Brachiosaurus

It’s dino time! Recently Marcos Pérez contacted us and showed us an amazing project he has been working on: a brachiosaurus skeleton entirely made with our PLA/PHA Natural:

All images by Marcos Pérez, used with permission (and that’s a normal book for scale)

If the skeleton itself or the excellent print quality doesn’t impress you already, the size will. It measures 1.5 by 2.3 meters, weighs a whopping 7kg and consists of 23 pieces. The reason Marcos printed the brachiosaurus model is quite original – and awesome: “The model can be assembled and disassembled, and will be used in a children’s shelter, where the kids will search for the parts and then assemble it with some tools.”

And we thought it was merely a very cool print…

Originally the brachiosaurus roamed the plains of what is now North America. In real life, back before their demise about 66 million years ago, the brachiosaurus measured about 18 – 21 meters in length (head to tail), making this an approximate 1:10 scale model.

 

The story behind the brachiosaurus print

It all started with an order made by a Catalan company that is dedicated to creating themed hostels. One of them, which is dedicated to archeology, has a large area with sand. The idea was to make a large dinosaur skeleton (in terms of 3d printing) and several fossil replicas so that the children could accomplish archaeological work with their brushes and other tools. Marcos was advised by the Asturian company Geolag, with extensive experience in geology and archaeology ,that proposed me a series of models to replicate. One of those was the brachiosaurus: A dinosaur that, due to its large size, already represented a huge challenge.

He found a model, but it needed some rework. The file format had to be converted to multiple stl files, corrected and modified in Fusion 360 and later in Meshmixer before being sent to the Simplify3D slicer.

One of the biggest challenges was that the skeleton had to be mountable and removable, even by children. Therefore, it should have a simple mounting system and also be strong enough.

Printing all the parts wasn’t easy. Says Marcos: “The printing process was really tough. I needed a very large number of supports, considering that absolutely all the pieces had overhangs, some of them truly complex. With Simplify3d support system and filament’s pretty finish there was actually little post-processing. Just a slightly sanding and not much more.”

To give you an idea of the scale of this dinosaur print, here is the entire print in the garage:

Let this sink in: 2.3 x 1.5 meters and 7kg of filament…

Marcos continues to explain the printing proces: “For all this I used two Ultimaker 2+, and a pair of Creality cr-10s pro and cr-10s. I used 0’8 and 0’6 nozzles for most of the printings. And 0.2 to 0.24 layer height in some parts. This was not a problem again, due to the beautiful finish of the filament. In order to join the pieces, I made some pla stud, printed horizontally by a large nozzle. I drilled joint areas and fixed them with silicone. Being printed horizontally with a large nozzle, the ribbed surface that was formed in the studs helped me to keep the pieces in place. It was easier than I had thought. Because at first I thought of steel rods, but it was quite dangerous for children. For the very heavy cervical spine joints, and the ribs joints, I designed and printed much thicker curved studs.”

The printing process took about 450 hours!

Marcos started 3D printing about 10 years ago and has been acquiring prints ever since and, he explains “researching to be able to offer products to companies in this northern region of Spain, Asturias, mostly dedicated to the manufacture of steel. I have worked making molds for impellers manufacturing in smart lighting companies and others companies that need any type of pieces, always finished products and rarely prototypes and medium production runs. I also make artistic pieces and specific orders such as dinosaurs.”

He also sometimes teaches 3D printing classes and is very passionate about this technology, as we can see! Marcos always tries to convince business people how they can save on costs by using 3D methods.

 

We thank Marcos for sharing his very cool brachiosaurus project. Keep up the great work!

 

About PLA/PHA

Marcos explained to us why he chose PLA/PHA: “I chose natural pla by colorFabb, because I had already used it in other projects and it’s a very silky touch filament, even with high layer heights, has a great finish, it’s quite easy to print, resistant, and, most of all because it doesn’t come from petroleum.”

PLA/PHA is our signature PLA filament which was the basis of colorFabb’s first product line. The added PHA makes our grade of PLA tougher and less brittle than generic PLA grades in the market. PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is like PLA a bio-polyester, so our unique blend is still 100% biodegradeable. This material is available in multiple colors, but today we focus on the one without a color: PLA/PHA Natural.

We posted a dedicated blog back in 2017 to celebrate PLA/PHA Natural’s fourth anniversary. Read it here.

PLA/PHA Natural is available from stock and ships daily and worlwide for nearly 8 years already! Check the different spool sizes which are available in our webshop.

 

Fun fact: the brachiosaurus was the first digital dinosaur shown in the original Jurassic Park film. 

 

More images

 

Falcon 9

The sky is the place to be this summer… We’ve already shot some new drone footage and are heavily into RC planes (with some exciting news to come soon!). The sky, however, is a pretty big place and there is plenty to explore beyond the stratosphere. Enter SpaceX and its continuous news grabbing headlines with one succesfull launch after the next and, granted, some unsuccesfull ones. To honor them we decided to print the Falcon 9 rocket since our trusted Saturn V was feeling a bit lonely at the office.

Printed to scale

The Saturn V was printed by Korneel Bullens four years ago and it has survived multiple trade shows, one office relocation, a curious dog and the occassional cleaning accident. Now it’s time to extend the space port here at colorFabb with SpaceX’s famous Falcon 9.

Inspired by the latest Falcon 9 Crew Dragon launch we decided to print a model in the same scale as the Saturn 5 so we can get a great sense of scale between the two rockets.

 

The Falcon 9 is SpaceX’s highly succesfull two-stage rocket. Click here to have a good view on all sides of this rocket.

We combined files from two projects into one build:

  • The “Falcon 9 Model” by Anthony Williams (link here)
  • The “Dragon – M3” by An Duong (link here)

With some quick internet research we figured out the scale for the Falcon 9 and adjusted all the parts in the slicer software. Now, as printed, the Falcon 9 stands a proud 109cm but seems small compared with its 1960s classic brother the Saturn V which measures 180cm (rocket alone).

Unfortunately we had to scale down the Dragon M3 model too much for all the fine detail to be properly displayed. The model by An Duong is very detailed and would be best printed without scaling down. An Duong also offers an even more detailed version DRAGON – MS

 

For this model we used:

All three filaments are available now and ship daily from stock.

(The Saturn V was printed entirely with nGen – check out the original blog here).

 

 

More rockets and space ships will be added later…

Channel Wing

We have explored our LW-PLA filament being used for RC Planes before (here, here and here). Today we want to share Tom Stanton’s video where he continues researching the Channel Wing principle which was developed by Willard Ray Custer in the 1920s. The printed parts of the Channel Wing were made with LW-PLA. Now Tom will be building his own RC controlled channel wing aircraft and see how well it flies:

 

3D printing was used to create the curved airfoil shape of the channel wing. Using our LW-PLA the part is roughly 50% lighter then regular plastic as explained in Tom’s video.
The channel wing section it self was just shy of 28 grams.

In full flight. All videos and images by Tom Stanton

The full scale Channel Wing concept

Granted, a lot was made using foam, but it’s cool to see LW-PLA being used this way in addition to the more traditional method.

 

ABOUT LW-PLA

At around 230C this material will start foaming, increasing its volume by nearly 3 times. Users can decrease material flow by 65% to achieve lightweight parts, or use the expanding properties to effectively reduce print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

 

For the filament to expand it is necessary to put a certain amount of energy into the filament. The amount of energy a filament can absorb during printing depends on the length of the hot-zone and the time it takes for the filament to pass through the hot-zone. The longer a filament will reside inside the hot-end, the more energy it can absorb which will increase the amount of expansion.

 

About Tom Stanton

Tom Stanton recently graduated with a degree in Aerospace engineering and has a huge interest in all aspects of engineering. But what he enjoys most is designing and building various projects that either he hasn’t seen done before, or at least hasn’t been carried out using a unique design/manufacture method.

His popular YouTube channel is being followed by over 400 thousand people and there is absolutely no reason you should not follow him as well. Check it out here.

 

Tom’s work can be supported on his Patreon page.

T-Rex

Our very first special filament, woodFill, remains one of the most fun materials to print with. Not only does it print easily, it also makes your printing room smell like a woodshop due to the fact that we used real wood in our unique PLA/PHA blend. One of our colleagues, Paul (he who ships all your spools in logistics) printed a large T-Rex entirely made with woodFill with awesome results:

T-Rex Design link

Paul printed the T-Rex on the Prusa i3 using the woodFill settings. The entire print measures 39cm high and is 76cm tall. It took about 150 hours to print all the parts.

Lego minifig for scale

Launched in 2013, woodFill was our first special 3D printing filament. It has been a bestseller for over 6 years and we fully understand why: the ease of printing, the authentic wood structure and the smell of wood while printing make it a fan favorite. Read more about woodFill and its origins in last year’s blog.

 

 

As said, woodFill is a great filament to print with. Very easy and it makes for great decoration, like the world map we printed recently.

woodFill color disclaimer: due to the natural origin of woodFill (wood fibres) slight color variations may occur from batch to batch. We do not chemically process or color the filament in any way and aim to maintain the original wood look of the material.

 

woodFill is available now and ships daily from stock on spools containing 600 and 1800 grams. Click here to head directly to our webshop.

Eclipson TL Stream

Eclipson Airplanes from Spain was one of the first companies to see the potential of our lightweight 3D printing filament LW-PLA, especially for their RC Plane designs. Click here to see the first blog post we made about the Model V – an RC plane specifically designed for LW-PLA.

They are now back with the release of the Eclipson TL Stream, their latest project:

All images by Eclipson Airplanes

 

As per Eclipson’s website: “The TL Stream is one of the best ultralight airplanes available right now on the market. The airplane has been designed and manufactured by the European company TL-ultralight. By using the latest technologies and knowledge about aerodynamics this company has been able to design a beautiful and very low drag model inspired by jet fighter planes. Our 3D printed version is inspired by that model. However, many aerodynamic features such as wing airfoil, wing torsion, dihedral, decalage, CG etc.. have been designed by us in order to improve its flight characteristics at low Reynold number. This model is a great low wing trainer, is very simple to assemble, cheap and very docile in the air. In addition to this, the low weight compared with the wing area (low wing loading) will allow you to fly pretty slowly.”

You can find more information and purchase the Eclipson TL Stream model on Eclipson’s website.

 

ABOUT LW-PLA

At around 230C this material will start foaming, increasing its volume by nearly 3 times. Users can decrease material flow by 65% to achieve lightweight parts, or use the expanding properties to effectively reduce print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

 

For the filament to expand it is necessary to put a certain amount of energy into the filament. The amount of energy a filament can absorb during printing depends on the length of the hot-zone and the time it takes for the filament to pass through the hot-zone. The longer a filament will reside inside the hot-end, the more energy it can absorb which will increase the amount of expansion.

Assuming nozzle size and layerheight are fixed, our main input variables are Temperature, speed and flow to determine the amount of expansion. Find out more about how to print by checking our LW-PLA print tutorial.

Read more: How to print with LW-PLA

 

You can also find all relevant information on our dedicated information page.

 

Check out more 3D printed planes, made with LW-PLA here

 

Eclipson TL Stream Gallery

voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak

Our filaments find their way all over the world to thousands of users. From hobbyists to the largest companies we see how filaments are being used for numerous applications: from fun to functional. Earlier this year we held a contest, #madewithcolorFabb, where we invited our users to share their prints with us. Derek Cameron from voestapline Railway Systems Nortrak sent in a fantastic print of a model railway track he made with our Color on Demand PLA on the Blackbelt 3D printer:

 

About voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak Inc.

voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak (“vaRSN”), with ten production facilities across Canada, US and Mexico, is North America’s leading designer and manufacturer of special trackwork for the railway industry.  As the industry’s technology leader, they take pride in providing superior products, excellent customer service and unbeatable engineering design services to our customers. They are committed to bringing innovative solutions, products and services to their customers across the freight, transit, industrial and high speed segments. Nortrak is a subsidiary of voestalpine AG, a leading technology and capital goods group with combined material and processing expertise.  Nortrak is closely affiliated with voestalpine’s Railway Systems group which operates 50 production and sales facilities in 23 countries and is the global market leader for intelligent railway infrastructure system solutions.

vaRSN’s creative research and development team utilizes the latest analytical and testing techniques to tackle the industry’s technical challenges.  They can also tap into the global expertise of their parent company.  This ensures that optimal solutions are developed regardless of the client’s operating requirement. vaRSN is an acknowledged industry leader with numerous patents related to turnouts, turnout components, and switch machines.

All images and video by Scott Crego and Derek Cameron / voestalpine

About 3D printing at voestalpine

In Derek Cameron’s words: “We often utilize 3D printing as display models for customers, trade shows and also for prototype fit and function. Our sales team especially appreciates our 3D printing capabilities.  Showing a 3D printed model to a customer really grabs their attention, which can be difficult to do with just a 2D drawing.”

“Because we research and develop new products for the railway industry it was important for us to have a printer that could print full-scale prototypes and models. Most railway components are typically not very wide nor tall, but instead very long. We considered several large-volume 3D printers on the market but each of them had a finite limit for each axis. This is where the BlackBelt 3D printer added value that other printers could not. One of the axes is theoretically limitless, enabling us to continuously print models without the need to piece multiple parts together afterward. Additionally, we often need to print multiple copies of the same model. With the BlackBelt we can print multiple models back to back without the need to remove each individual one from the bed before starting the next print job.  This has saved us time, money, and also produces higher quality models. In short, the BlackBelt has been a game changer for us by enabling us to complete projects faster and create higher quality models that would not have been possible for us before.”

The vaRSN team had been using colorFabb filament for several years when we announced Color on Demand service. Derek Cameron continues: “When I saw the announcement I instantly thought of how great it would be to have models printed in our company’s official color, especially for models used at tradeshows. I no longer had to search to find a filament that was “close enough” in color. This, along with colorFabb’s consistent high quality and ease of printing made the filament an easy choice.”

 

About Color on Demand

With Color on Demand companies like vaRSN can now print with the colors they wish for and need. By making the treshold as low as a 2kg spool for a unique, custom-made color the proverbial sky is the limit when it comes to choice and options. Or check out our series of RAL Classic colors! Almost every RAL Classic color is already matched and ready to order as from a single 750gr spool!

We have developed a new filament production method which not only allows more flexibility to produce a great, unlimited amount of colors, but is so efficient that even very small amounts of filament can be produced efficiently at no higher costs compared to ordinary filaments. Color on Demand initially starts with the material most popular in the market right now: PLA. With Color on Demand the potential colors on offer can be in the thousands.

 

About Blackbelt

The Blackbelt 3D printer is a new type of 3D printer using fused filament fabrication (FFF) in combination with innovative belt technology. Printing on a belt (patent pending) provides new possibilities like long prints, printing horizontal overhangs without support and producing series production of the same or individual parts. Launched in 2017 it has been a new kind of 3D printer, allowing companies like vaRSN to complete long prints without feeling the limit of a regular desktop 3D printer.

RC Planes

Last year’s LW-PLA has found a steady following in the RC Plane community. We have already posted about our lightweight filament in our blog where we highlighted Eclipson’s Model V plane (click here to go directly to that blog). Over the past few months we have seen more use of LW-PLA by makers of RC planes following Eclipson’s lead.

Below is a short summary of videos we found recently on Youtube. (Updated on June 9th with the two top videos)

 

Videos

Slope soaring by Airfection RC Gliders (Youtube)

 

By 3DLabPrint (Youtube)

 

By Coen L (Youtube)

 

https://youtu.be/zosspO7DSN8

By RC Air Adventures (Youtube)

 

By ADDIMP 3D (Youtube)

 

By 3Dlabprint (Youtube)

 

By Airfection RC Gliders (Youtube)

 

By Wernersgyro (Youtube)

 

By Localfiend (Youtube) (more information)

LW-PLA is the first filament of its kind using an active foaming technology to achieve lightweight, low density PLA parts.

Daily worldwide shipping from stock! Visit our webshop!

 

Printing RC planes is not the only application where LW-PLA excels. Other succesfull applications are printing of insoles and cosplay, where the weight of the printed suit can be significantly reduced!

 

About LW-PLA

At around 230C this material will start foaming, increasing its volume by nearly 3 times. Users can decrease material flow by 65% to achieve lightweight parts, or use the expanding properties to effectively reduce print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

 

For the filament to expand it is necessary to put a certain amount of energy into the filament. The amount of energy a filament can absorb during printing depends on the length of the hot-zone and the time it takes for the filament to pass through the hot-zone. The longer a filament will reside inside the hot-end, the more energy it can absorb which will increase the amount of expansion.

Assuming nozzle size and layerheight are fixed, our main input variables are Temperature, speed and flow to determine the amount of expansion. Find out more about how to print by checking our LW-PLA print tutorial.

Read more: How to print with LW-PLA

 

You can also find all relevant information on our dedicated information page.

At colorFabb we have always been active in developing new filaments for FDM/FFF 3D printing, like the first metal filled filament bronzeFill, the one of a kind nGen_LUX and the unique Color on Demand service where customers choose their own colors to print with. LW-PLA is our latest offering in an ever expanding portfolio.

 

Memento

memento / məˈmɛn toʊ. an object or item that serves to remind one of a person, past event, etc.; keepsake; souvenir.

Recently we posted a blog about the great work many of our users did printing lithophanes. Head over here to see what they made. At colorFabb we were immediately inspired and a lot of our colleagues sent their favorite photos to the print team to have their own special mememto created.

All lithophanes were printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with PLA Economy White (with one notable exeption, scroll to the bottom for a special guest appearance).

 

 

Meet colorFabb’s extended family

Below are the results: sons, daughters, a pregnancy, dogs: loved ones now immortalized as a 3D print.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More examples will be added soon!

And with a dash of green…

All of the above lithophanes were made with PLA Economy White. White is the color most suited for this application. As seen in our previous blog various materials like PLA/PHA, nGen and colorFabb_XT can be used aside from PLA Economy. But that does not mean you cannot experiment with color:

 

Printed on the Prusa i3 with PLA/PHA Intense Green

 

Credit where credit’s due

All lithophanes were created by our former colleague Sven Hacken who has continued his career in law enforcement. Thank you, Sven, for all these prints and being an amazing colleague in the past few years!

Sven used Gadunky’s lithophane profile (click here) and 3DP Rocks’ lithophane generator (link here) for all of the family memento prints.

Hulk print by our colleague Paul. You can find the Thingiverse link here. Design by JohnC55.

We used the TRÅDFRI E27 LED light from IKEA as backlight to play with the colors a bit and achieve the best possible effect.

 

About PLA Economy

PLA Economy is available on 2.2kg, 4.5kg and 8kg spools only. It is very well suited for the maker who needs quality filament at an affordable price. It is a perfect material for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

PLA Economy is now available in six of the most popular colors. ColorFabb PLA Economy is not a standard PLA. It has been modified for better layer adhesion and flow properties to get better performance over other basic PLA filaments. Because it’s made with the same processing technology used for other premium colorFabb products, this PLA Economy will be just as reliable.

Mimphonium

After last month’s #MadeWithcolorFabb contest we will dive a little bit deeper into the story behind the month’s winner: the Mimphonium. This is a very cool, UK based project by Domenico Marseglia. We were intrigued by the fact that quite a bit was printed with PLA/PHA Standard White Let’s go into the details.

What inspired him to start with this project? We asked him and Domenico was gracious enough to share his thoughts.

 

How it all began…

“The original inspiration was a project someone else came up with in the early days of the Raspberry Pi. It was made from a child’s toy with some solenoids that hit the notes from behind. I thought it was great, but I could do better. In particular, the solenoids made a horrible clattering noise. I thought about the moving coil meters we had at school, and I came up with my version that you can see in the photo below. The two big let-downs were my woodworking skills and the cost of a glockenspiel to get the metal bars from. The two big breakthroughs were another project I saw where the notes were cut from copper pipe, and my employer buying a 3d printer for prototyping work. Then, over a series of trial and error refinements, I came up with the design you see today.”

The first iteration

Visit the Mimphonium website here.

 

The printed parts

Domenico continues: “I have a website under construction. I think the best bit for you would be this page (click here).  This shows that it is not just the final product that is 3d-printed, but some of the tools I used to make it are also 3d-printed. I think the coil winder is another sub-project in its own right. I think this reflects a more serious side of the current usage of 3d-printing. The parts made form PLA have their limitations in terms of end-user products, but they are often more than good enough for assembly fixtures.”

Mounting the coil on the coil winder

The printer

He has an Ultimaker 2, upgraded to 2+. After the upgrade it works especially well with our signature (and long time favorite) PLA/PHA Standard White. “I just use the default values for everything except the hammer heads. In that case I use 100% infill to make them heavier.”

The project is still on-going and we will follow for sure.

Follow the Mimphonium project on Twitter!

 

We saw a lot of great entries during the #MadeWithcolorFabb contest. The Mimphonium eventually won, but it had worthy oponents. You can find all the winners here.

 

About PLA/PHA

PLA/PHA was the very first material released by colorFabb seven years ago. Starting with almost twenty colors, the portfolio eventually expanded to thirty colors (some of them about to be discontinued). The unique blend of PLA and PHA bioplastics made it a one-of-a-kind filament for users looking for a 3D printing filament that processed well on various printers and was of high quality. It was the basis of colorFabb’s success.

Our high quality PLA/PHA filaments ship daily and from stock.

PLA/PHA has always been a favorite amongst colorFabb users. With our focus on expanding our portfolio some colors will be discontinued. You can find these on our clearance sale page (click here).

Hinge

3D printing is a great tool at the work place and around the house for making replacement parts on the go. It even enables people with the right design skills to customize the needed part to his or her liking. To make it even better, if required. We recently printed a hinge, a replacement part for a double hinged connector.

Custom design by colorFabb

We printed this hinge with PETG Economy on the Ultimaker 3, using the default CPE Engineering Fine settings in Cura.

 

The convenience of replacing

This hinge is one of several repaclement parts we have made in recent years with various materials:

Printing on the Ultimaker printers is easier than ever. Various colorFabb materials can be selected in the Market Place in Cura for effortless printing. Filaments like our Color on Demand PLA, XT-CF20, nGen (under AM3300) and woodFill have their settings pre-programmed for the Ultimakers 3, S3 and S5 printers.

Click here to go to our blog about the Ultimaker Market Place.

 

For the hinge print we used the CPE Engineering Fine setting, which resulted in a great and functional print.

 

Original hinge design

 

The hinge in real life

 

About PETG Economy

PETG Economy is part of our Economy line of commodity filaments: PLA and PETG, available on large spools (starting at 2.2kg) in a limited amount of popular colors.

colorFabb Economy: Large volume, High quality, Low price

 

colorFabb’s Economy line is developed for users who need a lot of filament. By adding a specifically sourced PETG to our portfolio we are adding more functionality and diversity to our range of filaments.

As with PLA Economy we have extensively tested this filament in our print lab. Both in production and print lab we have adhered to the highest colorFabb quality – this is something we simply do not compromise on.

The idea behind these filaments is to keep it at a very competitive price. Retail price of PETG Economy is € 40 excluding VAT and shipping. This works out to be a little over € 18 per kg for high quality filament.

 

Tips, tricks and settings

At colorFabb we have a well-equipped 3D printing studio with many popular 3d printers. Our grade of Economy PETG has been tested using various 3D printers, which has resulted in the following recommended settings:

Advised 3d printing temperature: 235C-255C

Advised 3d print speed: 30 – 50 mm/s

Advised Heated bed: 70-80C

Cooling fan: 75/100% 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.

For Ultimaker 3, S3 and S5 settings we recommend the CPE Engineering Fine setting in Cura, like we used for this hinge.

 

Availability

PETG Economy is available from stock and ships daily & worldwide. We offer 5 colors (Black, White, Red, Dark Gray and Light Gray) as 2.2kg, 4.5kg and 8kg spools. Click here for the availability.