal hub Unit will be needed anymore. Even if troubel show up there, the parts can by desind to make it easy acceableā¦ and so on.
An AMS lite Filament Hub should by coneccable with an X1C Filament Buffer. If not, that is also a statement. The message may be a bit wrong for me - the X1C showed how much you can do, the successor models demonstrated how little you want to doā¦
And a littel off topic but importand: The entire print head must be replaceable more quickly. All maintenance work on the print head must be able to be carried out outside the printer.
You may want to check the PTFE tube that is scratching the printer top glass plate first. If itās already halfway through and youāre only using the AMS on non-abrasive, itās pretty much the last train to change the tubesā¦
Donāt think youāre using abrasive fillament. Then it would be far too late anyway and you would buy another maintanace easyser printer a long time ago
Iāve used a little bit of CF filament though. Maybe not a whole lot of wear but my tube in the printer has a flat spot along the top side and Iāve had it coming up on a year in November with a lot of use. Not constant, but itās got a fair amount of time on it.
My oldest AMS has probably clocked 2000h by now with mainly PLA, a fair amount of PETG and a little GID-PLA, BVOH and PC. Probably 1,500h with important AMS savers (PTFEās on these still good enough). Insides, it did not need replacing yet. The longer PTFEās outsides the AMS have all been replaced at around 1,300h. I noticed when the filament came out of the PTFE just after the HUB
With respect to the AMS itself, in the rare occasions where I have to open it to remove a blockage from the switch (not so well dried PLA and GID-PLA), I always forget that I have already unscrewed the 2 screws, but that they are still in their tunnels. So I always have to go looking for them on the floor
Another item I find tricky are the two connectors at the back. With the AMS roll holder floor kept close due to the short wired, I find unplugging and re-plugging quite tricky.
While I like to be able to do the maintenance of the AMS quite quickly, I am sure that these two items could be addressed even better if a re-design opportunity presents itselfes. But therein lies its own problem: For future developments, please keep in mind backwards compatibility. In particular the nicely modular approach makes backwards compatibility a highly valuable and attractive feature.
Look for the PTFE with the tightest bend, unplug and check the cross section. Wear is pretty obvious before it becomes a show stopper. But do not worry too much. I know from my own experience that the AMS will stop pushing filament after a while if it is not arriving at the head.
Of course, itāll pull back and try again
But even thatāll end with an error after a few tries.
Thatās a impressive! While the tubes might look good, it is still recommended to replace them before it causes a problem to avoid any print failures in a future print.
New PTFE tubes can also help the filament move smoother when loading/unloading.
No guarantee but I assumed that you defined it as follows:
Full load X1C = 600-700 operating hours per month = 2 months 1200 - 1400 operating hours = So 100-300 hours reserve until tube change (if no abrasive is used).
P.S. These operating hours cannot be achieved without spaghetti detection and first layer inspection. Or youāre constantly stuck on your cell phoneā¦ So the app is absolutely unnecessary because you canāt even look at it so often. The Printer will wait on my until i have time.
Add.:
Normally I charge Costumers on the following proportion: 250 Working hours of the X1C are charged on the same price as 1 working hours of me. So what will be happen if the X1C needs a 2 hours mainternace? I donāt care how long an X1C has to change color, I care how much attention the X1C wants from me.
Another type of PTFE tubing wear you might want to check every so often is the PTFE tubing that goes into your printhead. It rubs against the glass lid on top and over time it creates a flat spot and if you wait long enough it will wear a hole in the tubing.
I check it every time I do maintenance ont he machine and replace the tube when I see significant wear.
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Exactly and exactly that is the first one you should take a quick look at. āYou may want to check the PTFE tube that is scratching the printer top glass plate firstā. And when itās half worn, you certainly donāt have to think twice about whether you should open the AMS or not.
That doesnāt mean that you donāt have to think about other PTFE tubes if this one still look good. But if it looks like that, then I would def. take a look at all other tooā¦
Iāve not replaced any of my PTFE tubes in my AMS, and Iāve been running the printer for over a year. OK itās not running 24/7, but most days.
I canāt understand the logic to the ā2 monthsā timelineā¦ Surely it should go off hours used.
Also I would have thought that the PTFE tube going to the tool head would have the most wear as it gets all filament changes going through it, not like the individual PTFE tubes in the AMSā¦ So that should be changed more than the AMS onesā¦
It doesnāt just depend on which one has the most throughput, but also what curvature the PTFE tube has. Than smaller the bend radius, than more forces act on the outer, longer side of the bend. Graded PTFE hoses receive even abrasion evenly distributed over the entire inner surface.
If you ones open the AMS, you will change all. You wonāt be able to see which AMS slot got the most and which had little and you wonāt open the AMS a second time given the price of those PTFE tubes and you donāt want to pursue it for the next 1000 hours plus.
I chance it more than ones. In the mean time I may will change it again in 1 to 2 years since the X1C lost a lot of operation hours (jobs given to other printers - those how fits best to the job will get the job) and the AMS lost even more runing hours, 2 or 3 kg spools donāt fit into the AMS anyway and so onā¦
The best question would be, why doesnāt the AMS have an inspection opening? Keyword Co Print Chromaset is supposedly even suitable for TPU - just waiting for this to be credibly confirmed.
Normally hours of operation are specified, time intervals are rarely given.
Time intervals are normaly given by:
An aging is involved. (UV, dissolution in oil, weather influences - Also Professionals from this area tend to solve problems in their ānew job fieldā in a timeframes as well)
Follow-up costs due to additional damage to other parts in the event of component failure that the company no longer wants to pay. So give the maximum time (at maximum usage which you donāt say) to each customer.
As a first quick measure instruction (first troubleshooting if too many error messages from customers comes in) until a more precise definition is clarified and available and more precise instructions can be givenā¦ and for that I would first open a topic in the customer forum like here and would ask about there experiences with the caseā¦
. I cut the PTFE along in sections to check how close it was and saw it was close on the bendy sections as youād expect when a flat filament end is fed through. No holes but it was close.
