Blackbelt 3D Printer

Eagle-eyed observers in the Twitterverse may have already deduced that we are closely tied to the new and awesome Blackbelt 3D printer.

This brand new 3D printer company revealed its concept a little over a month ago on Twitter and has gained a following of nearly 700 3D printing enthusiasts ever since. We were among the first followers and strong advocates. And this is not without reason.

The Blackbelt 3D printer’s concept is of producing its printed pieces on a small conveyor belt (made with a unique composite material) and prints at an angle of 45 degrees. This enables production of very long (even endless?) parts that also allow for unsupported overhangs.

Big prints

Production of parts… continuously

The creator of the Blackbelt 3D printer is none other than our former colleague Stephan Schürmann. You may remember him from the 3D printed bike that was released two years ago (you can find the full blog here).

Stephan left colorFabb earlier this year to start Blackbelt 3D BV and spend all his time on the further development of his printer.

The printer has been in development for the better part of the past four years, first in Stephan’s mind and then with a first prototype.

The first prototype

The first prototype

The release of the printer to the market is imminent and in a (by now) time honoured tradition the Blackbelt 3D will be released through Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign goes live this Thursday at 3 PM CET. Click here for the page’s preview link.

We are proud to announce that colorFabb is Blackbelt’s official material partner. In the testing phase colorFabb’s materials were used exclusively.

The BlackBelt 3D printer is not just a concept and not just a new prototype. Four years of engineering has lead to proven technology that is now available for you as well.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the printer as we enter this summer, but the easiest way to keep yourself informed is by signing up to the Blackbelt 3D news letter of follow Blackbelt on social media, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Stephan, your former colleagues at colorFabb wish you good luck with the Blackbelt Kickstarter campaign!

 

Spring Break

‘Tis the season of public holidays here in the Netherlands. Thursday is Ascension Day and due to this we will be officially closed on Friday as well. We are not the kind of company to leave you all by yourself, so we are having a flash sale on our website: 20% off on all filaments.

Click on the banner below or on this link. You will be re-directed to our webshop and the discount is automatically applied to your order.

This sale cannot be combined with other discounts and is valid only from now on and on Thursday May 25th.

Please note that no orders will be shipped on Thursday. On Friday we will resume shipping webshop orders again.

We have a plethora of filaments to choose from. Recently, our copperFill was mentioned by testing and comparison site 3D Matter as the 3D printing filament with the highest visual quality:

Source: 3D Matter

It is a truly astonishing filament with great post-processing possibilities. copperFill contains 80% copper by weight, but is not conductive in a thermal or electrical sense. This material, similar to bronzeFill, steelFill and brassFill, has been developed for aesthetical purposes only. We are excited this is recognized by the comparison tests that 3D Matter has done.

Check out how to print with copperFill

Original post on this print can be found here.

Another highlight of these tests was their conclusion that our flagship PLA/PHA is in their opinion (and their data supports it), the easiest filament to print with. In an ever expanding market with dozens, if not hundreds of (PLA) filament brand this is of course a great honor!

Source: 3D Matter

You can read our complete write-up on 3D Matter’s testing here.

We have a wide range of filaments. Choose from 30 PLA/PHA colors, from 17 nGen colors, 7  nGen_FLEX colors (including 5 skin tones), 5 colorFabb_HT colors or 14 colorFabb_XT colors! And that’s not even counting the special filaments!

Recently we also released a fifth PLA Economy color: Dark Blue. Why not give that one a try?

 

Please remember: this flash sale is for a very limited time only! Order now to get your 20% discount!

Tyre

3D printing is a great tool to make show-and-tell objects in a cost-effective way. Nooteboom Trailers (website) recently approached us to print a tyre (or tire, if you are in the US or Canada) for them to showcase during an open house day. We wanted it not only look like a tyre, but also feel like a tyre. That’s why we used nGen_FLEX Black for the tyre itself:

 

For the rim we used nGen Silver Metallic.

We printed this on the BCN 3D Sigma with 0.6mm nozzles which enabled us to print this in one go with both materials at the same time. Layer height is 0.25mm.

To give the tyre the proper feeling we used only 4% infill. We have printed before with nGen and nGen_FLEX (here) and the (layer) adhesion between these two materials is excellent!

Nooteboom Trailers BV, a family business founded in 1881, is an international organisation offering their customers complete solutions in the field of abnormal transport. Nooteboom designs and builds trailers of the highest quality with a payload of 20 to 200 tonnes. Nooteboom is always striving to improve by continually investing in the best solutions for their customers.

In the pictures below you can see how the print was showcased at Nooteboom Trailers:

 

About the materials

nGen was released a in November 2015 and is an all-round filament which has many advantages over, say, a PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste.

You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

nGen_FLEX was released in September 2016 at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

You can read the initial reception of nGen_FLEX here.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we published last summer: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are available now in our webshop (click here or here) and via our network of distributors and resellers. Click here for a reseller closest to you.

Chair design update

This spring, Niels van Valburg is our intern here at colorFabb. He is currently working on a design for a 3D printed chair. You can read his previous updates here and here. Below is his third update and progress so far...

Hey there!

It has been a while since my last post, and a lot of work has been done since then. At the time of my previous update I was approaching my midterm presentation, during which I received a lot of feedback to continue my project with.

And that feedback has shifted the focus of the entire design so far. My previous chair was meant to be printed as several big parts that would be connected. And after presenting this the question came up on how much material that would actually cost, and if the chair is meant to be built by other people as well. Which lead to changing the design towards efficient material use, easy printing on desktop machines and also easy assembling. By doing that it becomes possible for people to use their machines to make a simple chair, and see how much is possible with a 3D printer and some filament.

The new design is a chair that consists of 3D printed connectors combined with plywood panels. The sketch on the picture shows a basic impression of how it will look. And one of the cool things about it is that it uses the properties of nGen_FLEX to make the connection to the plywood!

On the pictures you can see several printed tests to see which connection to the wood will be the best. I have also designed several different shapes for the connectors themselves and printed these in PLA Economy to see how printable they were, and how the form itself looks in real life instead of my screen.

And now it is time to start with the printing and assembling process of the entire chair, which will take me about two weeks if everything is going as planned.

So untill next time!

Niels

To be continued…

 

More on the materials

nGen_FLEX

nGen_FLEX was released in September 2016 at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

You can read the initial reception of nGen_FLEX here.

nGen_FLEX is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we published last summer: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

 

PLA Economy

We launched PLA Economy in November last year and has been a best seller ever since. We offer 2.2kg filament on a big spool for a little over € 35 (excluding VAT and shipping) at the best colorFabb quality you are used to. We have extensively tested this PLA grade in our print lab. Since this week we offer a fifth color to our portfolio: Dark Blue, which ships now from stock.

Visit our webshop now.

Helian logo

Ever since moving into the new building we have been working to decorate the interior in a uniform way. One thing (of many) is to print the names of the companies: we have already printed the Stacker logo, which is hanging nicely in our print lab and last week we posted about the colorFabb logo proudly hanging on our wall.

This week we have printed the logo for Helian Polymers:

Helian is, of course, the company where it all started for colorFabb. colorFabb started as a project of Helian Polymers. Helian Polymers BV is a young and dynamic company which was founded by Ruud Rouleaux at the end of 2011. In September 2015 the old company Peter Holland BV, that was founded in 1974, was incorporated into Helian Polymers, to combine all masterbatch activity into one company. In 2013 colorFabb started as part of Helian Polymers and became its own legal entity, colorFabb BV, in September 2015.

Helian Polymers is your partner for masterbatches, compounding and also the driving force behind bioplastics.online where small lots of bioplastics can be ordered. You can find the Helian website here and the biolplastics.online website here.

The logo is now on the wall in their office in our mutual building.

For this print job we used two printers: The Stacker S4 and the Ultimaker 2. The material of choice was PLA Economy Silver, similar to the logos we printed for colorFabb and Stacker. It took 3 days to print all the letters and pieces of the logo, with a total use of 1.2kg of filament.

Top-Tip: using some leftover PLA/PHA we printed some spacers for the “leaves of the logo” to ensure the spacing and orientation was right.
This is easily done in most CAD systems by simply sketching with a small offset to the logo and closing the sketch loops with some straight lines.
These spacers can of course be printed with the lowest possible settings and some left-over material and will make your job a lot easier on the more difficult shapes.

We launched PLA Economy in November last year and has been a best seller ever since. We offer 2.2kg filament on a big spool for a little over € 35 (excluding VAT and shipping) at the best colorFabb quality you are used to. We have extensively tested this PLA grade in our print lab. Since this week we offer a fifth color to our portfolio: Dark Blue, which ships now from stock.

Visit our webshop now.

3D Matter

In the past four years we have been active in the world of 3D printing, we have seen a lot of filament brands coming up. We understand only too well that it is often hard for users to choose the right filament for their respective applications. Luckily there are now review sites like filaments.directory (where colorFabb is the most tested and most awarded brand). One step further goes 3D Matter. With their platform Optimatter, 3D Matter thoroughly tests filaments from all over the world and makes comparisons. Recently they released a list of, what they see, are the best filaments of 2017. Needless to say they test a lot of filaments and for convenience sake 3D Matter has split the results up in 9 categories.

You can read the full test results here.

Of all the filaments tested, colorFabb came out on top or near the top in the 5 categories it participated in (not all our filaments were tested in all categories). Given all the quality brands in the world of 3D printing, we are very proud of the results!

 

Category: Ease of printing

Winner: PLA/PHA

Our very first material is still, over four years after launching, a favorite as an easy-to-print filament. PLA is already seen as an easy to print material in general and it is also still the most common in 3D printing. To come out on top is an honor, to say the least.

Graph courtesy of 3D Matter

When we launched our portfolio of PLA/PHA early 2013 (with currently 30 colors available) our aim was to make a less brittle and easy to use 3D printing filament for visual prototyping. We are happy to find that after four years it is still very well regarded.

 

Category: Visual quality

Winner: copperFill

When we released woodFill as our first special filament, we wanted to make something truly special. Not the first wood filled filament in the world, but it was a truly special filament. Within a few months we released a truly unique filament: bronzeFill and within half a year we came up with a new variety: copperFill. This very copperFill was found by 3D Matter to be the filament with the highest visual quality.

Graph courtesy of 3D Matter

Containing 80% of copper by weight, copperFill truly shines when properly post-processed. Our copperFill has been developed for aesthetical purposes and been a hit since the launch in the fall of 2014. It is a perfect material for, for instance, busts and statues, like this bust of Teddy Roosevelt:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:274086

After copperFill we launched brassFill and steelFill to our product line of metal filled filaments.

 

Category: High temperature

Runner-up: colorFabb_HT

It is a tough category, but we still came up in the top 4. colorFabb_HT was launched a year ago as the third filament in our range of co-polyesters. After colorFabb_XT and nGen we found that the market was in need of a high temperature resistant filament. colorFabb_HT has a glass temperature of over 100 degrees C and has proven to be a favorite of the high-end professional users.

colorFabb_HT is enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology and is uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particular those who need their creations to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and temperature resistance. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Aside from its functionality in practical prints, colorFabb_HT Clear also allows to print near transparent prints. Another feature, as a recent post shows, is the ability to print with extreme detail.

 

Category: Affordable

Runner-up: PLA Economy

colorFabb has never been positioned to be the cheapest filament around. All in-house development, the best raw materials, high quality and our aim to have top after sales support comes at a price. However, we aim to keep the price as low as possible. Last year we listened to your calls for a more economical filament to be available from us and in November of 2016 we launched PLA Economy. We are glad to read that we have made the top of the affordable filaments tested by 3D Matter, especially since we know this is a field which is already well served in terms of the quantity of different filaments and brands that are available.

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

 

Category: All-round

Runner-up: nGen

What is an all-round filament? There is no such thing as a filament that can do everything and has all the characteristics that everybody needs for every application and print. At 3D Matter they asked themselves:  “If we don’t know what we are going to print, what material would we like?” And we are happy to read that nGen is one of the filaments that come out the best.

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range.

With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

 

All filaments are available in our webshop or through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

 

 

 

Drain exit

In Western Europe the weather is erratic at best. With leaves ending up in the gutter, we want to avoid that they clutter up the drains. One of our colleagues, Jos,  ended up designing and printing his own drain exit:

Design by Joshyu: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2308895

It is a practical piece, printed on the Ultimaker 3 with colorFabb_XT Dark Gray. It took approximately 12 hours to print this part.

We launched colorFabb_XT almost 3 years ago at the London 3D Print Show together with Eastman Chemical Company. Eastman is our material partner for co-polyesters. colorFabb_XT is made with Amphora AM1800 and has a unique formulation for 3D Printing that features excellent properties : High strength and very high toughness, Odor Neutral processing, High Tg / improved temp. resistance, Styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance, BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation. It will allow the user to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way.

You can find the data sheets and other documentation on our website: http://colorfabb.com/Materials/

colorFabb_XT is available in 14 colors, including clear.

Our range of Amphora based co-polyesters are perfectly suited for a project like this. In 2014 colorFabb teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company to develop unique grades of co-polyesters suited for 3D printing. Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer are a low-odor, styrene-free choice that is uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

So far we have launched four grades, starting with colorFabb_XT in 2014. Late 2015 we follow this up with nGen, our next Generation general purpose filament and a drop in replacement for PLA. A wide processing window and perfect reliability make this filament a very popular one in our portfolio.

A little over a year ago we followed that up with colorFabb_HT, a high-temperature resistant filament that allows for functional engineering projects that need lasting parts. colorFabb_HT is enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology.

At last year’s TCT Show in Birmingham we introduced nGen_FLEX to the market, a flexible filament with a Shora A hardness of 95 allowing for functional and flexible parts to be printed.

More information can be found in the blog we wrote about co-polyesters last summer.

PLA Economy Dark Blue

Yesterday we added a fifth color to our range of PLA Economy filaments: Dark Blue. Recently we held a poll on Twitter and we asked what color our users would prefer next. Dark Blue was the obvious winner and as from today we are shipping PLA Economy Dark Blue:

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November last year. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver.

 

Now we have added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.

PLA Economy works great with basic PLA settings on a wide range of printers. Below is the first test print, our very own mascot Sir Fill:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501831

We printed our Dark Blue Knight on the Prusa i3 Mk 2 with standard PLA settings and a 0.2mm layer height.

The XL spool does not fit on the Prusa itself, so we used one of our spool holders (design can be found here). If you want to know if the PLA Economy XL spool fits on your printer, check out the spool sizes we carry here.

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop.

Here are some print settings to get started:

Adviced 3d printing temperature
195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed
40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary)
50-60C

Cooling fan
100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.

Or: You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.