Light Weight Plane

November 15 update: Now with video of the first flight! Scroll down to see the spectacular footage!

When we launched our light weight filament LW-PLA earlier this year we saw a lot of handy applications: cosplay, medical instruments, grips. Every print where weight is of the essence. The most positive replies we got were from the drone and RC plane community. One of the companies specialized in RC planes, Eclipson Airplanes from Spain, contacted us and were very interested in our latest offering. During the summer the Eclipson team worked on a light weight plane design specifically made to be printed with LW-PLA. Here is a first look at their Model V plane:

All designs and images by Eclipson Airplanes

A few details about the Model V plane:

  • Total weight of the printed parts 170 gr
  • Ready to flight weight (estimated) 380 gr
  • Wing span 1.370mm
  • Wing area 16 dm2
  • Wing loading 24gr/dm2

You can find more information about this design on the dedicated Model V page.

“This means that this airplane holds a new world record, it is the lightest RC plane in terms of wing loading.”

  • Team Eclipson

Rendering with Eclipson logo

When printed with regular PLA, the plane would weigh twice as much and as we all know: every gram counts in aviation. As Eclipson states on its homepage:

“Drag and weight are the two main enemies of any flying machine, reduce those two forces to the minimum was one of the main goal of this project since the conceptual phase.
The drag was reduced thanks to its streamlined shapes, clean design, V tail, high aspect ratio or winglets. Special mention deserves the wing, which is simply the best we have ever designed, this wing has a great balance between safety (docile stall characteristic) efficiency (high lift to drag ratio) maneuverability (high roll rate) and strength. Landing gear, tail and wing can be detached from the fuselage allowing you to print only damaged parts in case of crash.”

Not only did the LW-PLA reduce weight significantly, the Eclipson team also found out that LW-PLA worked extremely well for them when printing the landing gear thanks to its flexibility.

The Model V light weight plane will be for sale from Eclipson from mid-October. Keep an eye out for this excellent plane!

Located in Madrid, Spain, Eclipson Airplanes is specialized in the design of RC Planes and they have already several models available (click here to see their portfolio).

The Model V design is available for purchase at Eclipson (follow this link) and it has already made its maiden flight!

 

About LW-PLA

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

 

Decreasing flow means using less filament. Therefore users can expect to print 2-3 times more parts using LW-PLA compared to a regular PLA spool. LW-PLA prints in a fantastic matte looking surface finish and is very easy to post process. Any oozing or stringing artifacts rub right off and the surface is easily sanded for a smooth finish. Find out more here.

Curious how to print with LW-PLA? Find out more in our tutorial!

LW-PLA is available in Black and Natural and is available now. We ship daily, worldwide and from stock.

varioShore TPU

Innovation is not a, but the cornerstone of colorFabb. Our brand new filament varioShore TPU is the latest colorFabb development. With varioShore TPU we have created a filament that is flexible in more ways than one:

 

  • Variable Shore hardness

This material is not limited to one shore hardness, but with the right print settings you can have multiple shore hardnesses – even in one print!

 

  • Reduced weight and density

We used our LW-PLA technology in this filament as well to reduce weight significantly. Although the weight reduction of varioShore TPU is not as significant as LW-PLA, the weight of the overall print is noticable and can make the difference for prints where weight matters.

 

  • Soft Touch

Prints that need a soft touch, like handle bars for bikes or shoe soles are no problem anymore with varioShore TPU.

Handle for 1966 HD M50S design by Daniel Norée (Thingiverse link)

varioShore TPU will be available mid-October. Pre-ordering will start soon! Stay tuned for more news…

Ergonomic bike handle grips design by Flying_Ginger (Thingiverse link)

igus

In our effort to offer the widest range of 3D printing filaments possible we are proud to announce that now also offer igus® iglide filaments in our webshop!

 

igus filaments are all about functionality. The iglide® range of filaments are 3D printing materials for maximum service in moving applications. You can create custom parts with significantly higher wear resistance than standard filament. The iglide materials benefits include:

  • High degree of wear resistance, similar to that of injection molded iglide® components
  • Igus has more than 30 years of experience in the development of high-performance plastics for moving applications
  • Tested in Igus’ own laboratory

Click here to go to our webshop!

igus filaments range of 3D print materials for simple processing with very good wear values, and filaments with very good friction properties, high strength and elongation, up to chemically resistant materials and those that are suitable for FFF/FDM 3D printing. Igus uses its innovative polymer materials to develop products that provide creative solutions and exceed customers’ expectations while delivering fast, accurate service.

3D print materials from igus are stable and wear-resistant materials made of iglide high-performance plastics. They guarantee a long service life of the individual wearing parts due to an exceptionally high degree of resistance to abrasion.

Their tribologically optimized filaments are up to 50 times more abrasion-resistant than standard 3D print materials. This results in higher levels of effectiveness. So you can produce prototypes and small series more quickly and cost effectively. Printed components can also quickly replace wear parts and reduce downtime periods. At colorFabb we offer now 3 filaments, in both 1.75mm and 2.85mm:

 

iglide® I150-PF filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • The Tribo-filament that is easiest to process
  • igus® adhesive film is required for a non-heated print bed
  • Very good wear values up to a p*v value of 0.2 N*m/s
  • Good mechanical properties
  • igus® adhesive film is required for a non-heated print bed
  • Flexural strength: 54 MPa
  • Color: White

 

iglide® I180-BL-PF filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • Excellent wear behaviour
  • Flexural strength: 46 / 33 MPa
  • Color: Black

iglide® I180-PF, filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • Excellent wear behaviour
  • Flexural strength: 46 / 33 MPa
  • Color: White

 

About Igus

“igus® plastics for longer life”

Günter Blase began igus back on 15th October 1964 in a double garage in Cologne. For the first 20 years, the company worked as a supplier of complex technical polymer components. However, in 1983 Frank Blase established reinforced plastic energy chain systems and injection molded polymer bearings as two distinct product groups and set up a network of sales engineers. These seemingly unrelated products are linked together through the belief in making functionally advanced, yet affordable polymer components and assemblies. Between 1985 and 2016, igus® grew from 40 to more than 2,950 employees distributed between the head office in Germany and 35 subsidiary companies around the world. igus also has representative partners in more than 35 other countries. igus will continue to invest in expansion in the coming years, thanks to the opportunities for growth provided by modern materials.

Mission statement:
igus uses its innovative polymer materials to develop products that provide creative solutions and exceed our customers’ expectations while delivering fast, accurate service.

 

PLA Economy Light Gray

Almost three years after we have launched our PLA Economy range we are happy to announce a new color to one of our most popular products: Light Gray. PLA Economy Light Gray is very close to RAL 7035.

Pre-ordering starts today (click here), September 13th and shipping starts as from Tuesday next week!

Jon Snow bust design by David Östman (Design link)

This print was made on the Stacker S4 XL and took 3 days and 4 hours to make, printing with 0.2mm layer height. PLA Economy is very reliable and works extremely well for long projects!

With the addition of this very nice subtle gray shade we offer our users another much requested color. 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.

Settings

A good starting point for the settings is:

Adviced 3d printing temperature
195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed
40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary)
50-60C

Cooling fan
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.

PLA Economy Light Gray is available to order now and ships as from September 17th.

Lamp Shades

There is no restriction these days where one can find 3D printed parts: gadgets, end parts, tooling, prototypes and, more and more, design pieces that you can find in any home these days. One great application is to use 3D printing to make unique and customized lamp shades. Companies like Gantri are doing amazing things in this field and we recently came across the work of Nicolas Muller, who designed the Shiny Leaves Lamp Shade.

Design and all images by Nicolas Muller

Nicolas uses our nGen Clear to print the lamp shades on his self-built printer using E3D extruder and hot ends. He even used nGen to print parts of the printer, so he is clearly a fan! The ease of use and clarity of the filament has made it the go-to filament for Nicolas.

Nicolas is an architect and enjoys working on lamp shades and other designs when he finds the time. He is located in Strasbourg, France. From time to time he publishes his work on his Facebook page.

Nicolas’ website is still under construction but you can contact him if you would like to have more information: contact@acidstudio.fr. We will definitely follow him and his amazing work!

ABOUT NGEN

A little over three years ago, by the end of 2015, we released a new all-round material called nGen, next Generation, based on Eastman Amphora AM3300. We believed then (and still do) that this filament was a next step for 3D printing materials. It was our goal to bring a filament to the market that has functional properties, looks astonishingly good and prints like a dream.

nGen has been a hit ever since. This is not without reason. It is true all-round material suitable for most day to day 3D printing activities. Its chemical make up ensures a very consistent quality. An advantage over PLA is its elevated temperature resistance: 80 degrees instead of 45 degrees, so even in hotter climates (or a hot summer day) the material holds up extremely well. Below is a comparison chart of several of the Amphora based filaments compared to commodity materials like ABS and PLA.

You can read more on our dedicated landing page or our blog about co-polyesters.

nGen is an amazing material which enables users to create parts with gorgeous detail and the benefit of long term stability. Don’t just take our word for it. Below are some of the reviews that our users posted in our webshop:

“Its just the perfect Filament for me!”

“Printing as easy as PLA, but with better material properties.”

“nGen is very predictable and strong.”

“nGen is always my “go to” filament. It just prints beautifully. It’s strong, handles heat well, reliable, and just looks great.”

“… prints like butter 🙂 and the finish is absolutely perfect.”