Robo available at colorFabb soon

We are proud to announce our new partnership with Robo and the addition of the Robo C2 and R2 3D printers to the colorFabb portfolio of 3D printing solutions. The Robo printers will be a great addition to the expanding range of printers we offer. This new partnership perfectly fits in colorFabb’s strategy to offer a complete solution to address our customers’ needs. We do this of course by producing a wide variety of high quality filaments, but also increasingly by offering carefully selected hardware solutions.

The Robo line-up consists of the C2 and R2 models.

Robo C2

The Robo C2 compact smart 3D printer with Wi-Fi gives you the freedom to make whatever you can imagine right from your mobile device using the Robo app.
  • Engineered to fit anywhere in your home or workplace
  • Efficient 12.7 x 12.7 x 15.2cm print size
  • 8.9cm built-in color touch screen
  • Class-leading print speed
  • Automatic self-leveling

 

 

Robo R2

The Robo R2 high-performance smart 3D printer with Wi-Fi lets you tackle large-scale projects and make whatever you can imagine right from your mobile device using the Robo app.
  • Built for serious printing
  • Sizable 20 x 20 x 25cm print size
  • 12.7cm built-in color touch screen
  • On-board camera for remote print monitoring
  • Class-leading print speed
  • Removable, heated and automatic self-leveling print bed
  • Ability to add an additional extrusion head and print two materials at once

 

 

In the past months we have been testing both the C2 and R2 printers in our print lab, seeing excellent results with nGen, our all-round go-to filament, on the R2 but also PLA/PHA which runs extremely well on the C2.

 

Ryan Legudi, Robo’s Managing Director says: “We are tremendously excited to announce our two-way partnership with colorFabb. We have long admired how Ruud and his team at colorFabb have built a premium brand in the desktop 3D printing segment, constantly innovating their filament product offering to meet the growing demands of users for more sophisticated materials. This is a huge validation for our company, and our printers, as colorFabb has completed the most extensive testing of our printers to date. With an established global distribution footprint extending into 60+ countries, colorFabb will be able to leverage Robo’s products to its already vast customer base.

“Similarly, we are equally excited to be able to re-sell colorFabb’s extensive range of premium filament to our own customer base, who are increasingly demanding higher quality, more specialized materials. With the release of Robo R2, we have activated our strategy to expand deeper into the prosumer and professional segment, which is the fastest growing segment in the industry. By partnering with colorFabb for their filament, we are now positioned to provide professionals with an exceptional 3D printing solution.”

Adds Ruud Rouleaux, CEO of colorFabb:  “At ColorFabb we have had the luxury of testing many desktop printers in the last 6 years, developing valuable experience and know-how along the way. Early this year we started working with the Robo 3D team and have become extremely impressed by the level of professionalism and dedication that Robo 3D is investing in their new line of Desktop 3D Printers.

“We have been in the position to test both the Robo C2 and R2 with various colorFabb filaments and fine tune printing windows and optimize settings. After months of testing we are excited to announce a two-way partnership with Robo 3D enabling colorFabb to enter the desktop 3D printing landscape with a highly-established brand, in the same time enabling Robo 3D with a well-tested hardware/filament combination, of which we believe will enable a perfect user experience.”

Extensive testing has resulted in some really good results with our filaments:

 

The Robo printers will be available in September in our webshop and colorFabb will act as Robo’s distributing partner in the Benelux. Pricing will be € 799 for the Robo3D C2 and € 1.399 for the Robo3D R2.

 

Full design attributions

Big Guardian Dwarf (72mm) by meyo

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:971046

Material: PLA/PHA Pale Gold – 0.2mm layerheigth – C2

 

Right Fractured Lateral Tibial Condyle By Hamish Mead

https://www.youmagine.com/designs/right-fractured-lateral-tibial-condyle

Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight – R2

 

Water Jet Drive by benny90

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153579/#made

Material: PLA/PHA Natural – 0.2mm layerheigth – R2

 

Batman by LeoDDC

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:352540

Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight – R2

 

Mini Trash Can with moving wheels by DrLex

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1935572

Material: PLA/PHA Pale Gold / PLA/PHA Shining Silver– 0.2mm layerheigth – C2

Fountain pen

Every so often you come across a print that it needs extra attention. We saw Dutch engineer Rein van der Mast’s post on LinkedIn and were immediately triggered by his craftmanship. Using his own design, he printed a fountain pen with colorFabb’s bronzeFill 3D printing filament and the results are simply stunning:

Rein designed the pen himself and used an Ultimaker 2+ Extended with a 0.25mm nozzle to print this true piece of art. He patinated part of the surface to make it green. Rein has 3D printed the world’s first fountain pen nib in titanium – the results of his extensive research. Believe us if we say you have not seen or heard the last from Rein about this fantastic new development!

Rein van der Mast studied Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology (NL). He also immersed himself into machine construction. In the mid 90s he led the design department of a manufacturer of consumer products, where he successfully implemented 3D CAD and 3D printing to rapidly obtain prototypes of consumer products.

You can find more information about Rein’s activities in 3D printing on his SOLide website.

This print was intended as an experiment, but the results exceeded Rein’s expectations and he considers more commercial applications of bronzeFill in the near future. The surface quality is outstanding making it look not 3D printed at all! This is due to the printing resolution combined with the careful post-processing.

bronzeFill was our first truly special filament, launched 3 years ago and still one of our most popular filaments. The added weight and unique aesthetic properties have made this an extremely popular material. Seeing a project like the fountain pen materialize with this filament is fantastic!

If you want to have more information on how to print with bronzeFill, visit our handy tutorial: How to print with bronzeFill

Unprocessed prints

If you are looking for more tips and advice regarding post-processing bronzeFill and our other metal filled filaments, we have a nice collection of articles collected on our site.

Interested in bronzeFill? It is readily available in our webshop as 750 grams and 1500 grams spools.

 

Summer sale!

Back to work. Back to school. Back to life… We think it is time for a flash summer sale.

It is that time of the year again. Summer holidays are over or will be soon. (For those reading this and still enjoying their holiday, we apologize, but there is an end to all this summer fun). We hope you have enjoyed your holidays this summer and are ready to head back into the real world again, re-energized.

At colorFabb we would like to make the transition back into the real world as smooth as possible. For this, we have a flash summer sale as from now and which lasts the entire weekend (until Sunday midnight CET):

20% off on all filaments!

Fairly simple and straight forward. Does not work with other discounts and does not apply to the printers we sell, but other than that all filaments, including the samples, apply! Use coupon code SUMMERSALE when checking out or use this link (and the discount will automatically apply).

We also add a free sample of nGen filament to your order (as we do with all orders nowadays) and you can see if you are eligible for free shipping (EU customers only – sorry) on our website.

Find out more about nGen, our all-round 3D printing filament on our dedicated landing page.

Either click here or go to our webshop and use coupon code SUMMERSALE to get that 20% coupon code today!

Enjoy 3D printing!

– Team colorFabb

Wire stripper

Here in the colorFabb print lab we like to see what 3D printing can offer us to make our lives a bit easier. Especially when it comes to small tools we need on a daily basis. Sure, you can go to the store and buy stuff, but where is the fun in that? Plus, with 3D printing we can design, customize and print with a lot of choice in materials. Our own, of course. For instance, consider the micrometer holder we printed with colorFabb_XT. Or spool holders for our XL spools, which many not fit on all printers.

We came accross this simple but clever design by Raphael Bruno. He designed a wire cutter which uses standard cutter blades as inserts. This model was printed on the Lulzbot Mini, with woodFill filament.

Design by raphaelbruno3d: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2468753

Our woodFill performs very well on the Lulzbot Mini. We printed at 0.2mm layer height at 215C and a 50C heated bed.

woodFill was launched nearly 4 years ago during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we recently discontinued) and more recently corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

Check out the product page on the website and read the 5 star reviews!

woodFill is available in our webshop and also at Lulzbot’s webstore. You can find a handy tutorial here.

Speaking of Lulzbot… Did you know we have the Lulzbot Mini available on our website and ship from stock? Better even: we ship for free in Europe and send out two free spools of nGen with the printer!

The LulzBot Mini was built to work out of the box, with no complicated assembly process getting in the way of you creating. Operating the Mini is the same- straightforward software, easy to read documentation and an army of LulzBot enthusiasts eager to help out people getting started. This printer is not only easy. you will still find flexible, industrial strength capacity from this machine.

You can print a wide range of materials on the Lulzbot Mini: of course the woodFill and our other specials, but especially nGen – our go-to, all-round 3D printing filament.

Read Make Magazine’s review of the Lulzbot Mini here.

The Lulzbot Mini is now available in our webshop at € 1.573 including VAT / € 1.300 excluding VAT. (Free shipping in the EU+ 2 free spools of filament)

Post-processing a teapot

The special filaments are truly unique 3D printing filaments. Our first special, woodFill, was released in the fall of 2013. Not the first wood filled filament in the world, but one that made people notice colorFabb more. From there we knew that special filaments would be one of the focal points of the years to come. In May 2014 we released our first truly special filament: bronzeFill. As printed, bronzeFill already looks great: a rough and distinctive surface and of course four times heavier than a regular printed object. Now, where the metal filled filaments truly shine (yes, that is a pun and we’re proud of it) is the ability to post-process them and bring out the metal particle aspects of the filament.

For today’s showcase we have chosen Makies Tea Pot by Makies, part of the Makies tea set. Not only is it a great model, it also fits the material from an aesthetical point of view. We used the second metal filled filament, copperFill, for these prints.

Design by Makies: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:178668

We printed these little tea pots on the Stacker S2. Where we normally focus on big prints, functional prints or a lot of prints (small series production) on the Stacker printers, the special filaments also work very well on the industrial grade line of printers.

We used two ways of post-processing. One tea pot was manually polished. We did this the same way we did the gCreate Rocket Ship a long time ago (read the original post here). Manual polishing takes a long time, but it gives such a beautiful result it is well worth that time. Most people do not even believe such a print is even a print and reckon it was store bought!

Another way we post-processed (and give it the old patina look) was by using salt and vinegar. To achieve accelerated aging, add salt to the vinegar until the salt does not dissolve anymore and the vinegar is saturated. The Lulzbot team already did an extensive blog about this, which you can read here.

copperFill was launched in the fall of 2014 and it was our second metal filled filament, after bronzeFill. The red shine that comes from the copper after post-processing has made it a fan favorite ever since. As with our other metal filled filaments, the aesthetics and weight are the key factors for choosing this filament and these characteristics make it a perfect filament for fidget spinners, for instance.

There are several five star reviews for copperFill on our website:

Learn more on how to print with copperFill with our handy tutorial. You can learn more about post-processing our metal filled filaments by visiting our blog or FAQ page on this topic. We will post more blogs with tips & tricks in the time to come about post-processing our special filaments.

 

These prints were made on the brand new Stacker S2.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 4 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another (as detailed here)

Both the Stacker S2 and Stacker S4 ship from stock right now!

What makes this printer so different from the rest? First of all, it is based on the technology that has made the Stacker S4 such a success.

You can also expect the following:

  • Copy mode for printing two objects at once for 2X print speeds
  • Dual print heads can be offset to prevent the idle head from dripping on the print when not in use to achieve super clean dual material prints
  • Large build volume: 395mm (X) axis, 325mm (Y) axis, 525mm (Z) Axis
  • Built-in mobile base, essential for EDU and work groups
  • Superior print quality
  • STACKER designed and manufactured hot ends and filament drives produce a superior finish, and work with all filaments, including flexible and metal filled
  • Uses 1.75mm filament for high-speed printing.
  • Quick change nozzles in a range of sizes from .4mm to 1mm
  • Comes with a license of Simplify3D slicing software
  • Includes a sheet of BuildTak print bed surface but will accept glass

You can find more information on the dedicated Stacker page or contact us directly to get a quote at sales@colorfabb.com