Car parts made with PA-CF Low Warp

There are as many uses for our filaments as there are 3D printers and users in this world. We love to come across great applications for our materials. Applications we could not think of when we developed and produced the filaments. Or could think of but never thought we would actually see it. Enter John Pham from Brisbane, Australia, who prints car parts with our PA-CF Low Warp filament.

 

3D printed velocity stacks, all images made by John

We came across these prints on Reddit and contacted John about the amazing quality and practical use of his prints.

Check out the original Reddit post!

John considers himself a hobbyist and has printed about 10kg of PA-CF Low Warp. He has declared it his favorite filament so far to use.

Spacer and velocity stacks, aluminium inserts used to add strength to the parts

 

John is a 3D printing enthusiast who happens to love cars. He adds: “I took this opportunity to try design and print as many parts for my modified Mazda MX-5 as possible. My main printer is a modified Tevo Tornado with a E3D Titan Aero hotend/extruder and 0.5 mm NozzleX, I print at 0.2mm and 0.1mm layer height depending on the parts function. My printing material of choice for functional car parts has always been carbon fiber nylon, and in my opinion colorfabb PA-CF produces the best results. Consistent printing results for myself and customers, good strength, excellent resistance to heat, fuels and oils. It also prints very easily, purple gluestick on 55C glass, no warping, flawless supports, excellent surface finish and dimensional accuracy.”

As you can see, John has quite the skills to print with our engineering grade filament. PA-CF Low Warp is a carbon fiber infused polyamide material with the mechanical properties of a PA6 and excellent printability because of extremely low warp.

The material can be printed on desktop FFF 3D printers, which have a temperature range of at least 260°C on the hot-end and the ability to mount an abrasive resistant nozzle. PA-CF Low Warp excels in tensile and impact strength and allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. The formulation has been modified to reduce uptake of moisture and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point compared to unmodified PA6. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less affected by moisture then most other nylon filaments available in the market.

It’s not only the velocity stacks that John printed: “I’ve used colorfabb PA-CF to print intake velocity stacks, bulkhead plates, side mirror mount, bonnet prop, work jigs, mounting brackets, 3D printer parts, and electrical connector housings.”

Visit John’s blog for more of his work!

PA-CF Low Warp was developed and released two years ago with LEHVOSS Group. The material shows good results when printed at ambient temperature, or cold bed. The advised processing temperature for this material is set between 260C and 280CYou can find more information about the printability of PA-CF Low Warp on our dedicated landing page.

PA-CF Low Warp is available at colorFabb and ships worldwide from stock.

Curious how to print with PA-CF Low Warp? Here is our tutorial!

 


Disclaimer: 3D printing is subject to various factors: material, processing, printer, settings, etc. Using printed parts like car parts or other parts that are used in real life are at the user’s own risk. We recommend expert level printing, like this example, and extensive testing before use. 

varioShore TPU is available now!

varioShore TPU is the latest innovative 3D printing filament by colorFabb and is now available. Our varioShore TPU is flexible in more ways than one!

Printing handle bars is a great application due to the soft touch characteristics of varioShore TPU.

varioShore TPU is available now. Click here to go directly to our webshop!

varioShore TPU allows users to vary the density of the material by adjusting temperature and material throughput (speed & layerheight). At temperatures between 200 and 250C the materials will start to expand to roughly 1.4-1.6 times its original volume. This means the material can be printed at low flow rates (60-70%), to compensate the active foaming, which in return gives very soft printed parts. Between 190-200C the material can be printed without foaming, resulting in different haptics and harder prints compared to foamed samples.

We sent several spools to beta testers and this is what they had to say about it:

“It really is a fantastic development… Incredible innovation.” – Steve Cox

“Another astonishing FDM material development from the colorFabb team.” – Richard Horne

“Another amazing product by colorFabb!” – Bart Tangermann

 

Lubrizol co-operation

For this development colorFabb partnered with Lubrizol Engineered Polymers, a leading global producer of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), used in everyday consumer and industrial applications, with a strong global manufacturing and supply network.

Lubrizol Engineered Polymers’ expertise in TPU chemistry was key to provide a customized TPU with a wide range of processing temperatures and adequate melt viscosity, meeting the requirements during extrusion and printing. A wider range of thermal stability and melt rheology allows an extended upper range of printing temperatures to maximize the range of densities achieved through colorFabb’s unique filament foaming technology.

The result is a filament with a base TPU of 92A, which will work with most standard extruder set-ups for both Bowden and direct drive systems.

Main features

The main features of varioShore TPU are:

Variable shorehardness

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 / density

colorFabb used the technology previously used in their light weight LW-PLA 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 noticeable and can make the difference for prints where weight matters.

Soft touch surface

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

It is, in short, a filament that is flexible in more ways than one. colorFabb initially offers one variety: a very neat natural filament without colorant on spools with 700 grams of filament. For settings, tips and tricks we refer to the product page on the colorFabb website.

Retail pricing is € 41.28 excl. VAT (or € 49.95 including VAT) per spool.

varioShore TPU is available as from today from colorFabb and ships daily, worldwide and from stock. With the release of varioShore TPU, right on the heels of Laser Marking PLA, colorFabb remains on the cutting edge of material development for 3D printing.

 

Tips & Tricks

At colorFabb we have a well-equipped 3d printing studio with many popular 3d printers. Our varioShore TPU has been tested using various 3D printers, which has resulted in the following recommended settings.

Adviced 3d printing temperature: 190C-250C

Adviced 3d print speed: 20-30 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 20-40C

Cooling fan: Use the least amount of cooling when maximum foaming is required. For better overhang performance use 50-100% cooling.

We advise our users to use standard TPU settings as a base setting for developing your own pre-sets.

Make sure the distance between nozzle and platform is not to small, especially if the material is being foamed while printing, the pressure will need to be released from the hot-end to prevent clogging and feeder issues.

Material summary

Name: colorFabb varioShore TPU

Diameter Tolerance: ± 0.1 mm

Density: 1,2-1,3 g/cm3

Availability: Right Now!

 


Awesome designs used in this blog

OpenRC 1:10 RC Truggy Rims AirLess by 123CUT (link)

Ergonomic bike handle grips (flex/tpu) by Flying_Ginger (link)

Handle for 1966 HD M50S by barspin (link)

Laser Marking PLA

In our effort to bring you the most innovative materials, we release a brand new 3D printing filament today: Laser Marking PLA.

Laser Marking PLA contains a laser-sensitive additive optimized to work within a 980-1064 nm wavelength. The material has been tested successfully with a Nd:YAG- and fiber lasers. Laser marking PLA will not work with CO2 lasers. A proper laser is required to use this filament.

Laser Marking PLA is available now and ships from stock! (Click here!)

Our latest filament innovation makes laser markings more stunning than ever! One great application can be to create mementos and souvenirs, or give your 3D print an extra touch with a very special message:

Another great application is to create bar codes and QR codes, as well as other unique product information on items that were produced in a limited series. It gives your products a more professional and distinguished look:

 

The material features all the benefits you already know from a regular PLA material. Ease of printing on many platforms, no warping when printing large parts and very good fine detail 3D printing. Laser Marking PLA is our first step into laser marking materials for FDM printers and are interested to know what our community needs are with regards to these materials.

Laser Marking PLA is available in a light grey color to start with, close to RAL 9018 but not an exact match.

(An actual representation of laser marking)

Our unique filament has various advantageous over conventional marking technologies:

  • Markings are permanent, waterproof, wear and heat resistant, lightfast and resistant to chemicals,
  • Flexibility in marking designs,
  • No pre or post-treatment required.

Laser Marking PLA is available now as 750 grams spools and part of our colorFabb Labs program where we release new innovative filaments that meet very specific needs. Click here to go directly to our webshop.

 

(Not an actual representation of laser marking)