I am designing a large format high temp 3d printer. Basically, I want to have a large print area, high speed, and high temp. Yeah, I know it's a tall order. Check the pic for where I'm at in the design. The only thing I am currently stuck on solving is how to get the water lines for the water cooled hot end and the filament path out of the enclosure. I plan on using a E3D Chimera water cooled in a bowden configuration. The electrical cables for the carriage will be routed via drag chain. So, any suggestion on how to route the two water lines and two filament tubes from the hot end out of a completely sealed enclosure? The system is currently designed to minimized/eliminated electrical components from the heated chamber. Is is possible to route the water lines through the drag chain? Thanks!
Look up pneumatic tubing. It's polyurethane, which is rigid but flexible at the same time. This will allow good movement without kinking. You should be able to get away with vinyl (aquarium hose). It's more flexible, but more prone to kinks. AVOID silicone. Silicone is great for most applications, but not here. A major challenge here is the crazy bowden distance. I'm not a printer expert though. You can put the hoses, PTFE line, and wiring in a sideways mounted cable chain. Just make sure the cable is a few inches above the hot end to avoid too small of a radius. Speaking of radius, getting a larger radius cable chain would be ideal.
