Taurus V5 Final Release

Part of this release in the display case for Klipper WiFi connected TFT displays, please check it out: https://www.printables.com/model/624504

We're sorry this took so long, but the V5 changes were quite drastic, in fact - although it looks almost the same as V4, it is a completely different duct geometry - performs at a whole better level according to +20 independent alpha testers around the world we've worked with over the course of this project in the past months. In short, the duct has a lot more inner volume, the tube curvature is a lot smoother, the air outlets are larger and shaped differently (flat instead of oval, creating wider jets for increased air flow. In all honesty, I don't know what else to change from here to make it any better (which is the same thing I said after V4, and still found ways to make it even better ;-)

Taurus Versions 1 through 4 were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 (with some challenging problems). Taurus V5 has been designed in SolidWorks from the ground up, eliminating ALL of the issues and is now a truly parametric model. We can now generate new custom models for any hot end offset from stock. If you need a custom duct made that is not already posted, let me know and I can generate one by configuring parameters on the model, popping out a new STL.

V5 Quality Control

Despite all the different opinions on different forums, some have posted water tests and FDM simulations, it seems to be that the Taurus series just rocks and people seem to love it, perhaps also because I always tried to keep it free. 1000's of users around the world are running this duct now (previously on Thingiverse), which is awesome. 

Initially, I did not design this duct for the masses, I designed it for myself in order to learn more about the hobby itself, get back into CAD design, the problem and a solution that would enable higher speeds and better-quality prints, while having some fun as well.

There's only so much one can test with various methods on the efficiency of a cooling duct, I learned that basing the ultimate judgement on water tests or air flow measurements is only telling a very small part of the entire story.

The result is what counts, with all these variables in play, I went for a 17 minute Benchy with V4 back then, and that worked to some extent. I upped that goal a bit to 16 minutes for Taurus V5 (I vowed to not release it before I could document that achievement).
To make that even more interesting, eliminating all the concerns about inertia and weight on the print head, here is a video of how that went with the Knomi V2 TFT display case mounted  in operation:
 

V5 Remix Culture Change

I think with all that's left from the Sorkin duct, 98% of V5 qualifies as my original design.
Between V4 and V5 I've seen a lot of people remix this duct in different ways, I didn't particularly endorse or think makes any sense. Especially when someone (you know who you are), reverse engineered the geometry, removed the branding from the sides and posted not only the STL but also the CAD model.
Another person stretched it to fit his hotend offset, which was a complete waste of time: Part of my efforts was to make it fully parametric, with an hot-end offset as the input. If you need a custom duct, just tell me what you need: It takes me less than 5 minutes to generate that particular custom model, which will then become part of the release.

Please understand that not just myself, but also many of my peers spent upwards of 1000 working hours of our time between all the versions and variants to get this thing to where it stands now, in design, printing prototypes and testing.
To see this design butchered by hobbyists and clouding the experience for potential users is not something I wanted.
With all that in mind, I'm revoking the right to remix this model as of 3/10/2024.
If you posted a remix before that date, please remove it from all platforms.
I can't force you to do this (and I will not report anyone to the platform), but please respect what I said above and think about it.

History

I wanted to further optimize the airflow and fix a few things that others have complained about, and I struggled with myself.
We are at version 5.0 now, because people around the entire globe/from many different countries started to contribute, tried this out and provided me with feedback that keeps making this thing perform better and better with every new release. Every single comment, idea and improvement request was evaluated and made it into this version in some shape or form. In a strange way, this is where organic design meets crowd·sourc·ing, resulting in a high performance duct design that has produced very consistent results and even set some new records in the 3D FDM printing world.
 
We named this duct "Taurus" because when looking at it from the top, the shape looks similar to the horns of a Bull/Taurus, paired with massive air output. After several model iterations, the only things left from the original are the mounting ears and the fan supports, the rest is of my own design, with the help a lot of contributors (please see the credits).

I'm not a computational fluid design engineer by trade (CFD), but learned a lot over the years. A good example is what water does, while flowing through pipes or down a mountain stream. As you turn the pressure up, dynamics change and it is no different than with air and cooling. Air molecules just have a lower mass, but the exact same dynamics apply - I think that every actual CFD engineer would agree with that.
Computational fluid dynamics is still a very sketchy science and no matter how you simulate it and which algorithms are chosen for the simulation, it will bite you in the ass somewhere in terms of turbulence once a sharp turn is involved. My approach was to just do what made the most sense: Zero Turbulence, zero turns, no edges in the inner volume.

This is the result of my quest to find the optimal path from the fans to the part to achieve the highest possible pressure at the cooling nozzle outlets. I actually got a lot of criticism about this approach, even from the original designer and thought many times that I might be on the wrong track, but the good results and positive feedback speak for themselves.

If you're interested in CFD science and this is nothing new, here is why I did it in this way:
The goal was to make the flow of air as "laminar" as possible, while at the same time increasing pressure by doing this:
My approach was to keep a fluid/linear reduction in cross section on the inner volume, from the top, down to the business end of it, fully organic without any angular, sharp turns involved (causing turbulence and more back pressure as a result).
The linear reduction in cross section causes the pressure to build up, turning the fan output into a high-speed jet of air, that we can now control and "shoot" directly at the center of the newly extruded filament bead. This provides high efficiency cooling at the optimal angle, while at the same time just undercutting the nozzle with the two precisely directed jets. Cooling the nozzle tip itself is obviously a bad thing to do and we want to avoid that.

I have another theory on why this works so well.
Have you ever wondered why golf balls have these dimples in them?
Look it up, or click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcjaxC-e8oY
I believe the ripples from printing are creating this theoretical boundary layer, reducing friction and back pressure by accident, helping the laminar flow and allowing for improved transport of the air from the fan to the nozzle. Any type of turbulence by an edge in the inner volume would cause this effect to diminish.

Another major design intent was the visibility of the extruder nozzle, which this design solves nicely. Heck, we might as well put a miniature camera to ride along on it now! :-)

This mod is verified to be compatible with:

• Creality Ender 3 S1
• Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro
• Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus
• Creality CR10 Smart Pro

As of version 5.0, this duct is also compatible with (custom STL's):

• Spider Hot End Mod (3.5mm lower, use the provided STL, not the stock one)
• Volcano Hot End (10mm lower, Volcano.K1.CHCB-OT)

Please don't get too excited, this duct is not a magic bullet to fix all the 3D printing problems you may have, it addresses very specific things in the areas of cooling and visibility that I wanted to improve.
You must have a well-tuned workflow already (including slicer and mechanical) to see anything change to the better using this mod.

Enjoy, hope this will be as much fun for you as I had designing and playing with it.
Mac

Feedback

It's free, so please, please - pretty please, take the time to provide me with feedback in return. :-) You can do that by simply posting a "Make" and telling your story, how you printed it and what your experience in using it was so far.
I would love to hear back from you, so we can improve this thing even more, "together". :-)

Update History

03/10/2024 Remix Culture Change: Please see above for explanation. We no longer endorse makers to remix this model (please stop / prohibited / Verboten!). There are very good reasons for this change. You can still design around it, create add-ons or accessories, but the duct geometry itself is not to be changed from here on. This is our job and if you need a custom geometry, we will do that for you.
If you published a remix prior to 3/10/2024, please remove it.
If you have published a remix of V4 for example, you didn't do the community a service, because the V5 geometry is much more advanced and the performance is much better from what I heard so far. We don't want those old geometries clouding the landscape.

02/22/2024 Version 5.0 Beta Release
- Switched from F360 to Solidworks, import/export was not possible, modeled a new one from scratch, using the lessons and references learned. Fully parametric now.
- The lofting features got more precise and organic, the jets changed from oval to square with fillets providing more of a wider blade instead of a pin pointed cooling approach.
- The horizontal mounting arm got eliminated to save some weight. It turned out that it wasn't really needed. The fans really needed only two vectors to be held securely in place (user suggestion).
- The print now has pre-engineered supports to print along with the of the model.
These supports can be easily removed after printing. This was to help out a wide user base during V4 that could not get an acceptable overhang transition in this area.
- The contact surface with the build plate has been enlarged, adjusting angles and geometry.
We expect this to print much better than V4, since the overhangs near the build plate have been eliminated for the most part.
- Regressed the inset mounting ear feature to use the stock screws. Countless users reported that the mounting ears were breaking off on them. This is now the way it was in V3, the stock screws are no longer supported.
- Added TFT universal display case and custom firmware (different project).

06/27/2023 Version 4.01 Minor Maintenance Release
The elongation of the mounting slots in the last release has weakened the mounting points a little, caused these to deform if a screw is tightened too much and to slip through the slot (1 report so far). Added more material around the ears to keep that from happening.

06/21/2023: Version 4.0 Official Release
This version inherits all the new features from the previous spider alpha release and some more. Here are a few highlights:

• Visibility of the nozzle is much better now, we spread the two tubes as far apart as possible.
• Relaxed the first turn of the tubes a little bit, it