Team colorFabb, Author at Learn ColorFabb

Bioplastics Award

The feature print we want to show today is special in more than one way. Normally, our prints are for in-house use and showing off what our filaments are capable of on a wide variety of platforms. Today’s print however has been made by us to be presented as an award: The Bioplastics Award!

The Bioplastics Award is annually given during the Bioplastics Conference to a company who has achieved something special in the field of bioplastics. This year, the jury selected a project on which three companies had collaborated: the new bioplastics wrapper of the Snickers bars. The project started when a product manager at the Mars factory in Veghel, the Netherlands, approached Rodenburg, the Dutch bioplastics producer, with a challenge: Could Rodenburg develop a biobased packaging material for Mars’ candy bars that was just as good as the one the company was currently using?

The answer was “Yes!” and after some trials the product was approved, resulting – amongst others – in the Bioplastics Award 2016. You can read the full article here.

Bioplastics Magazine is the leading magazine in the world in regards to bioplastics. They have published about colorFabb before, which you can read about here and about Stacker as well. The magazine organizes the annual Bioplastics conference which was held this year on November 29 and 30 in Berlin.

The award was printed by us with colorFabb special filaments: woodFill, bronzeFill and copperFill. The base polymer of these materials is our very own PLA/PHA, which has been the basis of a wide range of filaments, both a portfolio of 30 colors and our special filaments, for the past four years.

The woodFill base plate was printed no the Swiss made DeltaTower while the bronzeFill and copperFill parts were printed on the MassPortal Pharaoh and post-processed afterwards.

You can find more information about post-processing in our dedicated blog here and in a collection of articles.

colorFabb’s entire range of special filaments are available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide. For the remainder of the year, because it is colorFabb’s fourth anniversary, we continue our Buy 4, Pay 3 promotion. Use coupon code colorfabb4you on our website to get the fourth spool you order for free!

Aklih

Last winter we held a time-lapse contest and it is an understatement to say it was a great success! You can still watch all contestants in this YouTube playlist. Of over 80 valid entries there could only be one winner and after a popular and a jury vote, the winner was Aklih Design Studio from Slovenia.

The Aklih team

As you may remember, the first prize was 12x 4 spools of filament. Every month the winner could choose 4 spools, which would also give the winner the opportunity to choose materials that were not released at the beginning of the year, like colorFabb_HT, steelFill or nGen_FLEX.

Aklih, however, kept ordering woodFill, our first special filament which was launched during the 3D Print Show in London 3 years ago. This piqued our interest and we decided to get in touch with Aklih to discuss this work further.

We’ll give the stage to them and have them introduce their company in their own words: “We are design studio AKLIH based in Slovenia. We provide design services and design products that can be 3D printed. We came in contact with 3D printing technology back in Faculty, when we used it to prototype ideas. Later on we went from prototyping to end products. An important step in this process was woodFill filament, which is easy to print and give our products that specific wood look. Now we have 3D printed products like Birdy, Megafon, Cup, Kikla in our product line and new ones on the way.

We took most of the woodFill filament from the time-lapse contest for printing our products and some PLA/PHA for a different model prototyping proposals. We like colorFabb because of variety of high quality filaments, fast shipping and great customer support. So we look forward to continue work with colorFabb in the future.”

Below are some of the products they produce with 3D printing and woodFill. We find them stunning examples of what is possible with 3D printing and love to see our filaments being used this way.

Birdy – bird house

Feeding birds in the winter encourages the bond between human and nature. With Birdy, attractive bird-feeder, we do not only care for birds, but we also put a stamp of modernity and eco-friendly vibe in our home or neighbourhood. Birdy allows feeding of birds from window sills, balconies or trees and is 3D printed with mixture of wood particles and bio plastic. Give yourself the opportunity to relax by feeding birds and smile at the sight of them through the window.

Megafone – phone amplifier

When the past meets the future. We created Megafone, an amplifier which does not require electricity for its operation. It combines centuries-old acoustic megaphone design with modern materials and 3D printing. The shape is accomplished by laying down layer after layer of material to get this very attractive megaphone. It is printed with a mixture of biodegradable plastic and wood and is compatible with iPhones and new models of Samsung. The passive amplifier works exclusively by mechanic, employing geometry to optimize performance, creating a pleasant and immersive listening experience.

You can watch the YouTube video here.

Cup – lamp

Cup is a small, handy and modern lamp which you can take everywhere with you. The combination of 3D printing technology and LED lamps gives it a unique character. Cup is made with a mixture of biodegradable plastic and wood, made with a 3D printer. The built-in LED lamp is covered with frosted glass, which provides a “softened” and evenly distributed light beam. Cup provides us with 4 different positions for lighting and you can easily place it on a table, hang it on a wall or some other piece of furniture.

You can watch the YouTube video here.

Kikla – lamp

KIKLA is elegant lamp made from biodegradable plastic and wood, made with 3D printing. It can be placed on a table or hung from a wall. Due to the diffuse glass, light is distributed evenly throughout the room.

You can watch the YouTube video here.

We are proud that our woodFill is used in such a way. We have seen many cool prints from Aklih in the past and we are sure that we will see more. If you want to keep track of their work, check out their website, their YouTube channel or their Facebook page.

woodFill was launched exactly 3 years ago this month during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill and more recently corkFill. our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

This is the first post in what we hope will be an ongoing series of blogs of companies using colorFabb filaments in unique and exciting ways. If you are interested in being part of this feature, or know a company who would be suitable, please contact us at sales@colorfabb.com

3d printing aklih bird house cirl colorfabb cup feature kikla megafon slovenia time lapse winner woodfill

Mixee wallet

Today’s featured print is the Mixee wallet by Nancy Yi Liang, which we printed in multiple colors with our ever popular nGen filament!

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/mixee-wallet

In Nancy’s own words: “This is a beautiful, geometric wallet with 3D printed “fabric” that folds at the hinges. All these little hinges are printed in place so minimal assembly is required.” You can find more information on the YouMagine page by clicking here.

Every side is printed separately in one piece with one color with nGen filament. We printed the Mixee Wallet on our Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.12mm layer height.

You may notice that we print a lot with nGen and there is a good reason for this: It is a fantastic material to print with! This next generation 3D printing filament was launched a year ago and has become an all-round filament which we use a lot in our print lab. It works extremely well on a lot of platforms and has shown to be extremely popular with our user base.

Curious? Check out this tutorial on How to print with nGen!

nGen is made from Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer. Like colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and nGen_FLEX, it is part of Eastman’s Amphora range of copolyesters for 3D printing. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

You can find all information you are looking for on our dedicated landing page. nGen is available in 17 colors.

nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste.

Although the Black Friday / Cyber Monday promotion (15% on all filaments) has ended, we still have the Buy 4, Pay 3 promotion going on our website. It’s colorFabb’s fourth anniversary and we celebrate this with you! Use coupon code colorfabb4you when choosing 4 spools (or more) and get every 4th spool for free. Conditions apply though: cheapest spool is for free and PLA Economy and sample spools are exempt from this promotion.

3d printing colorfabb mixee wallet ngen ultimaker 2

Flexbot quadcopter

A little over a week ago we posted a tweet regarding a print we were making on the Leapfrog HS with nGen orange. We are now presenting you the result, the Flexbot Quadcopter With FlexCam V2.0:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1383918

The FlexBot is designed by FlexLab. Consisting of 3 parts, we used nGen for this print in two colors: Orange and Silver Metallic. The combination of the Leapfrog HS with nGen is superb.

Keep an eye out on FlexLab’s activity on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

nGen is one of our most successful materials. It was developed with Eastman Chemical Company and based on their AM3300 co-polyester. After launching it last year, it has been widely adopted by 3D printer users all over the world as a go to material and replacement for PLA. You can find all information you are looking for on our dedicated landing page.

nGen is made from Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer. Like colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and nGen_FLEX, it is part of Eastman’s Amphora range of copolyesters for 3D printing. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste.

Amphora 3300 has been made into high-quality filament that exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items. With the unique combination of a low processing temperature and an elevated temperature resistance, nGen can quickly print creations that are functional, durable, efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available in 17 colors.

Today, Monday November 28th aka CyberMonday is the last day where you can benefit from our 15% discount on all our filaments. You can check the full details in our previous Black Friday blog post. Note that this 15% discount will end at midnight CET tonight.

3d printing colorfabb drone flexbot flexlab leapfrog HS ngen quadcopter

Apple watch dock

The holiday season is about the start and that means a lot of expensive gifts. You cannot print fully functional wearables yet, but you can print the dock for a, say, Apple watch. And why spend a small fortune on a dock by buying it? Print one. Or dozens! Life is all about making and it’s easy with our PLA Economy.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:882810

Designed by Uwe Dauernheim this small print holds your Apple Watch (which will you get from Santa, we’re sure!) safely and on a prominent place. We printed these docks on the Makerbot Replicator 2 on a 0.2mm layer height with standard PLA settings.

With one 2.2kg spool you can produce up to 81 of these docks (weighing at 27 grams each). Effectively this will cost you about € 0.43 (excl VAT) per piece for the material.

Our new grade of low cost PLA Economy was launched last week and it has been a runaway success from the beginning. You can find the full details of our latest offering here.

We have been testing this material for the better part of the summer and have found this filament a great alternative those customers who need a lot of PLA. We are initially releasing PLA Economy in four colors: White (RAL 9010), Black (RAL 9005, Red (RAL 3020) and Silver (RAL 9023). This PLA grade has been tested extensively and is being produced and shipped by the same colorFabb team you are used to so you know we are not compromising on quality. You can rely with this filament on the same high standards that colorFabb is known for. It is available only on 2.2kg spools.

PLA Economy is an addition to our range of PLA/PHA, which is available in 30 colors (and on 750 grams spools).

And remember that during Black Friday we have a special deal on all our filaments: 15% off! Find out more by clicking here. Some conditions apply though: cheapest spool is for free and samples and PLA Economy are exempt from this part of the promotion. Other than that, you can get two awesome discounts during the Black Friday weekend!

Please note: Due to the high demand of our filaments during the Black Friday sales promotion we have run out of stock on certain items sooner than we thought. ur production and logistics teams work around the clock (and even during the weekend) to produce new filaments and prepare them for shipment. Delays may occur, but we try to minimize the time you have to wait.

3d printing apple watch colorfabb dock makerbot pla economy replicator 2

Ultimaker hand drill

Recently, Ultimaker launched their latest printer: the Ultimaker 3. It is no secret that we print a lot with our Ultimaker printers: the original, the Ultimaker 2 and the 2+ are all printers we frequently test our filaments on. So it was only natural that we would also give the latest Ultimaker 3 a spin. One of the primary features of Ultimaker’s latest machine is the dual extrusion ability. We thought it would be a great opportunity to give our nGen filament a spin and make a very cool dual nozzle print.

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/hand-drill

Printed on the Ultimaker 3 with nGen Black and nGen Silver Metallic at a 0.1mm layer height. This print succeeded on its first try and the entire print, made in one go, lasted 4.5 days. Yeah, we do have that kind of time. Rest assured that more prints will be made on this printer in the near future!

We found nGen to be a perfect material for Ultimaker’s latest printer!

nGen is one of our most successful materials. It was developed with Eastman Chemical Company and based on their AM3300 co-polyester. After launching it last year, it has been widely adopted by 3D printer users all over the world as a go to material and replacement for PLA. You can find all information you are looking for on our dedicated landing page.

nGen is made from Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer. Like colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and nGen_FLEX, it is part of Eastman’s Amphora range of copolyesters for 3D printing. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste.

Amphora 3300 has been made into high-quality filament that exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items. With the unique combination of a low processing temperature and an elevated temperature resistance, nGen can quickly print creations that are functional, durable, efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available in 17 colors.

Don’t forget we have a Black Friday promotion going on: Buy 4, Pay 3 and on top of that 15% on all our filaments. You can find all the details in yesterday’s post. Click on the banner below to go directly to our website.

3d printing colorfabb dual nozzle hand drill ngen prototyping ultimaker 3

Sir Fill

Pop quiz: What is taller than 3 spools of colorFabb PLA Economy? There is only one answer: Sir Fill printed extra large on the Delta Tower!

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501831

You may or may not know Sir Fill. Sir Fill is our mascotte, proud protector of the printers. A fearless filament fan. Our guardian and true knight. Designed by Swedish character artist and digital sculptor Ola Sundberg a few years ago especially for us, it has been a print we keep printing with all our filaments.

Last week we launched our new grade of low cost PLA Economy and it has been a runaway success from the moment we launched it. You can find the full details of our latest offering here.

Printed on the Delta Tower with a 0.8mm nozzle and a 0.2mm layer height, Sir Fill weighs nearly 2kgs and measures 45.5cm. As you can see, PLA Economy is perfectly suited for the task.

We have been testing this material for the better part of the summer and have found this filament a great alternative those customers who need a lot of PLA. We are initially releasing PLA Economy in four colors: White (RAL 9010), Black (RAL 9005, Red (RAL 3020) and Silver (RAL 9023). This PLA grade has been tested extensively and is being produced and shipped by the same colorFabb team you are used to so you know we are not compromising on quality. You can rely with this filament on the same high standards that colorFabb is known for. It is available only on 2.2kg spools.

PLA Economy is an addition to our range of PLA/PHA, which is available in 30 colors (and on 750 grams spools).

And remember that during Black Friday we have a special deal on all our filaments: 15% off! Find out more by clicking here.

3d printing colorfabb delta tower ola sundberg pla economy sir fill

Flexible tubes

Almost two months ago during the TCT Show we launched our brand new semi flexible nGen_FLEX filament. With a Shore A hardness of 95 and the high glass temperature of 120+ degrees C this is a truly functional 3D printing filament. For today’s featured print we custom designed tubes that needed a certain flexibility.

nGen_FLEX is our first foray in flexible filaments. We aimed for a more functional, semi-flexible filament. The first reactions after launching were unanimously positive and we have seen fantastic prints with nGen_FLEX in the wild ever since.

These tubes were printed on an Ultimaker 2+ on 0.16mm layer height., proving once again that nGen_FLEX can easily be printed on printers working with a Bowden tube.

Printing multiple tubes at once with connecting sections enables us to print the full height of the printer without becoming to flexible to properly print. These tubes are 190mm long and are connected by a single wall thickness of 0,4mm to create the stiffness. After printing these connectors can be easily cut away with a hobby knife.

With an outer diameter of 6mm these tubes are compatible with regular tubing of the same size. Its 2 perimeter thickness ensures a watertight print whilst remaining flexible enough to use in a variaty of applications.

These tubes will be part of a bigger print we are working on. Keep your eyes open in the weeks to come!

nGen_FLEX is a new elastomer material added to our existing range of co-polyester functional 3D printing filaments. It is made from Eastman Amphora™ Flex 3D Polymer FL6000 and the fourth filament in our range of Amphora based co-polyester, following colorFabb_XT, nGen and colorFabb_HT.

nGen_FLEX is available in our webshop: Click here.

nGen_FLEX is best described as a semi-flexible material with good printability on most 3D printers eliminating the use for specialized flex extruders. It’s rated at a Shore A hardness level of 95. By adjusting infill and perimeter settings it’s possible to influence how flexible a part should feel after printing. You can find more information on our dedicated nGen_FLEX landing page.

3d printing colorfabb flexible ngn flex tubes ultimaker

Lighthouse

Last week we released PLA Economy, our new grade of PLA filament. PLA Economy is only available on 2.2kg spools, in a limited amount of colors, but very competitively priced. Perfectly suited for printer owners who use large volumes of PLA. It is ideal for making great looking prints, like this Lighthouse On A Rock, designed by Jukka Seppänen.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1379330

The light house was printed on our Makerbot Replicator 2 with 0.2mm layer height. We used the Makerbot standard PLA settings for this print and the results are very good. We experienced a perfect raft seperation from the model.

The new economy line of PLA filaments by colorFabb delivers a good quality PLA filament in four great colors at very reasonable pricing. 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.

Spool holder design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862683

You can order PLA Economy right now from our webshop. Due to the overwhelming success, not all items are in stock but will be produced soon. Order now to make sure you will receive your filaments as soon as possible.

3dprinting colorfabb light house makerbot pla economy

Thumb book holder

Sometimes the handiest prints we make are also the smallest. One struggle every avid reader has is to keep a book open while lying on the couch and trying to sip that well-earned coffee at the same time. Luckily there’s Michael_B who has designed a thumb book holder, finally bringing this struggle to an end!

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:650623

We used woodFill for this print. woodFill was launched exactly 3 years ago this month during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill and more recently corkFill. our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

We printed the book holder on one of our Ultimaker Originals at a 0.2mm layer height.

woodFill is available in our webshop. Why not combine woodFill with our other specials and take advantage of our November promotion. This month, colorFabb celebrates its 4th anniversary. By using the coupon code colorfabb4you when checking out you buy 4 spools, but pay only 3! read more on colorFabb’s 4th birthday here or check out the timeline of what we have done in the past four years.

Go to our website to take advantage of our “Buy 4, Pay 3” promotion today!

(Coupon code does not work with samples or colorFabb PLA Economy spools)

3d printing alan turing colorfabb reading special thumb book holder woodfill