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…

nGen Saturn V rocket

One of our most active users, Korneel Bullens, approached us earlier this year with the idea to print this huge undertaking, designed by Paul Fischer (aka “farscape1”). You can find the full design on Thingiverse:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:911891

The images below were taken at the AM Show in Amsterdam in June 2016 where the rocket was featured.

ngen-saturn

Korneel Bullens has one of the most active hubs on 3D Hubs in the Netherlands and came to us with the idea to print the entire rocket with our, then, brand new nGen filament. In Korneel’s own words:

“When nGen was launched and news reached us of the Additive Manufacturing Europe show which was to be held in the home country of colorFabb, it was clear something big had to be done.. and what better way to celebrate a launch then to print the object where many had failed.. A Saturn V rocket with launch platform and gantry. The model was released to Thingiverse at the end of July 2015 and since then, this is the second actual complete print and build of this immense model. What better way to illustrate the launch of a great new filament then with the launch vehicle that brought us the Apollo Space Program?

nGen was the material of choice because of its flexibility, durability, ease of printing and lack of warping. Since this build consists of both huge parts as well as very small parts, a material that could cope with all these different materials was found in nGen. The total build took over 3500 hours on a total of 4 Ultimaker 2+ printers, 1 of them being a Ultimaker 2+ Extended.” 

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You can find out more about Korneel’s hub here: 

https://www.3dhubs.com/utrecht/hubs/korneel 

The entire rocket is printed with colorFabb’s nGen, made with Amphora™ AM3300 polymer by Eastman Chemical Company. 

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.

 Amphora 3300 has been made into high-quality filament that exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items. With the unique combination of a low processing temperature and an elevated temperature resistance, nGen can quickly print creations that are functional, durable, efficient, and attractive.

We have released an initial portfolio of 17 varieties (16 colors and one clear filament) in both diameters.

After the AM Show, the Saturn V rocket got a home in our office:

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