Purging Wood-Filled, Glow-in-the-Dark, and Fiber-Filled Filaments

Filled filaments leave more behind than plain plastic. Purge with 3D Clean after printing them, before switching to anything else.

Wood-filled

Wood flour isn't very abrasive, but the tiny particles wedge into nooks inside the hotend. Because they aren't plastic, they stay stuck until enough plastic flows around them to break them loose, often in the middle of a later print.

Glow-in-the-dark

Glow additives are very abrasive. Over time they can wear tiny pits inside the hotend, even in hardened parts. The next material fills those pits, sits there, slowly degrades and carbonizes, and eventually breaks free as black specks.

Example: after printing a highly abrasive glow filament, you switch to white PLA. The first prints look fine, then black specks start appearing. That's PLA that has been cooking in the pits. 3D Clean expands into those pits and scrubs the material out.

Carbon fiber and glass fiber

Fiber strands and degraded material can collect in the hotend. Purging with 3D Clean helps clear them before you switch materials.

Already seeing specks? See Black specks and color streaks.