Modeling and Controlling of Temperature in 3D

Printer (FDM)
Htin Lin Oo1, Kyaw Zaw Ye, Ye Htet Linn
Department of automatic control system and control
National Research University of Electronic Technology
Zelenograd, Moscow, Russia
1
htinlinoo53@gmail.com

Abstract—This paper shows the design in control system of

3D machine which consists of mechanical, electrical & electronics
systems. The aim of this paper is to create effective design
machine which is controlled by a computer and capable of
producing 3D solid representation of a CAD model in plastic
from plastic extruder. The control system for the stepper motors
and heating actuator are increased to satisfy the exactly
requirement of this machine. At least, presents results which Fig. 1. Closed loop block diagram for temperure control
based on vary tests on the developed rapid prototyping machine,
the mechanical system and the electrical system worked. The TABLE I. PID CONTROLLER PARAMETERS FOR 3D PRINTER
(REPLICATOR)
main objective of this paper is to effective design and the suitable
temperature control system of 3D Machines. PID controller parameters

Keywords—PLA; RPM;PID controller; filament; temperature Kp 7.0

I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays 3D printers vary in order to differences of types
are developed rapidly used in homes and industry. Three-
dimensional objects are contained successive layers. Again, 3D
prototyping machines are widely used according to develop a
model manufactured. These machines are usually controlling
by Numerical Control (NC). Numerical Control is meaning as
an operation of machine tools by means of specifically coded
instructions or Computer Numerical Control (CNC)
programming language to the machine control system [1]. That
programming language such as G-code and M-code is widely
used to computerize an entire machining process or automation
process. Moreover, CNC programming languages can be
worked to define the position of the machine tools to move to,
the translation speed of the machine tools, the change of
machining tools and the dispensing of coolant and so on. There
are various types of rapid prototyping machines that are
available in the market. The technical points of some existing
systems are express below.
A. MakerBot Replicator
This type of 3D prototyping machine is MakerBot
Replicator. Figure 1 express block diagram of PID controller
using the MakerBot Replicator’s controller board. From the
Maker Bot, shows the parameter for the Replicator’s PID
controller in Table I. These parameters are calculated using
Ziegler-Nichols tuning method [3].
Ki 0.35
Kd 36.0
II. CONCEPTULA DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM
After showing the information from the business products
which had been discussed in the literature review, around 280
mm (length), 280 mm (width) and 250mm (height) building
envelope will be a fair working space for the 3D prototyping
machine which will be built in this project. Thus, according to
developing a 3D printer with 280 x 280 x 250 mm building
envelope, the frame will have to reach an overall 800 mm to
1000 mm length and width of 500 mm to 600 mm height
considering the tolerance from others factors (HBP and Z-axis
moving area). Thus, from the estimated machine size, it is
possible to predict that the frame will be sturdy and stable
enough since the base is wide and the height is stable for the
frame design.
Since the frame design, the railing systems and XYZ
motion drivers are needed to put in consideration throughout
the design. The fully supported rail is chosen as the XY axes
supporting railing system. As on the Z-axis, rod rail is
preferable for vertical supporting structures due to it is simplify
installation and high efficiency during Z-axis movement.
Exactly precision in the alignment is needed for the rail during
the installation and lubrication of the railing system that will
eventually smooth and ensure the printing precision. The fully
supported rod railing system is used for the railing system for
smooth and study XY axes movements, which will settle both
printing precision and quality.

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Fig. 2. Conceptual design of 3D prototyping machine.
Figure 2 shows the whole of conceptual design of the 3D
prototyping machine with acceptable tolerances and sizes of
the parts.
III. SOFTWARE AND LOGIC DESIGN
A. Extruder Heater
Fig. 3. Extruder Heater
The extruder heating block consist of an aluminum
mounting block and a 40W heating element where is rated at
12V. Similar to the heat bed, the power dissipated by this
heating element is controlled by varying the duty cycle of the
PWM applied by the microcontroller. When a 12VDC is
applied to this heating element, the control system for this
system used an N-channel enhancement mode MOSFET to
control the power delivered as shown in Fig. 3. The IRF540
MOSFET will be used together with a 4N25S optical isolator
where will provide a gate voltage of 12V to the MOSFET
whenever a trigger signal is received from the microcontroller.
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B. Electronics Heat Dissipation
Heat dissipation of the electronic components is an
essential aspect to ensure the robustness of the system and
prevent failure of its subsystem. Heat dissipation of the stepper
motor drivers and the power MOSFETs must be taken into
determination due to the long operation period of a rapid
prototyping machine by installing properly sized heat sink as
passive dissipater.
C. Power MOSFETs Heat Dissipation
Power MOSFETs dissipates a significant amount of heat as
switching or controlling a sizable current source according to
switching losses and internal resistance of the device. To
prevent thermal damages, heat sinks are used to reduce the
junction temperature to a manageable level as shown in Figure
2. Moreover, excessive heat alters the characteristics of power
MOSFETs that usually reduces the maximum current output,
the all parts efficiency and the reliability.
The heat dissipation of a MOSFET is usually caused by
two components as shown in equation (1):
pdissipation = Presistive + Pswitching (1)
2
2
CRSSVmfsw I load (2)
pdissipation = Iload RDS (on) [(1+ 0.005× (TJhot − Tspec )] +
I Gate
Equation (2) the determines taken as a whole power
dissipation of the switching MOSFET at maximum load and
accounts for the switching losses where TJ hot is the maximum
permitted die junction temperature, Tspec is the temperature at
which in on resistance is specified, CRSS is the reverse-
transfer capacitance and fSW is the switching frequency [5].
To determine the maximum heat dissipation, the assumed
maximum current load was selected 10A, the input voltage was
selected 12V and a switching frequency of 2 kHz. The another
parameters of the equation are based on the IRF540 datasheet
specifications.
−3 2 3
pdissipation =102(44×10−3)(1+0.005×(175−25)] +40×10 (12 )(2×10 )(10) (3)
(6.5)
pdissipation (max) = 11.1w (4)
Fig. 4. Electrical analogy for the heat distribution component
The heat distribution in an electronic component is
analogous to Ohm’s Law where current represents heat
dissipation, resistance represents thermal resistance and
potential difference represents temperature difference. The
following calculations assumes that the system operates under
stagnant airflow conditions, the junction to case thermal
resistance, (RșJC) is 1.15 °C/W and the case to sink thermal
resistance, (RșCS) is 0.5 °C/W. These estimations can be
obtained via the datasheet and should give a fairly realistic
prediction of the heat dissipation characteristics. The heat sink
is used for this application has a thermal resistance of 1.1
°C/W. However, 1.54 /W must be used to account for the
spreading thermal resistance (40% raise due to point thermal
heat source). When the junction temperature is within the
reasonable operating range, the heat sink used is appropriate
for this application.
D. Heated Bed Platform
Figure 5 shows the heated bed platform of the 3D
prototyping machine. The heated bed platform is redesigned
using a simple printed circuit board design. The copper surface
produces heat as current flow through the PCB. However, the
problem arises when the melted PLA does not adhere to the
copper surface causing the all of model to be dragged along
with the extruder leading to a prototype failure. Several
proposals were presented as a solution to the problem. Placing
an aluminum plate or other metallic materials on the heated bed
platform surface, the ABS adhering issue is still present and
does not solve the problem. Further testing confirms our
hypothesis that the ABS does not adhere properly to metal
surfaces. At first, the aluminum plate was finally replaced by a
piece of wood which did not solve the issue. Finally, an acrylic
is used for the testing. The melted ABS is able to adhere firmly
on the surface of the acrylic. Unfortunately, the acrylic sheet
deforms due to the high temperature of 90°C from the heated
bed platform. There were made several others attempts, such as
using a thicker acrylic (1 cm thickness) sheet, a compact disc
surface, and several other plastic elements. In addition, all of
them failed to produce the desirable effect. However, our
finding shows that the ABS plastic adheres on surfaces which
are of plastic elements. Using the new findings, it was decided
to tape a cheap vinyl sticker, which is a type of plastic, on the
heat bed surface. As a result, the ABS plastic adheres fairly
well to the vinyl layer and increases the chances of a success.
Unfortunately, after several prototypes, the vinyl layer needs to
be replaced due to its poor durability which results in tears on
the vinyl sticker.
Fig. 5. Heated bed platform.
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E. Extruder Mounting and Positiong
The extruder is mounted on two pieces of L-profile
aluminum bar. The L-provides aluminum bar is tough and does
not bend when exposed to heat or humidity over a long period
of time. Since the 3D prototyping machine uses fused
deposition method, the material is melted and extruded out to
form the model layer by layer, thus no external forces were
introduced that may cause bending on the Z axis structures as
compared those found on CNC milling machine. Hence, the
two L-profile aluminum bar is sufficient enough to support the
extruder’s weight during the prototyping process. The tip of the
nozzle is required to be suspended at least 0.8mm from the heat
bed. This is to ensure the extruded PLA plastic is able to adhere
on the surface of the heated bed platform. Thus, an infrared
(IR) sensor is located on the Z axis to act as a position sensor
or boundary limit switch in this case. Whenever the IR sensor
received a signal, the Z axis will stop moving indicating that it
has reached the required height above the surface of the heated
bed platform. Any further movement towards the heat bed
platform will potentially damage the heating surface and also
the extrusion nozzle forces were introduced that may cause
bending on the Z axis structures as compared those found on
CNC milling machine. Hence, the two L-profile aluminum bar
is sufficient enough to support the extruder’s weight during the
prototyping process.
F. Safety Considerations
A safety cage has been constructed to cover the 3D
prototyping machine in order to distance the users from the
heating elements during the prototyping process. This is to
ensure that users do not disrupt the machine when it is in the
prototyping process which could harm the users. Even though
the heat bed platform have a constant temperature of 90°C, it is
still relatively safe to touch the platform. However, the
extrusion nozzle which is maintained at a temperature of more
than 200°C is unsafe for the user to touch it. Hence, it is
appropriate to build a safety cage in order to promote safety
prototyping procedure.
IV. DESIGN OF EXTRUDER CONTROL SYSTEM
Concurrent object-oriented programs are slightly more
difficult to design, implement and maintain than sequential
programs. During the design phase, meticulous attention has
been given in this aspect to reduce the likelihood of the
complete redesign of the entire software’s architecture.
Suitable programming language is incorporated to this software
design in order to realize the following features:
• Real time temperature monitoring
• Prototyping completion rate display
• Motion control
A. Temperature Control System
Based on the temperature profile of both extruder and heat
bed as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, ground noise induced by the
switching circuit of this system greatly affects the overall
performance of the temperature sensor. The ground noise of the
system is probably caused by the resistance of the ground wire
which carries more than 10 amperes of current which are 2
ΔT ( s ) Vsup ply RHPLA
drawn by the heating systems and the 4 stepper motor drivers. = × (5)
Besides that, the poor common rejection mode ratio of the D( s ) Rheater RHPLACPLA S + 1
type-K thermocouple amplification circuit failed to isolate the
ground noise and the signal voltage. From Fig. 8, ground noise 1
leads to an increase of 15 °C from the steady state temperature f switching = Hz (6)
of 200 °C. A calibrated multi meter with thermocouple support 2toff
is used as an external measurement method to validate the
temperature readings. f switching = 412.5kHz (7)

C. Linear Motion System

This part will be show on the mathematical views used in
developing the linear motion system. For the following
equations (9) to (12), the linear distances are show in number
of pulses and the linear speeds are represented in the pulse rate.
Angle of gantry movement:
Ydis tan ce
σ movement = tan −1 ( ) (8)
X dis tan ce
X-axis linear distance:
Fig. 6. Extruder temperature profile.
2* X dis tan ce
Dxaxis = pulses (9)
M xstepsie
Y-axis linear distance:
2* Ydis tan ce
Dyaxis = pulses (10)
M ystepsie
Z-axis linear distance:
2* Z dis tan ce
Dzaxis = pulses (11)
M zstepsie
Fig. 7. Heat bed temperature profile. The linear motion control system is an essential part of the
system where allows the system to position the extruder at the
B. Heat Bed and Extruder Heater Control System correct position and adjust the movement speed of each
individual axis corresponding to the angle of motion and the
Set Output average movement speed. The pulse rate and number pulses to
temperature temperature
Heating
reach a specific position at a suitable velocity can be
Microcontroller PWM Heat Plate calculated. Moreover, cumulative errors caused with precision
Element
loss during the conversion from a floating point number to an
integer should be tracked and factored into the actual position.
Amplifier Thermostat Precision loss is significant since the system is highly repetitive
which will lead to large deviation.

V. SYSTEM PERFORMACE EVALUATION OF THE CONTROL

Fig. 8. Block diagram of the thermal control system.
Closed loop control of the thermal system is required
according to maintain the optimum extrusion temperature of
about 200ºC and a heat bed temperature of 100ºC. Figure 8
expresses the block diagram of the control system of this 3D
prototyping machine. By utilizing equation (6) and the NIST
numerical model for thermocouples, the PID controller has
been developed to provide the best control for this system.
PARAMETERS
The simulation block and apply PID optimization using
MATLAB’s SIMULINK toolbox as shown in Table II, we got
the response as below results. Integral windup issues due to the
saturation limits of the heat transfer function is also included in
the optimization by disabling the integral function until the
process variable reaches the controllable region.

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Fig. 9. Temperature and thermocouple output voltage against time for
extruder heater.
According to Fig. 9, the thermal system has been settling
time of about 71 seconds or approximately 1.2 minutes with an
overshoot of 6.5%. For this application, overshoot of the
control system is the least important aspect in comparison to
the settling time due to the usability criteria. The system should
heat up as fast as possible in order for users to commence
prototyping their product in the shortest possible time frame.
TABLE II. PID TUNING PARAMETERS FOR EXTRUDER HEATER
PID parameters Values
P 10.9
I 0.56
D -28.4
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VI. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the development stage for the electronics
components and control system for the 3D prototyping
machine is completed. In usually, the electronics and software
system have achieved the project goals. Based on vary tests on
the developed rapid prototyping machine, the mechanical
system and the electrical system worked as expected with
respect to the CAD drawings and design. However, it is
believed that the quality of prototype created by the machine
can be further improved by using a material with a lower glass
transition temperature.
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