CTC Stepper Motor Driver Fan Duct

thingiverse

So i initially replaced the noisy fan after approximately 7 years of ownership with one I had spare but it did not provide sufficient airflow in comparison to the one I removed. This led to stringy underextrusion that was intermittent between layers. It appears the stepper drivers were cutting in and out due to high temps. I then replaced the fan with a Noctua 40x40x10 (AF-40x10 FLX. As this is a 12V fan, i used a LM2596 DC-DC Buck Converter to reduce the 24V to 12V. I mounted this up and the problem went away but since this fan still provided lower airflow than the original I found juha_j design and printed it. I was happy with the results but found it a bit flimsy ( i snapped the mount plate for the fan trying to install the Noctua Soft mounts due to hole size) and saw improvements could be made interms of: Strength: thickening the base surface, thickening the walls of the fan enclosure, filleting some edges, strengthened locatiing tab and giving the base a flat bottom with infill. Printability: Flat bottom means the required amount of supports is greatly reduced. This is designed to take 5.4 x 5.4 M3 Square nuts for the two locating holes Now has a stronger locating tab which tapers on a angle upwards, negating the requirement for supports for this section