SLS Prints - Learn ColorFabb

Back in November we announced our partnership with Sintratec. Sintratec is a Swiss high-tech company specializing in the development and production of SLS 3D printers. You can read the announcement here. In more than one way this has been a very important step for colorFabb. Not only do we add another high-end printer for the industrial market to our portfolio, this is also our first step beyond FFF / FDM 3D printing. Working with Sintratec is our first venture in SLS 3D printing and a very exciting one at that!

Sintratec S1: https://colorfabb.com/sintratec-s1

The partnership with Sintratec is in line with colorFabb’s mission statement: Offering added value with high quality material and hardware solutions to meet our customer’s needs by means of interfacing between polymer knowledge and 3D printing know-how.

SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) is a logical next step beyond our tried and tested way of FDM 3D printing. Laser sintering allows you to print extremely durable and highly detailed objects. The laser sintering technology makes it possible to print complex objects with unparalleled freedom of form. We have printed some examples:

Branched hand by PscL: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:332451

Scaled to a 60mm print, this branched hand shows the design freedom one has and the level of detail that can be achieved. We spent a whole euro to give a sense of scale.

Another great application for SLS is functional printing, like gears:

Herringbone gear by jonaskuehling: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18379

We scaled these prints back to 28mm and 6mm each to show detail in functional parts.

All prints were made on the Sintratec Kit with Sintratec PA12 Powder. With SLS 3D printing a laser is used to sinter a powder, in this case Sintratec’s own nylon. The laser points at certain places in the powder binding the material together to create a solid structure. Below is a video where you can see how one layer is created:

New doors open and new worlds are to be explored when coming from traditional 3D printing.

Sintratec Kit: https://colorfabb.com/sintratec-kit

We currently offer both the Sintratec S1 (fully assembled SLS printer) and the Sintratec Kit (assembly required). We believe the Sintratec S1 is a unique offering which strengthens our portfolio of 3D printers and professional services.

Retail prices are: