CashMag

3D printing allows more businesses to bring their products to the market faster and more efficiently than ever before. The technology, although around for many years, has been a true game-changer in the past decade. At colorFabb, almost eight years young at the time of writing, we have seen 3D printing grow from a mainly hobby-oriented market, originating from the Reprap movement, to a confident additive manufacturing industry where more and more companies have not only made it part of their production and prototyping process, but even it made it their main way of producing.

One company using 3D printing as a way of producing their products is the French company CashMag, which is using various colorFabb copolyesters as their main material to print with. We asked them to tell a bit more about themselves and the way they work.

 

 

The desktop Cash Recylcer by CashMag – all images by CashMag and used with permission

 

About CashMag

CashMag is a leading French company in cashing solutions. They provide to their customers products like POS (point of sale) systems, cashing software with specific certifications for the French market and since 2008 Cash Recyclers!

 

 

What is a Cash Recycler?   “A Cash Recycler removes the need for staff to handle cash at the POS. It automates the payment process at Point Of Sale, improving the hygiene, deleting errors and shrinkage while enhancing security and staff productivity.”

 

The 5K Cash Recycler

With the Cash Recycler in the market they searched for a way to give a boost in productivity. The Cash Recycler was originally made of steel and they found it took long to improve existing products and to prototype new ones. So they turned towards 3D printing: “We started with 15 PRUSA i3 MK3 for our first try, and after several tests and improving our skills to this new technology we were able to produce good results. It lead to the production our first cash recycler 3D printing the 1F. Nowadays, we have 53 3D printers with different sizes and characteristics like Stacker 4 XL, RAISE PRO2+, MODIX BIG 60 etc… In 2018 we created the world first 100% 3D printed cash recyclers: the Desktop, the 5K and the 5T.”

Printing parts on the Stacker S4 XL

 

 

 

Our team found colorFabb and asked them for a solution. The nGen filament was the golden key!

 

CashMag’s material choice

CashMag explains further: “After a long time of tweaking our skills, we searched for a filament with the same characteristics of PETG but a little bit stronger and easy to print without warping. Our team found colorFabb and asked them for a solution. The nGen filament was the golden key! In February 2019, our CEO visited colorFabb in Netherlands to see how filament is produced and met with the colorFabb team in order to establish a good business relationship.”

They have also started working with PETG Economy with great results!

 

 

At colorFabb we value our working relationships with business partners and actively help to find the best possible material for their application. With CashMag we found that our range of co-polyesters, especially nGen, was the best fit for them. Custom development, as recently highlighted with Gantri is also a possibility. Interested to find out what material suits your needs best? Contact us!

 

About nGen

Almost 5 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: 85 degrees C instead of 55 degrees C, 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.”

Gantri

At colorFabb we not only produce our own high quality colorFabb-branded filaments, but also work closely with various customers to create bespoke filaments for their specific application. Gantri is the world’s first digital manufacturer for designer lighting and were looking for a manufacturer to develop a filament to suit their needs. With the creation of Gantri Plant Polymers, colorFabb has co-developed a sustainable material to print their lights with.

Designer light, printed by Gantri. All images by Gantri

Already being featured on websites like CNET and Additive Manufacturing, Gantri has been expanding their San Francisco-based company in a serious way!

“Gantri Plant Polymers is a reflection of our commitment to innovation and sustainability,” says Gantri founder and CEO, Ian Yang. “Our goal is to create great designs that you can feel good about. With our sustainable means of manufacturing, you can enjoy your new light knowing that it’s a better choice for the world.”

Gantri Plant Polymer, fresh of the spool

Says Ruud Rouleaux, founder and CEO of colorFabb: “Gantri’s need for a bespoke 3D printing filament fits perfect with colorFabb’s philosophy to develop materials for specific
applications, like the high quality lighting products Gantri produces. Innovation is in colorFabb’s DNA and what we are known for. By utilizing our 3D printing experience, material knowledge and a sustainable way of manufacturing, with 480 solar panel array and geo-thermal installation powering our production plant, we are able to produce the exact right material Gantri needs.”

Gantri Plant Polymer in production at colorFabb

 

The materials consist of two custom compounded PLA blends that are created to be durable, heat tolerant and diffuse light evenly. First is the diffusive blend that offers a frosted glass-like effect when lit. Second, the opaque blend — finished with a premium water-based paint, is 50% more temperature resistant than traditional PLAs and safe to use near electronics. Gantri Plant Polymers also offer similar tensile strengths to common plastics such as ABS and PET. The base of Gantri’s materials are raw polylactic acids derived from non-GMO, sustainably farmed sugar crops such as corn, sugar beets and sugar cane. The resulting compounded blends produce 75% less carbon dioxide per kilogram than conventional plastics and emits no carcinogens during production.

https://twitter.com/gantridesigns/status/1288235222991945728

Gantri Plant Polymers are used exclusively in Gantri lighting products.

 

About Gantri

Gantri’s mission is to empower design. Why are good designer lights so expensive? asks Gantri. Because traditional manufacturing makes it too difficult and costly for designers to bring groundbreaking ideas to market. This stymies human creativity and contributes to environmental concerns such as overproduction and shipping pollution. Gantri has completely reimagined the way lighting is developed, made and sold, empowering the world’s best designers to create design-forward, functional pieces for your life. Their manufacturing technologies are drastically more efficient, making good designers lights radically more attainable and sustainable.

Read more on Gantri’s website.

 

Custom materials at colorFabb

At colorFabb we meet the needs of our customers. Some applications require custom solutions and e like to think beyond what is already on the market and co-develop with you, like we did with Gantri.

One of the ways you can distinguish your print is with color. Color on Demand is our unique service where we produce PLA filaments in your preferred color. With nearly 200 RAL colors matched we probably have that color you are looking for! And if not, we can match your specific color for you.

Color on Demand is just the most visible part of our custom material offering. We produce specific materials and filaments for various customers like Gantri. Interested in your bespoke filament solution? Contact us!

6 years colorFabb_XT: A Look Back

This week it has been exactly 6 years ago that we launched colorFabb_XT at the 2014 edition of the 3D Print Show in London (remember those days?). With all the new materials, growth of colorFabb (& 3D printing in general) and our relentless goal to keep innovating it is sometimes easy to forget how special this moment was for colorFabb. Not only was this the first time a large chemical company (Eastman Chemical Company from Kingsport, TN) publicly partnered with a filament producer – something which is the norm today – but it also meant shifting our focus to functional materials.

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Our launch event booth at the London 3D Print Show 2014

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Eastman’s Amphora 3D polymers are low-odor and styrene free materials specifically developed for 3D printing. With Amphora based filaments, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

 

“Is Amphora a good material to 3D print? Absolutely – just make sure you have a heated build surface before you order some.”- Fabbaloo’s initial review

 

Platform Jack printed with colorFabb_XT by Intentional3D

 

colorFabb teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company to create colorFabb_XT, made with Eastman Amphora AM1800 3D Polymer. colorFabb_XT’s unique formulation features excellent properties: high strength, very high toughness, odor neutral processing and improved temperatures resistance. With its styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation colorFabb_XT allows the user to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way.

 

After launching colorFabb_XT we launched several other copolyester filaments: nGen, colorFabb_HT, nGen_FLEX, PETG Economy and nGen_LUX. To read more about what the differences are and what the best applications for each material are, check out our blog What We Talk About When We Talk About Co-Polyesters.

 

Toyota engine made with colorFabb_XT by Korneel Bullens

 

With colorFabb_XT we have seen quite some amazing applications: from garden sprinklers to prosthetics (more below). As a functional material goes, it is one of the workhorses of the filament world. It does not end with the print itself. We have received numerous requests about post-processing. Together with Eastman we made a handy secondary operations guide for those who feel their finished print needs more work.

Read: How to post-process co-polyesters

 

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Although we have phased out some colors of the colorFabb_XT product line – with a few still on sale at the time of writing – we still ship the most popular ones daily, worldwide and from stock. Head to our webshop for your daily dose of XT!

 

Previous colorFabb_XT posts

Below are a few of the prints we made with colorFabb_XT over the past years.