Month: September 2016

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.

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:

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.

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:

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.

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.

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/

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

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!)

nGen_FLEX, our new flexible 3D printing filament

Today, on the first day of the TCT Show, we proudly announce and launch our new 3D printing filament:

nGen_FLEX

Heat resistance 125C | FDA compliance | Styrene-free | BPA-free

nGen_FLEX is a new elastomer material added to our existing range of co-polyester functional 3D printing filaments. It is made from Eastman Amphora™ Flex 3D Polymer FL6000 and the fourth filament in our range of Amphora based co-polyester, following colorFabb_XT, nGen and colorFabb_HT.

nGen_FLEX is available for pre-ordering today: Click here. Shipping will commence next week.

It is best described as a semi-flexible material with good printability on most 3D printers eliminating the use for specialized flex extruders. It’s rated at a Shore A hardness level of 95. By adjusting infill and perimeter settings it’s possible to influence how flexible a part should feel after printing.

nGen_FLEX will initially be available in two colors: Dark Gray and Black. Other colors may be released after initial launch including the possibility for skintone colors. Several skintone colors have already be developed and will be on display at the TCT Show this week. nGen_FLEX is a great material to print prosthetics, for instance.

Fingers: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:387072/#files / Hand and mount: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:380665

For those who are looking for a durable flexible material to be used in their prototypes, demonstrators or even final parts, look no further. The filament has excellent chemical resistance and extremely high temperature resistance. nGen_FLEX is temperature resistant to about 125C. That means 3D printed objects can be steam sterilized at 121C.

nGen_FLEX is engineered as a semi-flexible materials which allows most users to print at regular print speeds, cutting down build times compared to other very flexible filaments. Also Bowden style 3D printers, 1.75mm and 2.85mm, will be able to push this filament through without much trouble.

You can find many more advantages of this material on our dedicated landing page: http://ngen-flex.colorfabb.com/

Because of its durable nature the material is an excellent choice for making your own tools and clamps. Whether it’s an improvement for your workshop or actual custom made parts for a productionline, this material will be uniquely suited for the job. One project we used nGen_FLEX for this summer was the F1 open RC project. We wanted to print the entire car with co-polyester filament and found nGen_FLEX to be perfect for the tires.

During the summer we have been busy testing this material on several printers. Below you can find the settings of some of these printers. Click on the table to find our more about our recommended settings:

nGen_FLEX is available for pre-ordering now and will start shipping next week. Price for a spool, which contains 650 grams, is € 39.95 (incl. VAT), so that is € 33 excluding VAT for a full spool of filament!

You can find us this week at the TCT Show in Birmingham, where we are showcasing several prints made with nGen_FLEX: the F1 car, the prosthetic hand, several functional parts and a skateboard (the wheels were printed with nGen_FLEX). If you are at the show or near Birmingham, we are in Hall 3A, Stand B36.

3d printing amphora announcement colorfabb eastman filament functional new material ngen_flex

Detailed balustrade

On the Ultimaker forums we found this very fine example of a highly detailed print, made with our nGen 3D printing filament. Made by Ultimaker user FoxDenDNF it was printed with a .25mm nozzle. The pegs are only 14mm tall and 2.2mm at their widest point.

This model was printed on an Ultimaker 2 Extended with an Olsson block at 0.1mm layer height and it took approx. 4-6 hours. This print is part of the Tempietto model which can be found on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:968928

The Tempietto is part of the San Pietro in Montorio church which is located in Rome. FoxDenDNF has mentioned in the original post that he currently printing the entire model and we cannot wait to see the final result!

You can find the original post here: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/prints/2647-printing-colorfabb-ngen-with-a-25mm-nozzle

FoxDenDNF used nGen Dark Blue, but we have 16 other colors (including clear to choose from). You can check the availability online. All items are in stock and ship within 24 hours on business days.

Printing in high resolutions and with great detail is no problem with nGen. nGen is made with Eastman Amphora AM3300 and has 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. nGen exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks and large printing temperature range.

3d printing balustrade church colorfabb dark blue detailed model ngen olsson block tempietto ultimaker

OpenRC F1 project release

Earlier this year we came across the new design Daniel Norée made: an F1 car, his follow-up to the OpenRC Truggy design we had printed previously. “After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion that a Formula 1 car would probably a perfect follow up project to the Truggy!” says Daniel Norée. Hence, the OpenRC Formula 1 car was born.

As he stepped up his game we felt we had to step up ours as well. First of all we set our print engineer Jos Deelen at work with scaling up the design to 250%. When it came to a choice of materials we didn’t have to think for very long: co-polyesters. Which one? All of them. We found that different parts had different requirements and with nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and our brand new nGen_FLEX. we almost had all our bases covered. If you want to know more about co-polyesters, click here for a blog we posted this summer explaining these great materials we developed with Eastman Chemical Company.

The tyres were made with our new nGen_FLEX filament, released during the TCT Show om September 28th 2016. You can read all about our new semi-flexible filament here: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ngen_flex/

We have published the 250% scaled files on Thingiverse: Thing:1834126. On Thingiverse you can find all the files as well as a more detailed description about how to build your own 1m long OpenRC Formula 1 car. The helmet used in the driver seat is Thing:170222.

We are very proud of the result:

“I learned alot from the OpenRC Truggy and i wanted to use what i had learned in the new project,” Daniel told us. His aim was to design a car with a simpler design and without the hard-to-source parts. According to Daniel, another important part was the material: “While many failed on the Truggy due to the need of hard to print materials like Polycarbonate and it´s likes this time materials like PLA or Co-Polyesters should do the job.”

He spent a couple of intense weeks in Fusion 360 CAD designing the F1 and the result was introduced at a trade fair in Sweden together with Autodesk.

Although Daniel aimed to make a simpler design, the sheer size of the F1 car was a great challenge to get it right. And we did get it right. Due to the size of several parts we used the Stacker S4 printer for the bulk of the print work with great results. It measures a full 107cm from the front to the end. Using all the functional materials (old, new and upcoming…) we had at our disposal we completed the job and recently we took the car out for a test drive.

You can see the results below:

The F1 car will be on display at the TCT Show next week where you can find us at stand B36, running the co-polyester filaments on the Stacker S4.

You can find more about our co-polyesters on our dedicated landing pages for nGen and colorFabb_HT. Our colorFabb_XT, nGen, colorFabb_HT and XT-CF20 are available online.

Follow Daniel Norée’s work and especially his Open RC project here: http://danielnoree.com/?cat=6

Get a quote for the Stacker S4! For the USA, click here. For Europe, click here.

3d printing amphora co-polyesters colorfabb colorfabb_ht colorfabb_xt daniel noree f1 ngen OpenRC stacker xt-cf20

Grease Jar

Sometimes you just need a little bit of grease in the print lab, but you have to keep it somewhere. That’s why we’ve chosen to print our own grease jar. We used nGen Gray Metallic for this, due to its excellent chemical resistance, which is a feature of all our co-polyesters.

The design can be found here: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/grease-jar

This grease jar has been printed on an Ultimaker 2 at 45mm/s

We offer nGen in 17 different colors, which are available here: http://colorfabb.com/co-polyesters/ngen

nGen Gray Metallic is on sale this week (until September 25th).

nGen is made from Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer. Like colorFabb_XT, it is part of Eastman’s Amphora range of copolyesters for 3D printing. 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. More information can be found on our dedicated landing page: http://ngen.colorfabb.com/

3d printing colorfabb functional gray metallic grease jar ngen sale ultimaker

RC 180 degree HD camera printed with nGen

Today’s featured print is a great one that has already been used extensively in the real world and is printed with nGen. Thes prints were made by Claus Forster, who works for Eastman Specialty Plastics. Eastman is of course the producer of the Amphora™ 3D polymer, so Claus knows the material on which nGen is based very well!

To find out more about co-polyesters, please check our previous blog explaining these materials.

This is an Arduino activated remote controlled 180 degree HD camera which has been modified. The aim was to make videos during a motorbike tour in the highest French Alpine mountains during driving in direction forward, sidewise and backwards. Beside that an easy fix and release via hook and loop fastener provided a comfortable handling and the camera fits exactly into a helmet. Because of this the camera could even be covered/hidden by the helmet during parking or break and sometimes the helmet was the ‘transport-box’ when taking it off during the night.

An Arduino Nano (open-source electronic prototyping platform) controls the RGB-LED – shows the status of the camera – and the rotating – done by a RC-servo – and operates the camera – switching on and start/stops recording. All electronics – remote, interface, Arduino – is soldered on a 50x70mm board.

These parts were entirely printed with nGen. nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300 and has 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. nGen exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items.

The hardware was done early this year but the functional 3D parts were printed just one week before the trip:

Bottom and brackets for the electronic board (1)
Housing with LED and RC servo (2)
Dome for camera – front (3)
Dome for camera – rear (4)
Sender/Control battery operated (5)
Adapter for camera on motorbike (6)
Adapter for sender on the handlebar (7)

The camera even passed an unplanned drop test of 1.2 meters! You can see the camera in action here:

More information about nGen can be found here: http://ngen.colorfabb.com/

nGen is available now in a variety of 17 colors: http://colorfabb.com/co-polyesters/ngen

180 degrees 3d printing arduino co-polyester colorfabb eastman featured functional hd camera mount ngen

The Rook in corkFill

Launched last year during the TCT Show, corkFill remains a fantastic filament to print with. Its aesthetics are stunning for beautiful objects like this rook, designed by seechless (link to this design can be found below).

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:99028

corkFill is available now: http://colorfabb.com/corkfill

Learn how to print with corkFill (settings, etc.): https://learn.colorfabb.com/how-to-print-with-corkfill/

3d printing colorfabb corkfill featured rook

“The Visitor” in copperFill

The Ultimaker forums are a great place to find cool prints and sometimes we come across a fantastic print made with one of our materials. This week we found Frederiek Pascal’s print of “The Visitor” printed with copperFill on an Ultimaker Extended 2+ and post processed. Post-processing happened manually with steelwool and copper cleaner, which resulted in a perfect result!

The settings used were:

Nozzle diameter: 0.40 mm

Layer resolution: 201-250 micron

Print time: 8-12 hours

Temperature: 205˚ C

Speed: 40 mm/s

Shell thickness: 1.6 mm

Height: 250 mm

B/T thickness: 1.2 mm

Fill density: 20 %

You can find the original post on the Ultimaker forums here: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/prints/5079-the-visitor-made-with-copperfill

Frederiek updates his Instagram account regularly with his latest prints: https://www.instagram.com/frederiekpascal/

copperFill is one of the metal based filaments colorFabb has released. Presented to the world in the fall of 2014 we have seen stunning results with copperFill, with Frederiek’s print being one of them. You can find out more about working with copperFill and post-processing other metal filaments here:

how to print with copperFill

https://learn.colorfabb.com/post-processing-gcreates-rocket-ship/

copperFill is available in both 1.75mm and 2.85mm and in two weight varieties: 750 grams and 1500 grams.

3d printing colorfabb copperfill featured forum metal post-processing utimaker visitor

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.

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.”

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.

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:

3d printing am show bullens colorfabb featured korneel ngen rocket saturn v ultimaker

Hovalin violin

The Hovalin violin entirely 3D printed with #corkFill on the Ultimaker 2 & XT-CF20 on the Stacker S4 printer.

Project site: http://www.hovalin.com/

http://colorfabb.com/corkfill
http://colorfabb.com/xt-cf20

For more information on the Stacker S4 printer: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/

From prototyping to production, the S4 has your back. Fast 4x print speeds? Huge build volume. Industrial components. Custom 32bit electronics. Hi-Temp hot ends. Precision linear rails. 1 Year Warranty. All colorFabb filaments work very well with the Stacker S4.

Physical dimensions: 726x800x1029mm

Print size: 355x525x655mm

Sales EU: sales@colorfabb.com

Sales US: www.stacker3d.com

3d printing colorfabb corkfill featured hovalin instrument music stacker violin xt-cf20