K3 Nozzle Wiper

I designed a nozzle wiper and purge bucket system for the K3 printer. The system uses a silicone sheet to wipe plastic off of the nozzle, and it has a removeable bucket for collecting purged material. An arm is used to mount both the nozzle wiper and a Quickdraw probe dock to the printer’s frame.

K3 Nozzle Wiper

The nozzle wiper uses magnets to lift the wiper arm to the nozzle only when the nozzle is near the wiper. On the toolhead, the same magnets that are used with the Quickdraw probe are used to attract the wiper arm. The moveable arm allows the silicone sheet to raise far enough to clean the entire tip of the nozzle, but lower far enough when not in use to avoid colliding with the toolhead during a print.

The following video shows a side view of the nozzle wiper and purge bucket in action. The printer’s toolhead moves the nozzle over the bucket, extrudes material into the bucket, and then moves across the orange silicone sheet to clean the nozzle:

Nozzle Purge and Wipe Routine

GitHub Repository