DPA-100

Today we announce a brand new colorFabb material: DPA-100 – our first dissolvable support filament, specifically made for engineering materials.

colorFabb_XT and colorFabb PETG Economy printed with DPA-100. Topology optimized shelf bracket – by toms3dp

 

Learn more about the how-to and technical details here.

 

Beyond PVA

Unlike PVA our DPA-100 is less sensitive to moisture uptake and offers better shelf-life and print performance over time. It is a Dissolvable Polyacrylate material made to work specifically with engineering grade materials which are not suited for PVA, like PETG, ABS, ASA, PC and PA filaments. We have extensively tested DPA-100 on various 3D printing materials available in the market, both colorFabb and non-colorFabb branded.

DPA-100 is also perfectly suited for our range of co-polyester filaments: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and PETG Economy.

Quick guide: Which material and how?

Match Hotend temp Support Bed temp
nGen Yes 250 C 90C
colorFabb_XT Yes 250 C 90C
colorFabb_HT Yes 260 C 110C
PETG Economy Yes 250 C 90C
Generic ABS Yes 250C 100C
Generic ASA Yes 250C 100C

Read our full DPA-100 guide about the technical specifications and how to print.

 

Design by Ken Schulze

How to dissolve

Printing with DPA-100 is the first step. Dissolving the material is the second one. In order to dissolve DPA-100 you need a mild alkaline solution which is heated and stirred. At higher temperature DPA-100 will dissolve faster than at lower temperature. The temperature you choose depends on the temperature resistance of your build material. In general 20c below the temperature resistance of your build material is a safe settings. Thicker models would be less likely to deform and can handle temperatures closer to softening temperature. The minimum pH value for the alkaline solution is >10. We recommend using our DPA Detergent for making the alkaline solution.

The DPA Detergent is sold seperately from the DPA-100 filament.

 

Bicycle Helmet by Neomek

 

Detergent disclaimer

The detergent, dissolved in water, produces a mild alkaline which usually, together with the dissolved support material, can (in limited quantities) be disposed of via the wastewater. Please check your local regulations. You can acquire our waste profile datasheet by contacting support@colorfabb.com

Availability

DPA-100 and DPA detergent are available now exclusively from colorFabb’s website. Please note they are to be purchased separately.

DPA-100 is available as a 0.5kg spool and retails at € 120 ex VAT. Click here to head to our webshop.

DPA Detergent can be purchased per 1 kg drum at € 18 ex VAT and can be found here.

You can find all the relevant data sheets on the product pages.

 

5 Years colorFabb: colorFabb_HT revisited

We launched our first filament range, PLA/PHA, in February 2013. In this short, limited series of blogs we look back at some of the materials released in the past five years. Earlier we wrote about woodFill and nGen. This third installment looks back at colorFabb_HT.

 

colorfabb_HT-17

Printing near transparent prints with colorFabb_HT. Continue reading…

At colorFabb we always look for the right motivation to release a new filament. In our view you can only stand out in either aesthetics or functionality. Sometimes both. But functionality was what we had in mind when we released colorFabb_HT, three years ago in 2015.

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. Amphora is Eastman’s brand of co-polyesters dedicated for 3D printing. Our nGen, colorFabb_XT and nGen_FLEX are also made with Amphora materials.

Image result for eastman amphora

Below is a chart how our range of co-polyesters compare to other materials like PLA and ABS:

Learn more about co-polyesters in our previous blog.

colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied. With certain FDA approvals and chemical resistance it is an engineering grade material that has been in high demand with the professional users and hobbyists alike. Another feature is that it is dishwasher proof.

High tech clamps, printed with colorFabb_HT on the Leapfrog Bolt by Peter de Corte

colorFabb_HT 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.

colorFabb_HT is enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology. Tritan is Eastman’s flagship product and has been succesfully added to the 3D printing portfolio with colorFabb_HT.

One of the unique features of colorFabb_HT is the ability to print near transparent parts. Due to the high flow characteristics it is now possible to print parts that are almost see-through. Check out the blog we wrote about it previously here.

colorfabb_HT

Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/lets-make-something-clear/

Another aspect of the filament is its ability to print extremely detailed prints, like seen below:

Tiny Hellboy. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/tiny-hellboy/

Although our range of co-polyesters already look extremely good, there are quite a few way how you can perform so-called secondary operations, like glueing, painting, etc. Click the image below for more information:

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Below are some of the prints we made in the past few years with colorFabb_HT:

Old and broken laundry dryer part left, new printed one on the right. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/laundry-dryer/

 

 

Air gun adapter. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/adapter/

 

Brushless motor, colorFabb_HT print in combination with steelFill. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/brushless-motor/

 

Vertical windmill. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/vertical-windmill/

 

design-by-mitchnajmitch-3

Dremel tool holder, printed with colorFabb_HT and woodFill. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/dremel-tool-holder-colorfabb_ht/

 

 

Eager to try out colorFabb_HT? Now is the right time to place your order. During this month, February 2018, we celebrate our fifth anniversary by giving every fifth spool you order in our webshop for free. Click on the banner below for more info:

We also run a contest: post your favorite colorFabb print online, tag us and use hashtag #5yearscolorfabb and maybe you will win a value pack with 16 spools of our filaments! Again, more info by clicking the banner below:

All blogs and articles about our fifth anniversary can be found by clicking here.

Air gun adapter

Nozzles need cleaning. It is a fact of 3D printing life. An innovative way to clean nozzles on a 3D printer is to use an air gun. We have air guns in our production facility and use them to keep our operations dust free. To use the air gun to clean the nozzle one would need an adapter to make a perfect fit between the air gun and the push-fit connector of the bowden tube.

As for the material, we used colorFabb_HT – our high temperature resistant engineering grade filament.

The adapter was designed by the colorFabb team for this particular application.

We printed this part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.25mm nozzle. The layer height is 0.06mm and we chose 100% infill for maximum strength and almost airtight threads.

3D printing has allowed for the creation of gadgets, cosplay and other fun stuff, but materials like colorFabb_HT, enabled by Eastman Tritan™ co-polyester technology, allow for truly disruptive uses in day to day life.

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied.

colorFabb_HT 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.

colorFabb_HT is available in our webshop.

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.

Laundry dryer part

Last week we posted about a real-life problem (although not a problem on a global scale). It is an annoyance that every household encounters: a part of, say, a laundry dryer breaks. And that is exactly what happened.

Normally what happens next: you call the service guy (or girl), they take their good time to come over, try to fix the problem, have to order in a spare part, etc. etc. But we prefer not to be stuck in the 20th century mechanics of everyday life. Let’s get disruptive. Let’s design the part ourselves, print it and replace it.

Original broken part on the left, newly printed part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray on the right.

First, of course, we needed to model it in Solidworks and then we set out to print it.

Printed on the Ultimaker 2 we made this part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray (printing at 260 degrees and the heated bed at 100 degrees at a 0.1mm layer height).

3D printing has allowed for the creation of gadgets, cosplay and other fun stuff, but materials like colorFabb_HT, enabled by Eastman Tritan™ co-polyester technology, allow for truly disruptive uses in day to day life.

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied.

colorFabb_HT 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.

colorFabb_HT is available in our webshop.

Tiny Hellboy

Before the start of the weekend we printed big. Today, right after the weekend, we go small. We ususally use our colorFabb_HT for technical parts that need excellent functional performance. For the mini Hellboy we went very small to achieve a highly detailed print… without any visible layers:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:374298

The design is the Hellboy Resculpted by Geoff W. / Hex3D (you can visit his site here). The original design by Raphael Gatt aka Masterclip can be found here.

We printed with colorFabb_HT at 0.06mm layerheight on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.25mm nozzle.

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied.

colorFabb_HT 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 today’s post shows, is the ability to print with extreme detail.

 

Another small model we made is the Impeller Housing by Nick Burns a.k.a. PolyVinalDistillate. Again it shows the details and no visible layers that can be achieved:


Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:229657

You can find out more on how to print with colorFabb_HT in our handy tutorial: How To print with colorFabb_HT

colorFabb_HT is available in five varieties: clear, black, white, dark gray and light gray. It is available in our webshop and through our distributors and resellers worldwide.

How to post-process co-polyesters

Of course we love our prints as they are. We put great effort to choose the best materials and the finest materials. With our “How To…” posts we want everybody to be able to create the best prints possible on a wide variety of printers. We have written before about post-processing our metal filled filaments, which literally truly shine when processed the right way. More links to blogs about post-processing these special filaments can be found here.

Beyond the special filaments, which have great aesthetic properties, we also have our range of co-polyesters: nGen, colorFabb_XT and colorFabb_HT and we received quite a few questions about post-processing these materials. To find our more about the materials themselves, check out the blog we have written before by clicking here.

Developed by Eastman Chemical Company, Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers are the basis of our co-polyesters and offer 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. With superior melt strength and dimensional stability, our range of co-polyesters deliver advanced bridging capabilities to create stronger and more detailed items—with low odor and low emissions.

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Now, once a print comes of the printer and you want to be doing something truly functional with it you may need some kind of post-processing with it, also called secondary operations. Be it painting, drilling or glueing there are multiple ways to work with a printed object once it has been printed, but before you can use it. You can truly bring 3D printing into your life by making useful applications.

For instance, you need to drill into a part. This should be no problem with co-polyesters. We recommend drills specifically made for plastic. Steel drills are possible, but only when grounded. Tips like these are to be found in the brochure that Eastman has prepared and which you can find by clicking here.

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Click on the image below to find the full guide prepared by Eastman Chemical Company:

operations-guide

 

Our range of co-polyesters are available online.

Rope tensioner

We use 3D printing for everyday use. Recently we needed a rope tensioner and printed this with colorFabb_HT Clear. For strong and sturdy prints, we use our colorFabb_HT for the best results. This rope tensioner is perfectly suited for camping or use around the house.

wp_20161002_15_54_07_pro_li

You can find the design by Martin Longbone on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:893020

The tensioner was printed on a Kossel XL printer with an E3D Chimera nozzle at 40 mm/s. Layer height is 0.16mm with 100% infill.

You can find out more about colorFabb_HT on our dedicated landing page: http://ht.colorfabb.com/

colorFabb_HT is perfectly suitable for prints that need to perform well in the real world and require extreme durability. We launched colorFabb_HT earlier this year as our high temperature and high performance filament of choice. colorFabb_HT is made with BPA-free Eastman Amphora HT5300 3D polymer and empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional.

colorFabb_HT is available in 5 colors: http://colorfabb.com/co-polyesters/colorfabb-ht

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TCT Show 2016 recap

Hi all,

We wrapped up the TCT Show 2016. Packed our goods, stacked them on the pallets and everything is heading back to colorFabb HQ again soon. We’re about to board our plane and leave Birmingham once more. It has been a great two days in Birmingham, meeting old friends and making new ones. We were there with our partners Stacker and Eastman Chemical Company, answering all your questions, showing the prints and the printers and giving away a lot of free samples of our co-polyesters.


 img_5139

Two true artists dropped by: Steve Cox and Tony Short. They brought us their finest prints to showcase at our booth. Steve brought a statue, printed with bronzeFill and manually polished:

img_5133

Also, Tony Short dropped by and gave us a fantastic present: a gift box based on the colorFabb logo. You can see it for yourself. This gift is much appreciated and will get a special place at the office.

img_5140

As we said, true artists who not only know how to print, but how to post-process to achieve the highest quality possible.

Of course we had a big announcement at the beginning of the show. We launched nGen_FLEX this week and the initial reactions at show were extremely positive. Our new flexible filament has a Tg of over 125 degrees and is extremely well suited for engineering parts and prosthetics. Based on a co-polyester from Eastman, you can be assured of the high quality of the material. We have created a dedicated landing page for nGen_FLEX, which you can reach by clicking here.

We recently sent a few people spools to test nGen_FLEX and we saw an overwhelming support for our latest filament. Here are a few mentions of our beta testers:

screen-shot-2016-09-29-at-22-17-58

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Layer adhesion is great and you can use this semi-flexible material with a Bowden tube, which we showed while printing on an Ultimaker 2+ with nGen_FLEX continuously during the show.

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nGen_FLEX is now available in black and dark gray.

The one feature print everybody talked about was the OpenRC F1 Car, designed by Daniel Norée, we published about last week. If you missed it, you can catch up here. We printed the entire car (a full 107cm long) with co-polyester based filaments: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and of course our latest nGen_FLEX which we used for the tires.

img_5115

The F1 car was mostly printed on the Stacker S4 during the summer. We had the Stacker on site during the TCT, printing technical parts – 4 at the same time! The Stacker S4 is a perfect printer for large scale projects and small series production. You can find more information by visiting our website: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/

stacker

A final honorable mention goes out to the team of Creat3D, our UK distributor. They built a big colorFabb tower at their stand!

pile

We want to thank everybody who visited us or followed the TCT Show through social media. Special thanks to Ludovic and Richard from Eastman, as well as Norston from Stacker to man the stand with us during these two busy days. It was great meeting everybody again and are too many to mention.

We hope to see you again next year!

(Oh, and don’t forget: the 10% discount code in our webshop will be valid the entire weekend. Use TCT2016 as the coupon code for a 10% discount on all spools of filament!)