PA Neat

We proudly announce our new addition in our range of functional filaments: PA Neat. A brand new unfilled, heat resistant, low warp PA.

PA Neat is a polyamide (nylon) filament with no additives and pure functionality. Hence the name, PA Neat.

Demand for functional filaments is ever growing. The base PA formulation is similar to the PA_CF Low Warp we released last year, but without the carbon fiber. This also means that this material is much less abrassive then the previous version and plays nice with your nozzles.

Let’s compare PA with PLA, still the most popular material in the market. PLA is Poly Lactic Acid with a heat distortion temperature (HDT) of 45 degrees C. It is not temperature resistant and fairly brittle. Although easy to print, it lacks real functionality for most applications. PA (polyamide) on the other hand has a continuous service temperature of 120C thus highly temperature resistant and tough. This makes it a perfect material for the professional user to make durable prints that need to perform.

Now wait, doesn’t PA warp like crazy? Well, it used to, but we fixed that and warping is only minimal with our new PA Neat.

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

Adviced 3d printing temperature:
265C-290C

Adviced 3d print speed:
30 – 40 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary):
ambient – 50C

For heated glass plate buildsurface we can recommend using 3DLac for extra adhesion.

Cooling fan
0% fan cooling is adivesed to achieve best possible layer to layer adhesion. If a geometry needs cooling a maximum for 50% regular fan speed is advised.

Please note: Due to high stiffness of 2.85mm filament we recommend users to use spoolmounts which have some friction between spool and holder, to prevent unspooling of filament.

The filament may absorb moisture from the environment. If absorbed moisture levels are too high, users will see excessive oozing of material on travelmoves and rough outer surface of printed parts. Drying is advised using filament dryers, drying temperature set at 70-80C for 4-6 hours.

We all love PLA and we still see a lot of PLA coming on the market. At colorFabb we only look for added value (like with Color on Demand) or for functionality like we do with PA Neat – a truly functional solution.

PA Neat is available now in our webshop. It ships daily from stock and worldwide.

Direct webshop link: https://colorfabb.com/pa-neat

5 years at the TCT Show

This year it’s the fifth consecutive year at the TCT Show, one of the highlights 3D printing shows for us and, we’re sure, in general. We love coming back to Birmingham every year and introduce the latest and greatest we have to offer. This year we focus on the Stacker 3D printers and our recently launched Color on Demand service. In the past we have launched nGen_FLEX, nGen_LUX and other great materials at the TCT Show. Drop by at stand C48!

 

Below are some impressions of our previous stands (inside jokes added – you had to be there):

 

TCT 2014 aka the first year with colorFabb_XT and the finest hotel Birmingham had to offer:

 

TCT 2015 aka the year where we featured XT-CF20, the Stackers and coffee was spilled:

 

TCT 2016 aka the year with the race car and we introduced nGen_FLEX:

 

TCT 2017 aka the year when we announced nGen_LUX:

 

During the week of the TCT Show in 2018 we offer a 15% discount on all our stocked spools of filaments in our webshop. Use coupon code TCT2018 in our webshop to get the discount immediately:

Discount does not apply for Color on Demand, samples, printers, services or parts – only the spools of filaments that are normally offered as being in stock. Not in stock and being stocked again soon? No worries, you will get the discount.

Jet engine nozzle

3D printing is first and foremost an excellent tool for prototyping and modelling. Especially for complex prints. With that in mind we have printed an example of a jet engine nozzle, the variable-area nozzle for use on EDF RC airplanes designed by Marco Colucci to be more specific. Benefits of 3D printing are how complex designs can be seen, held and assessed early in a development process.

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2991269

As Marco explains in his Imgur post how this project came to be: “The idea for this project came from a friend and RC airplane enthusiast suggesting the “crazy” idea of mounting a variable-area nozzle on his next build. Of course, me being me, as soon as I heard the word crazy he had my full attention.” You can find more information in his detailed post on Imgur.

This model consists of 23 individual parts and it is an excellent example of a complex print with moving parts. A Hackaday article has been written about the functional application of the jet engine nozzle as it was designed.

We printed all parts on the Ultimaker 2, using PLA Semi Matte Black and colorFabb_XT Light Gray and Dark Gray. As for the settings we used the standard PLA settings for PLA Semi Matte Black and we used CPE settings for colorFabb_XT.

We launched colorFabb_XT almost 4 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 temperature resistance, styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation.

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.

More information can be found in the blog we wrote about co-polyesters last summer.

 

 

When developing our PLA Semi Matte Black we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. The brand new PLA Semi-Matte Black, released earlier this year, will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

If you’re looking to upgrade your 3D printed projects to the next level, our PLA Semi-Matte will do the trick.

This filament contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

PLA Semi-Matte Black is available now.

Cloud Gate

After last week’s Willis Tower we are highlighting once again one of Chicago’s landmarks: Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean”. Designed by Anish Kapoor, and turned into a 3D printing model by Ben Sauerwine, today’s featured print was made by Cloud3D using our special filament steelFill. Both printing and post-processing was done by this young 3D print bureau. How? Find out by scrolling down…

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:684126

The goal was to replicate the original Cloud Gate as good as possible and steelFill came the closest in regards to the materials on offer. Especially after post-processing the shine would resemble the Bean the best.

The print was made on the Prusa i3 MK2 using the following settings:

  • Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm
  • Layerheight: 0.1mm
  • Printspeed: 20mm/s
  • Perimeters: 4
  • Infill: 20%
  • Scaled to 150%

The print came of right away from the support material (also steelFill) and left a nice and smooth surface on the print.

 

Next step: Sanding

Different grids of sandpaper were used in the following order: 80-180-240-600 waterproof-800 waterproof-1200 waterproof. After sanding Cloud3D started polishing with a steel polish. When that was done it was time for the high gloss clear coat.

Last step was polishing the paint.

 

Of course every great print needs a pedestal, even a small one. For this our woodFill was used and to give it a more premium feeling, it was panted with interior wood laque.

With cyano acrylate glue the two parts were glued together.

Make sure to check out Cloud3D’s website to see their work and what they can offer you!

 

About steelFill

steelFill is the latest in our range of special metal filled filaments, being launched in 2016 after bronzeFill and copperFill (both in 2014) and brassFill (in 2015). Our special filaments are PLA/PHA based with actual metal particles in them (we do not disclose exactly how much), giving them a unique look and weight (up to 4 times as heavy as a regular print).

With special filaments like steelFill you can make objects that don’t look like plastic for a change. The trick is to have the right post-processing tools to do so. We have collected a nice collection of blogs and articles regarding post-processing of our special filaments: click here to find them all.

Another handy tutorial is our “How To Print With…” article regarding steelFill:

The high steel content of the steelFill material makes this filament quite abrasive to brass nozzles. Although it wasn’t used with this print, we always recommend using hardened steel nozzles or the Olsson Ruby Nozzle when printing abrasive filaments like steelFill.

steelFill is available in our webshop and ships daily, worldwide and from stock.

 

 

Full disclosure: one of the founders of Cloud3D, Sven Hacken, is also a colorFabb employee.