Felfil Spooler+

Felfil is an Italian company with a love for 3D printing and sustainable design. The idea for the company was born from a master’s degree project. In 2015 a Kickstarter campaign for the EVO plastic extruder turned out to be a success, and since then the Felfil recycling system was expanded by the plastic shredder and the Spooler+.

Image 1: Felfil Spooler+. Source: Felfil.

Plastic was invented at the beginning of the 20th century and soon afterwards it was commercialized and has been taking the world by storm ever since. Even though it is a useful material, it is also the source of a lot of waste and pollution. The Felfil Spooler+ is part of the Felfil plastic recycling system whose task is to reduce plastic waste at a domestic level.

A compact spooler for domestic use

The Felfil Spooler+ arrives completely assembled and ready for use. An added value of this device is that it can be used with other extruders, not just the EVO extruder. The maximum spool load the Felfil Spooler+ can handle is 1 kg, and the biggest spool size it is adapted to serve is 100 mm wide by 220 mm in diameter. The Felfil Spooler+ is compatible with numerous materials, such as PLA, ABS, HIPS, PETG, PA(6,12), PMMA, HDPE, LDPE, TPU, TPE and PVA. Furthermore, it has presets for PLA, ABS and PETG but settings can be manually chosen for other materials.

Video 1: How to mount, calibrate and use the Felfil spooler. Source: Felfil.

The Felfil Spooler+ consumes 50 W of energy on everage and it is designed to be used with the universal household socket voltage of 110-230 V. The spooler itself is quite small (350 x 180 x 180 mm) and light (4 kg), which means it can be placed on a standard office desk or a table.

Automatic and controlled process

The advantage of the Felfil Spooler+ is that the extruded filament is directly wound around a spool, which is then ready to use in a 3D printer. The extruder should be set up on the same axis as the spooler. Next, the extruded filament should be directed through the loops of the cooling fan array (fan speed adjustable up to 255 rpm).

Image 2: Passing the filament through the fan array. Source: Felfil.

Gloves should always be used to perform this operation since the filament exiting the extruder is still very hot. The filament should be led out of the nozzle with pliers or tweezers, and very slowly passed through each eyelet of the fan array (see Video 1 for a demonstration).

From there, the filament will go through the diameter sensor and the spooling wheels. When the filament is introduced, the spool will start turning automatically and the filament will be wound around the spool. In order for the process to be smooth, the spooler clutch should be adjusted properly, neither too tight nor too loose, as it may obstruct the proper flow of the filament. The instructions on how to properly tighten the clutch are given in the Usage tips section.

Image 3: The spooler (right) and the cooling fan array (left). Source: Felfil.

Spooler+ is equipped with a crosshead (in Image 4, it is the two horizontal bars below where the spool is mounted) which automatically adjusts the winding speed to the extrusion speed. The obtained friction prevents the filament from stretching and lets it be distributed in a uniform and orderly manner. The path of the crossbar can be adjusted according to the width of the used spool (maximum 100 mm).

Image 4: The crosshead, responsible for adjusting the speed of winding. Source: Felfil.

The Felfil Spooler+ also has a diameter measurement sensor (accuracy of 0.01 mm) that is responsible for continuously checking if the diameter of the produced filament matches the chosen setting, and that it is uniform throughout the batch. In order to achieve that, the speed of the spooler is adjusted automatically by the software.

Image 5: The diameter sensor (left) and the spooling wheels (right) of the Felfil spooler. Source: Felfil.

The spooling wheels, made of soft polyurethane (50 Shore hardness), work well with both diameters and don’t crush the filament. The spooler settings can be adjusted manually or one of the available presets can be chosen. The available presets are soft (for ABS or HIPS), medium (for PETG and TPU) or hard (for PLA or Nylon). For experimental materials, the manual mode is recommended.

An autonomous recycling station

The Felfil Spooler+ is designed to be used together with the EVO plastic extruder and plastic shredder as part of an autonomous recycling system. With this set, it is possible to shred plastic, extrude it into filament and wrap the filament onto a spool, all in a continuous interconnected system.

Image 6: The Felfil spooler is part of the Felfil recycling system. Source: Felfil.

The Felfil Spooler+ complements the EVO extruder and the plastic shredder by making the extrusion process easy and fast. The extruded filament doesn’t have to be folded manually, and the user can be sure that the diameter is consistent. The Felfil Spooler+ can be used with other extruders, which makes it an even more versatile device, definitely worth having in any 3D printing equipment collection.