Loading Material


These instructions will walk you through loading material in your Ultimaker printer.  The loading process has three steps: loading the material into the feeder, the material being quickly forwarded to the nozzle, and the material slowly moving forward until it extrudes from the nozzle.  It is important to ensure that each step is preformed correctly in order to prevent issues with extrusion.


Please note that the Ultimaker 2+ Connect uses an abbreviated loading process that is different than other Ultimaker printers.  For loading material into an Ultimaker 2+ Connect, please see here.

 

Loading Material

 

The steps to begin loading material are a little different depending on your model of printer:

For the Ultimaker 2 or 2+:  Select Maintenance > Advanced > Insert Material

UM2_Begin_Load.png


For the Ultimaker 3: Select Material/Printcore > Material 1 (or 2) > Load

UM3_Begin_Load.png

 

For the S-line printers:  Press the gear icon > Select slot 1 or 2 > Load

S-line_Begin_Load.png

 

At this point, your printer will prompt you to begin loading material.  Ultimaker 3 and S-line printers will try to automatically detect a new spool of NCF enabled Ultimaker filament.  If your spool of filament doesn't have an NFC tag, or if you are using an Ultimaker 2 or 2+, you can manually select the material type from the menu.Insert_Material_Screen.png

Your printer will now begin slowly moving the feeder so that material can be inserted.  Push the tip of material into the bottom of the feeder and keep pressure on it until you feel the feeder grip the material.
Insert_Material.jpg

Once the feeder has gripped the material, wait until about an inch of material becomes visible in the bowden tube above the feeder before telling the printer that the material has been inserted.  It is important not to let the material progress too far before telling the printer to continue.  Otherwise, it will become damaged by the feeder during the next part of the process.

Visible_Material_Tip.jpg

Once you press the button to confirm that the material has been inserted, the printer will quickly move it forward a set distance to get it into the print head.  Your screen will now change to a message waiting for confirmation that material is extruding.

Extrusion_Confirmation.png

Wait until the material extrudes out of the nozzle and fully flushes out any previous material before pressing confirm.

Extrusion_.jpg

You are now ready to start your next print.

 

 

Ultimaker 2+ Connect

 

Loading material into your Ultimaker 2+ Connect is a bit different than with other Ultimaker printers.  Instead of having a three part loading process, the printer instead combines the first two steps into a manual loading step.

To begin, open the Materials menu and select Load Material.
UM2C_Begin_Load.png

Your printer will ask if you are using the same material type as the last spool that was loaded.  If you are, select Yes.  If not, select No, then choose the new material type from the list in the menu.
UM2C_Select_Material.png

Once you confirm the material type, the printer will begin heating the nozzle.  After the nozzle has reached the appropriate temperature, the printer will prompt you to begin loading material.

UM2C_Loading_Instructions.png

 

Follow the instructions on the screen to open the feeder lever, manually push the material all the way to the nozzle, and close the feeder lever.  Once the lever has been closed, press the button to confirm.  The printer will now display a message that it is waiting for confirmation on extrusion.

UM2C_Extrusion_Confirmation.png

 

Wait until the material extrudes out of the nozzle and fully flushes out any previous material before pressing confirm.
UM2C_Success_.jpg

 

You are now ready to start your next print.

 

 

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