PTFE tubes in Original Prusa i3 printers
Relevant for
MK2.5
MK2.5S
MK3
MK3S
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Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic material, similar to Teflon (and closely related to it). Thanks to their low friction coefficient, tubes from this material are used to guide filament in all Original Prusa i3 printers. Not all the tubes are the same, multi-material printers often require narrow and more precise tubes, than the single-material printer. Before your order or make a new tube, make sure you have the correct dimensions.
In general, we distinguish between :
A) the tubes for the hotend, which are inside the extruder (common for all printers)
B) the tubes guiding the filament to the extruder (mostly for the multi-material printers)
Most of the tubes can be easily removed using your hand. However, the tubes in hotends require a partial printer disassembly. Learn how to change/inspect the PTFE tube in hotend for the MK3/MK2.5, and for the MK3S/MK2.5S/MMU2S.
In case your printer is jammed and the tube is damaged, you have three options:
1 comment
Hi! No, it is not necessary on MINI in case your original PTFE tube is installed and squished correctly in the hotend. Unfortunately, Innovatefill does not state which type of polyamide their material actually is, but from what I have tried, MINI+ works great for printing Polyamides such as PA12 as well. Your main concerns might become bed adhesion and possibly having to print in an enclosure in case of larger geometries.