This is an electronics housing printed in Innofill FR PLA, and this is what happens after a few years. Note that this is with a heat load of just 4W!
(Click on image to enlarge)
It spontaneously disintegrates. It makes you rethink on the use of PLA in certain applications, flame retardant or not...
Design: Improved Cooling
The cooling holes on the original were clearly too small, so I've modified those:
If these are not enough I can add another circle of holes.
Note that this box is mounted upside down against the ceiling, so air must go in, but must also be able to go out. I've set up the base plate with a number of cooling gaps to let warm air get out. The air can flow into the box, then pass out through the 'gaps' above the components, and through the gaps left and right in the box:
Material: ETG-V0
After looking around for FR materials, I picked up Fiberlogy's PETG-V0 and tested it. And I can confrim their PETG-V0 does NOT burn and is fully self extinguishing.
I updated the model with some larger ventilation holes, and printed it in PETG-V0. I just have some what I suspect are retraction related printing issues, though I'm not sure. I see these sections where it looks like the material didn't 'start' properly, but this only seems to happen on seems in the middle of rather large, flat sections. Another thing to figure out...
Alternative Materials
I have two materials available if I can't get PETG-V0 to work properly, and that's eSun eABS Max and Filament PM's PC-ABS. I guess I'll install the PETG-V0 variants for now until I've found a better option. I want the final version to be silver, obviously...
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