Wrapping Kapton Tape

[mrrobertpaul01]

Hey everyone, I have some kapton tape and a silicon sleeve for the hotend, and I was wanting to rewrap the kapton tape because it's a little bit damaged. I have always seen the kapton tape wrapped only in one direction and I was wondering why? What would happen if I cross-wrap it so to speak? I wanna use two pieces of tape instead of one. Wrap one around the hotend several times and then wrap another piece perpendicularly so all four sides are covered with kapton tape and sealed. Does anyone know a better way of explaining this lol? I'm guessing better insulation, and I'm only asking because I haven't seen it done before.

Also is there a better insulator for hotends than kapton tape?

[richardphat]

Oh yes there is, thermal sillicon from Permatex works fine.
It's not a must to have kaptop or insulating your hotend, it's just for the sake of efficiency. At the end, the closed loop system will make sure your temperature is reached. Whether or not you put insulator, your heating device is working a little bit more but that's it.

[Geoff]

Hey everyone, I have some kapton tape and a silicon sleeve for the hotend, and I was wanting to rewrap the kapton tape because it's a little bit damaged. I have always seen the kapton tape wrapped only in one direction and I was wondering why? What would happen if I cross-wrap it so to speak? I wanna use two pieces of tape instead of one. Wrap one around the hotend several times and then wrap another piece perpendicularly so all four sides are covered with kapton tape and sealed. Does anyone know a better way of explaining this lol? I'm guessing better insulation, and I'm only asking because I haven't seen it done before.

Also is there a better insulator for hotends than kapton tape?

Yeah, as Richard said its not a must have thing.. and the way you wrap it doesn't matter at all.

The red wires on all of my ceramic heaters are super insulated to 400c and the wires I use for the thermistors are all teflon coated - so basically they are not going to melt, so on 2 of my printers I don't even have tape on the hotend, it's only on the flashforge because that's how those come. Im sure that acts as some insulation and is more a safety thing from their perspective. They are selling you something that could potentially burn your house down, so I guess any extra measure doesn't hurt.

[mrrobertpaul01]

Hey everyone, I have some kapton tape and a silicon sleeve for the hotend, and I was wanting to rewrap the kapton tape because it's a little bit damaged. I have always seen the kapton tape wrapped only in one direction and I was wondering why? What would happen if I cross-wrap it so to speak? I wanna use two pieces of tape instead of one. Wrap one around the hotend several times and then wrap another piece perpendicularly so all four sides are covered with kapton tape and sealed. Does anyone know a better way of explaining this lol? I'm guessing better insulation, and I'm only asking because I haven't seen it done before.

Also is there a better insulator for hotends than kapton tape?

Well the insulation is also to protect the printed parts and minimize any heat traveling upwards. PLA is very sensitive.

[richardphat]

Well the insulation is also to protect the printed parts and minimize any heat traveling upwards. PLA is very sensitive.

Hmm... if you think insulating helps to prevent the heat going upward and clogging, that is actually the opposite.
You want to have a fan blowing on the peek and aluminium barrel in that case.

[mrrobertpaul01]

Oh duh! I wasn't thinking straight, I'm using it just to lower the heat in the surrounding area of the plastic that gets laid. I have a dual replicator based bot, and I was wondering what happens if you remove the heat sink and have the fan blowing directly on the plastic that's being gripped by the gear?

[Mjolinor]

There is a layer of foam stuff under the Kapton. The Kapton does not insulate heat at all it is there to hold the foam on so that there is a gap between the aluminium block and the Kapton tape. That makes the Kapton a lower temperature because the radiation from the aluminium block is converted to heat in the foam, this results in the radiation from the Kapton being much lower than the radiation from the aluminium block if the small gap were not there.

[Geoff]

Yeah I probably should have said the foamy stuff, the tape only seems to be on my Flashforge to hold that insulation on.

[griffog]

I've just stripped mine as a clog meant i had ABS spaghetti wrapped around the hot end. When I peeled off the kapton tape, whatever padding there was underneath it has turned to dust and crumbled. What's the best stuff to re-wrap the hotend? I've got kapton tape in various sizes, no issues there but what can I use to replace whatever it was that was underneath the tape? I have a sheet of the silicon that I had planned to use as pads for a glass bed, could that be used?