Stan Lee

Excelsior! With Avengers: Endgame finally being released this week, it is only fitting that we honor the man who started most, if not all of it: Mr Stan Lee. One of our colleagues printed this very nice bust with PLA Economy.

Design by Geoffro / Patreon Link

Printed on the Prusa Mk3 with standard PLA settings it is a fitting tribute of the creator of so many beloved Marvel heroes who passed away too soon and too young last year. His work in comics and the subsequent MCU movies cannot be valued enough.

This Stan Lee bust already has found a place in one of our colleague’s living room – a true fan!

About the filament

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop. You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

It is the perfect filament to make your fan memorabilia.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy  Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for. It has been one of colorFabb’s most popular filaments ever since launching 3 years ago.

Easter egg hunt

The Easter weekend is upon us which means egg hunting season has started. At colorFabb we do our bit and we have hidden some surprises on our website as well. Browse our website to find several discount codes scattered around on the website.

Gone are the days (for now) where we just give a discount or automatically apply it for you. This time you have to look for it, to stay in the spirit of the Easter tradition. We have hidden discount codes of 15%, 20% and 25% on our website so start browsing! The discounts are hidden in our webshop and related pages, but not in our blog or support page.

If you find the code click on it and the code will automatically apply to your order:

 

Our happy digital coupon specialist gladly applies the code for you!

Alternatively you can type the coupon code in the box when checking out. Some terms and conditions do apply:

  • Does not work with other discounts
  • Only applies to spools of filament
  • Discount codes are valid until Monday April 22nd at 23:59 CET

Although the coupon codes can be guessed and does not elaborate code solving, we would appreciate it if you don’t share the discount codes only social media or forums so other people can also participate in the search.

Enjoy the hunt!

P.S. Due to the extended Easter weekend here in the Netherlands, all orders placed during the weekend will ship on Tuesday April 23rd.

Ceiling housing

Series production on a 3D printer can be done one by one. But what if you did it four by four? On the Stacker S4 it is possible to produce multiple parts at the same time due to the large print bed (345x525mm) and four print heads. Like these ceiling housings for a passive infrared (PIR) sensor, printed with nGen Dark Gray.

Design by TerroBladeZ

Printing small series is easier than ever with the Stacker combined with colorFabb filaments. Not only is it faster, it enables the user more flexibility and it saves money over conventional production. It took merely 18 hours to print 16 ceiling housings with a 0.4mm nozzle and at 0.12mm layer height.

 

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.”

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

LW-PLA

We proudly present our brand new 3D printing filament: LW-PLA

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

“We need challenging materials, we need to work with or find ways around the limitations and allow more people to experiment with exciting developments like this foaming PLA.” – Richard Horne, aka RichRap3D

Read Richard’s review of LW-PLA here.

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.

LW-PLA, with the LW standing for Lightweight, is available as from today in two colors: Black and Natural.

 

 

Recently we held a contest where people from all over the world sent in their ideas what they wanted to print with our brand new LW-PLA. Ideas ranged from cosplay to drones and from wheelchair aides to wind turbines. Every print where weight matters can benefit from LW-PLA.

For the filament to expand it is necessary to put a certain amount of energy into the filament. The amount of energy a filament can absorb during printing depends on the length of the hot-zone and the time it takes for the filament to pass through the hot-zone. The longer a filament will reside inside the hot-end, the more energy it can absorb which will increase the amount of expansion.

Assuming nozzle size and layerheight are fixed, our main input variables are Temperature, speed and flow to determine the amount of expansion. Find out more about how to print by checking our LW-PLA print tutorial.

Read more: How to Print with LW-PLA

Material

colorFabb LW-PLA

Diameter Tolerance

± 0.1 mm

Density

1.210-1.430 g·cm-3 (non activated density)
0.403 – 0,476 g·cm-3 (maximum activated density)

Glass Transition Temperature

55C

Material data sheets can be found here. Click on the images below to go directly to our product pages or click here:

 

You can also find all relevant information on our dedicated information page.

At colorFabb we have always been active in developing new filaments for FDM/FFF 3D printing, like the first metal filled filament bronzeFill, the one of a kind nGen_LUX and the unique Color on Demand service where customers choose their own colors to print with. LW-PLA is our latest offering in an ever expanding portfolio.

LW-PLA was developed under our new colorFabb Labs program. colorFabb Labs is dedicated to bring more innovative materials faster to the market. It is colorFabb’s aim to meet customers’ needs in terms of materials and 3D printing services. Stay tuned for more exciting developments this year.

LW-PLA ships as from today, April 12 2019, from our webshop and can be found under the Specials, as well as colorFabb Labs. Samples and XL spools will be available at a later date.

Coffee tray

Growth of a company can be measured in a lot of different ways. Economists and historians will debate for years what the best way is, but at colorFabb we measure it by the size of our coffee tray. Whenever someone in the office goes for a coffee, courtesy dictates that he or she will bring coffee for all of the colleagues. As from this week, our coffee tray was upgraded significantly to allow for all our coffee to be brought into the office and passed around at once:

In-house design by our intern Aron Smolenaars

This print was made with our PLA Semi-Matte Black and due to the size (33 x 37cm) we required a bit more than the standard desktop 3D printer. The Stacker S4 is a great printer where we could use of the bigger-than-average build platform.

Long hours at colorFabb to develop, produce and ship the best possible 3D printing filaments mean an equal amount of coffee to be consumed at the office. Carrying it around is limited by the heat of the cups, the lack of multiple limbs and opening doors. Hence the coffee tray which is already enjoying its third iteration.

Previous designs, starting with 3 cup holders, then 8 and now 16…

The coffee tray, seemingly whimsical, is a great example of how 3D printing can offer quick solutions for everyday work space challenges. Like burnt fingers.

When developing our semi-matte PLA (available in black and white) we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. PLA Semi-Matte Black (and white) will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

Our semi-matte PLA filament eliminates the glossy appearance seen on most PLA 3D prints. The highlights on the surface will be less visible, resulting in an overall cleaner and much higher quality look.

PLA Semi-Matte Black contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

 

PLA Semi-Matte Black and White are available from stock and ship daily, worldwide.

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

Deadpool

Deadpool, aka The Merc with the Mouth, has been a fan favorite for years and one of our colleagues has printed the iconic Marvel character recently:

Design: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-deadpool-bust-remastered-supportless-edition-81435

Designed by David Östman, this Deadpool bust was printed with PLA Economy Black on the Prusa i3 MK3 with standard PLA settings. The design is the second, improved design by Östman.

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop. You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

It is the perfect filament to make your fan memorabilia.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy       Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for. It has been one of colorFabb’s most popular filaments ever since launching 3 years ago.

Print your own toolbox inlay

Updated: We have added the link to the Thingiverse page so you can print your own inlay!

With 3D printing comes great customization. With the right design skills, the right printer and the right materials one can make unique prints that not only look good, but are also extremely handy. Speaking of handy, having the right tools on hand is essential in every work space (print labs in particular), but what starts with some plyers and a screwdriver can easily grow into a collection of dozens of tools. Or more. And no tools are created equally, nor are the needs of the maker. To bring more order into this chaos we decided to design and print our own toolbox inlay:

Custom in-house design (Thingiverse link)

We used our trusted Stacker S4 printer for this print, making use of the full build plate of this industrial grade 3D printer. We printed with a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.2mm layer height. Infill was 10% (printed every two layers).

Material of choice to print the toolbox inlay was our very own (and extremely popular) PLA Economy Silver.

We printed 3 layers to store our tools, which fit inside a standard case which can be bought at any hardware store. This way you can easily store your tools in the way you want it: Everything is always in the right place, your tools can easily be moved from one work site to the other and when you pack up you see at a glance if you have not forgotten anything.

Print your own inlay now by heading to our Thingiverse page.

The design was made in SolidWorks, our design software of choice:

Render of the design in SolidWorks

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November of 2016. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black, silver and dark blue.

 

PLA Economy

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop. You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

 

Stacker deal at the TCT Show

Third and final day at the TCT Show today. We are at stand H39 and feature four printers on our stand: The Lulzbot TAZ 6, Stacker S2, Robo R2 and the Prusa i3 mk2 – the latter two are printing with our brand new nGen_LUX filament which was announced last week and will be available in November. The TCT Show is the first show you see this new filament in real lifel and the reactions have been universally positive. “This just looks too good” may be one of our favorite reactions!

Today we highlight the Stacker S2 printer. In the next week, as from now, we offer the Stacker S2 and Stacker S4 at discounted prices:

Stacker S2: Was € 7,495 / is now € 6.500

Stacker S4: Was € 10.995 / is now € 9.500

This discount lasts until end of next week and applies to all order firm orders placed before then. Prices are excluding VAT and shipping. Contact us at sales@colorfabb.com for the details. Alternatively, visit us at the TCT Show today or at the Kunststoffenbeurs in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, where you can see the Stacker S4 at the stand of our sister company Helian Polymers.

The Stacker S2 (and its larger sibling the Stacker S4) is an industrial grade FFF 3D printer. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make it a versatile printer. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 4 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

One great way to use 3D printing, and the Stacker in combination with our signature PLA/PHA, is investment casting. Using 3D printing in investment casting reduces cost and adds flexibility to the process. PLA is a natural choice for this process where the entire print is burned out.

This is being done in real life by companies like Spectra3D, as highlighted in last year’s blog.

And for the filaments we have a discount this week as well: 10% off on all 3D printing filaments. Use coupon code TCT2017 when checking out.

TCT 2017

Back in Birmingham!! This week we are at the TCT Show again for the fourth consecutive year! If you are at the show or plan to visit, you can find us at stand H39 and we have some exciting new developments to show you!

A cool feature of our stand is that you look directly into our factory where your favorite filaments are made. This backdrop gives you a good look at colorFabb’s new production facility.

Of course there is nGen_LUX. This is our brand new filament we announced last week and will release in November. With nGen_LUX we put years of experience in development, 3D printing, R&D and production into a single 3D printing filament that will bridge the gap to production with unmatched surface quality.

nGen_LUX uniquely features diffuse reflection, which means that the light that shines on the print scatters to many directions and allows for a perfect surface quality that looks like nothing you have ever seen before.

You can now see nGen_LUX today exclusively at the TCT Show before being released later this year. Tomorrow nGen_LUX will also be featured at the Dutch Kunststoffenbeurs in Veldhoven at the stand of our sister company Helian Polymers.

You can read all further information in last week’s blog!

Furthermore we will have four printers continuously running in our stand. We have the Stacker S2 printing with colorFabb’s signature PLA/PHA, making parts for investment casting (more on that soon!) Next to it the Lulzbot TAZ 6 prints with our all-round filament nGen. nGen is a terrific material for every day use and it works flawlessly on the Lulzbot range of printers.

On the other end of the stand you find the brand new Robo R2 and the Prusa i3 mk 2 – both of printing with the aforementioned nGen_LUX.

Both printers have some stellar examples displayed in front of them made with this great new material. Pictures can hardly do justice to the optical quality of nGen_LUX. Seeing is believing!

Aside from the Prusa, all printers in our stand are readily available in our webshop. We ship from stock and with free filaments! Free shipping in the EU to selected countries. Click here to go to our webshop or on the image below:

All printers have been extensively tested by the colorFabb team with our filaments!

During the TCT we offer a 10% discount on all our filaments in our webshop! To get this immediate discount, which lasts all week, use the coupon code TCT2017 when checking out or simply click here!

Overwhelmed with all the choice we have these days? Check out our latest catalogue with all our filaments categorized, the entire color range neatly presented, some beautiful examples of prints plus settings and tips & tricks per filament! You can also find out more about the printers we offer!

COLORFABB.COM                              CATALOGUE

NEMA 17 4:1 reduction gearbox

Today we feature this fully 3D printed gearbox for a NEMA 17 stepper motor with a 4:1 reduction ratio in colorFabb_XT. Designed by Youmagine user Kevin, it utilizes herringbone gears and it performs great.

gearbox_001s

Designed by Kevin: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nema17-4-1-gearbox

This print was done using a 0,25mm nozzle width and 0,06mm layerheight on an Ultimaker 2+. colorFabb_XT was used in both light and dark gray to ensure a durable and strong gearbox. The fine detailing meant that the print took a full day to complete. But it’s gears fit together very precisely and there is only minimal play in the system.

gearbox_002s

 

 

colorFabb_XT is made with Amphora AM1800 and was the first material we launched together with Eastman Chemical Company back in 2014.

It has a unique formulation for 3D Printing that features excellent properties : High strength and very high toughness, Odor Neutral processing, High Tg / improved temp. resistance, Styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance, BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation. It will allow the user to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way. Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer is a low-odor, styrene-free choice that is uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

Learn how to print with colorFabb_XT: https://learn.colorfabb.com/print-_xt/

Designed by Kevin: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/nema17-4-1-gearbox