Possible Fire Hazard: Wanhao “Recalls” Duplicator i3 3D Printer

Wanhao is reaching out to its customers and resellers, warning them of a design flaw in their Duplicator i3 that may cause fires. The printers suffer from an issue that causes crimp connections of the nozzle heater cartridge’s supply line to fail due to the mechanical stress in the cable drag chain. In their “Recall” titled note, Wanhao provides instructions on how to fix the issue.

crimp broken-2

Among the unlucky recipients of malfunctioning Wanhaos was [Angus Deveson] from Maker’s Muse, who received a unit that failed before he could record a review on it. Unrelated to the “recall”, [Chuck Hellebuyck] released an unboxing video on the Duplicator i3 Plus, during which the heated bed emitted magic smoke that could be rationally explained as another design flaw.

According to Chuck, the heated build plate’s leveling springs feature sharp edges which cut through the soldermask of the PCB heated platform and make contact with the traces and the metal carriage. That issues alone wouldn’t cause the short, but in certain positions, one of the Y-axis’s belt holder mounting screws seems to rub against grounded metal parts of the printer, temporarily grounding the carriage.

wanhao-duplicator-arcing wanhao-duplicator-spring-edge wanhao-duplicator-exposed-copper

Both issues are hard to spot at first glance and may affect the Duplicator i3 and the i3 Plus. A lot has to go wrong before an all-metal 3D printer catches flames after a little cable fire and all mentioned issues incorporate non-lethal voltages. Nevertheless, be safe. If you own one of these, now is the time to check your machine for potential failure points. [Chuck] provides you a quick fix for the spring issue in his video below!


Filed under: 3d Printer hacks, news

// from Hackaday http://ift.tt/2cXQtW1
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