ColorFabb Learn

Investment casting

An exciting new way of using 3D printing we encountered recently is its use in investment casting. Anyone who has been following 3D printing related posts on Twitter must have encountered Jerry LePore’s work on the Spectra3D account and his daily updates on the work he is doing with his printers. Never too shy to share his workplace (of which many reader of this article will be extremely jealous) he summed up the printers he has: “Makerbot Rep 2’s – MB 5th Gen- MB plus- Craftbots- Creatorbot 3D pro- Fuusion F306- Uprint Plus & and our pride and joy Stacker.”

More recently Jerry has been posting a lot about prints which are used for investment casting. Before we delve into that further, we want to give Jerry the chance to introduce himself: “I started in 3d printing 3 years ago Jan 2014 with a MB Rep 2 with the purpose of making things that people needed. In the years since we now have 15 printers of various capabilities.”

He continues: “I started using colorfabb filament early 2015 and havent turned back since. We believe in using high quality filament for our clients needs. We have used all of colorFabb’s filaments across the board. I joined Spectra3D Technologies (website) located in Asheville, NC in January of this year and took the role of CEO. We started and are a reseller of various 3D printer lines and this past June we decided to offer 3D printing services. We print various Cosplay props, pinball game themed parts among other things.”

Last summer, Spectra3D was contacted by Marshall Miller from Flowserve to print patterns for investment casting. Flowserve is a worldwide supplier of pumps, valves and engineering solutions. It’s a global player and a publicly traded company which is active in 55 countries and with over 18,000 employees.

Spectra3D now prints Valve Bodies, Ball Valves, Pump Housing and Impellers, etc. for Flowserve. As per Jerry’s words: “We chose Colorafab natural PLA because it contains no color pigments, prints great and burns out really clean from the mold. Currently we are going through 25 +/- rolls a month of Colorfabb Natural.” Spectra3D is supplied with our filaments by our distributor Printed Solid, based in Newark, Delaware. Jerry, as well as many more customers of Printed Solid, call his customer service top notch. Matthew Gorton, Printed Solid’s owner, has been working with us for over 3 years now and has been using colorFabb’s filaments even longer. His knowledge, passion for 3D printing and high service level are well-known in the 3D printing community. And, of course, Printed Solid’s signature gummy bears that ship with all orders…

Flowserve then pours the castings in various metals, like titanium and CF8M stainless.

Taking a step back: What is investment casting? Investment casting, the basics of it, is already an ancient manufacturing technique sometimes described as lost-wax 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. As said by Jerry, his preference goes out to the colorFabb signature PLA/PHA natural due to its ease of use and its functionality for this application.

What started thousands of years ago with beeswax has now evolved to patterns made with 3D printing. The printed pattern is coated with ceramic, then the printed pattern is burned or melted out and the metal poured into remaining shell leaving a complete casting.

Below are a few examples of the prints made by Spectra3D for investment casting.

Jerry uses the Stacker printer for the big prints, a very versatile printer for small series production and large prototyping. As he says, it’s his “pride and joy.” This US made printer the only truly industrial grade 3D printer that’s affordable. The printer, made with industrial components, the PLA/PHA filament and the age-old application make this a perfect case for 3D printing in the real world, where it adds value in the chain of production.

Below you can see the result, courtesy of Marshall Miller at Flowserve:

This is once more an example of FDM 3D printing evolving from a hobby market to practical, functional and real life applications where hardware, software and materials matter to bring a product to the customer or, in this case, use 3D printing as a valuable additional to the chain of production. In this case, the material is our very own PLA/PHA which has been a hit in its natural, colorless form ever since its launch 4 years ago, allowing for flawless prints and

Follow Jerry’s work and the Spectra3D account on Twitter.

For more information on Spectra3D, visit their website here or contact them directly.

You can find more about Flowserve on their highly informative website or contact Marshall Miller, supplier development manager for the Americas at Flowserve, directly for more information: marmiller@flowserve.com or +1 214 808 4823

This is the second part in what we hope will be an ongoing series of blogs about companies using colorFabb filaments in unique and exciting ways. Last week we published about AKLIH, the Slovenian design company who use our woodFill filaments for their products. 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 Day

Today is December 3rd and traditionally this date is known as 3D Printing Day. It was declared 3D Printing Day by 3D Hubs last year and this year again, so technically we can speak of a tradition.

There will be events all over the world at 3D Hubs. Check them out here. Last year we had an open house day on December 3rd which was fairly well attended. The people who visited us and toured our factory & print lab even saw an early version of the material that was to become nGen_FLEX a full 10 months before it was officially released!

Actually, as you read this our R&D team is working hard testing new materials and making sure the future of 3D printing materials is at least as exciting as it has been in the past four years.

This year we will not have an open day (no use ringing our doorbell – we will not open the door), but instead we have collected some of the coolest prints of the year. Some of them made by us, other prints made by others. We see a wide variety of awesome prints coming by every day on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and what you – our users – send us by email. This is by no means a complete list and we will highlight the most astonishing prints of the year at a later date, but we found that these astonishing showpieces deserved another moment in the spotlight…

The gCreate Rocket

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:427789

From our own print lab, the trick of this print was in the post-processing. Ever since releasing our first metal filled filament, bronzeFill, in 2014 we have received a lot of requests about post-processing these special materials. We finally caved in and set one of our print engineers Jos to work to print the rocket, sand it, polish it and to write about it. You can find the full blog here, but before you read it just look at the image above and wonder if this really looks printed…

Saturn V Rocket

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:911891

“Per aspera ad astra” as they say in Latin. Who said we can’t be pretentious? O, we do love our rockets… One of the biggest eye catchers ever is the Saturn V rocket printed by Korneel Bullens. We had this collossal print (600+ pieces, 3500+ hours of printing on 4 Ultimakers and over 2.5 meters high – thank you very much) on our stand during the AM Show in Amsterdam in June of this year. Korneel is one of our most enthusiastic users with an extremely active 3D Hub here in the Netherlans. Entirely printed with nGen, our all-round co-polyester, made with Amphora™ AM3300 polymer by Eastman Chemical Company. Korneel printed the Toyota Engine with colorFabb_XT earlier and rumors have it that he is working on another ambitious project with colorFabb filaments…

You can read the full blog on the Saturn V rocket here.

colorFabb gift box

Design: custom made by Tony Short

It’s the little things that count. Things like running into one of our users at the TCT Show for the first time. Especially when that user is Tony Short and he has brought a gift! Tony’s background in typography and love for 3D printing (and especially our special filaments) have resulted in this fantastic gift box, based on our very own logo! The box is still a very much admired (and coveted) object in our office. Made with woodFill, bronzeFill and copperFill it was post-processed by Tony. You can find all the details in the blog we wrote about it a little while a go.

Medieval castle

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:862724

Published only yesterday by the Stacker team, this print measures 57.5mm high and was printed on their Stacker S4. Famed for its four nozzles to accommodate small series production, you can also use one nozzle on this versatile printer to create one highly detailed and impressive print like this Medieval Castle. The material of choice is, like the Saturn V rocket, nGen, an excellent material for highly detailed prints like this one. We printed this castle ourselves earlier this year, but the size that the Stacker team achieved is just downright impressive.

colorFabb is the exclusive distributor for Stacker in Europe. Get more information here or get a quote here.

Printing transparent…

Earlier this year we already posted about how to print transparent with colorFabb_HT and recently we came across Daniel Norée’s tweet where he showcased his results. The transparent block was printed by Robert from 3DVerkstan. You know 3DVerkstan as our distributor in the Nordic region, as well as the Baltics. Printing clear products mainly relies on two key aspects: extruding enough material and getting enough heat (energy) into the new material. Optimal settings can lead to some very clear and transparent parts straight from the printer and it seems that Robert has found those optimal settings. You can find our full blog on transparent printing here.

Note: an earlier version of this blog ommited the part where we give credit to Robert from 3DVerkstan and created the impression that Daniel Norée printed this transparent block. Thanks you Daniel for pointing this out and sorry Robert!

Steve Cox’ printing with bronzeFill

Whenever Steve Cox is printing something with bronzeFill, we pay attention. Why? Look at the image above and you know. His work is always exciting and stunning. His work with bronzeFill can be considered a standard in printing and polishing. Steve’s enthusiasm about printing and his prints are contagious and we are always happy when we run into him during shows. We were even allowed to borrow the statue you see during the TCT Show! We have written about Steve’s work before, which you can find here and here.

The Open RC F1 car

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1834126

This comes as no surprise. We love our F1 car. Designed by Daniel Norée (yes, he of the transparent printing earlier) we increased the size with 250% and started printing with all our co-polyesters: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and the then brand new nGen_FLEX for the tires. The design by Daniel, the materials by colorFabb and printed on the Stacker S4 result in one of our most ambitious print projects. The result is stunning. We leave it to the video below to show the result:

Catch up on the full project release blog here.

As said, those are just a few of the many great prints of 2016 so far. We love seeing them coming by on social media and by email. Keep sharing them!! We keep printing ourselves as well. You can find regular updates on this very site: https://learn.colorfabb.com/category/featured-print/

Also, don’t forget to check out our collection of tutorials from time to time to get the best results printing with our filaments.

That’s it from colorFabb HQ for now. We hope you enjoy 3D Printing Day this year.

Happy 3D Printing Day and keep sharing your work!

– Team colorFabb

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! Some conditions apply though: cheapest spool is for free and samples and PLA Economy are exempt from this part of the promotion.

3d hubs 3d printing 3d printing day 3dverkstan castle colorfabb daniel noree f1 gcreate gift box korneel bullens news open rc prints rocket stacker statue steve cox tony short ultimaker

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

PLA Economy

Today, we are proudly announcing a new range of PLA filament to our portfolio:

colorFabb PLA Economy

Millennium Falcon design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:919475

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.

Economy PLA will be available on 2.2kg spools only, delivering a whopping 740 meters of 1.75mm filament and 270 meters of 2.85mm filament.

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).

Other colors that will be added at a later date.

Adviced 3d printing temperature
195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed
40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary)
50-60C

Cooling fan
100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.

Dragon Skull design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:473639

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.

Strawberry design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:153548

Twisted Flower pot design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:99658

ColorFabb knight design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501831

PLA Economy is not the same grade of PLA as our PLA/PHA. PLA/PHA will remain available as it always was: in both 750 grams and 2.2kg and in a variety of 30 exciting colors.

colorFabb’s PLA Economy is available now for € 42.50 (incl VAT) per 2.2kg spool!

Due to the competitive pricing, PLA Economy spools are not eligible for our current “Buy 4, Pay 3” campaign. This campaign, however, remains valid for the rest of the month of November for all our other spools (but not our samples).

Wishing you a great week and happy printing!

Team colorFabb

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:433119

3d printing colorfabb economy new material pla

colorFabb’s 4th birthday

It’s party time! We have something to celebrate and want to share this with you.

Four years ago this month, November 2012, we started testing our first grade of filaments, PLA/PHA, and the brand colorFabb was established. We announced our filaments at the RapidPro Show and opened our webshop in March 2013. Not long after that the first resellers started to order to supply their local markets with colorFabb filaments. From there, things went fast…
colorFabb started with the idea to supply quality filaments for the 3D printing market and in four years this idea has been transformed in a well known and highly regarded brand in 3D printing that is used on printers worldwide. Behind the brand is a dynamic company that was incorporated in September 2015, after being part of Helian Polymers.

There are many highlights, too many to mention, but one of the continuous highlights is being in constant communications with you, the community and our customers. Your feedback is extremely valuable for us.

Here are a few key numbers of where we are now:

– Over 400 stock keeping units (individual articles)
– Over 30 printers in two printlabs for testing
– Nearly 20 shows we have exhibited on (and met a lot of you)
– 13 distributors worldwide and counting, with a lot more resellers
– 6 production lines
– 5 years since the first idea for colorFabb took shape
– 4 spools, but pay three! (See below)
– 3 article groups (co-polyesters, PLA/PHA and specials) with a fourth one coming up soon
– 2 hours of sleep we get on average every night
– 1 kick-ass team to bring colorFabb filaments to your printer!

Click the link below to see a timeline of the past four years:

ABOUT COLORFABB

For more detailed overviews of the past few years, please have a look at our 2014 recap and our 2015 recap.

After four years we can safely say that colorFabb has been a success. Earlier this year we held a survey and were very pleased with the results. Over 90% of all our users rated our services and products an 8 or higher. 98% of all the people surveyed would recommend colorFabb to other 3D printer owners. These are fantastic numbers and we are very proud of them and we thank our partners, our distributors and especially you, our customers for this success. but that does not mean we sit back and relax. On the contrary.

We keep developing new and exciting materials that we know you will like (and have asked for). Our ambition is to bring you more filaments with improved and different functionality, faster to your door with the highest quality possible.

The past four years have been a success, but for us it has only been a start.

Four years, still, is a milestone and we want to celebrate this with you. For the entire month of November we are offering in our webshop 4 filaments for the price of 3. Use the coupon code colorfabb4you for this to get the discount immediately when checking out from our website. (Samples are excluded from this).

Keep an eye out on our social media feeds (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram) and this very tutorial page for the latest news and our prints that we post regularly.

Here’s to you, our customers, and the next four years & beyond!

Team colorFabb

3d printing 4 years birthday colorfabb discount sale

nGen_FLEX round-up after one week

A week ago we launched nGen_FLEX, our brand new semi-flexible 3D printing filament, at the TCT Show. We love printing with the new nGen_FLEX filament ourselves all day long, but what excites us even more is the feedback we are getting from all over the world. Below is a selection of the prints and comments we have received so far in the first week. After taking in initial pre-orders, we have started shipping nGen_FLEX earlier this week and will continue doing so, so we expect more awesome prints to show up in the time to come.

In the meantime, enjoy the prints that were already made by our users, whom we thank for sharing them:

CoPolyester nGen Flex by @ColorFabb deals with small details and overhangs in a fashionable manner!#3DPrinting #3dprinted #tctshow pic.twitter.com/UG8nx3AXGA

— Daniel Norée (@DanielNoree) September 28, 2016

#3dprinting with @ColorFabb #nGen_flex – prints very easily, on @Ultimaker bowden even! pic.twitter.com/caWlwzyzPr

— Joel Telling – 3D Printing Nerd ✋ (@joeltelling) September 28, 2016

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLMYV8hhbVI/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLJk3o4B2wZ/

So my sample of #NgenFlex from @ColorFabb I got at TCT went to print slot car wheels. An they work rather well! pic.twitter.com/QffUEDohP8

— Dave (@fallen013) October 2, 2016

https://twitter.com/haroldreedijk/status/781536958145241088

https://twitter.com/Spectra3DTech/status/781057000499187712

I have some @ColorFabb #nGen_flex as well – incredible material. Layer adhesion off the charts. Flexible, but not "squishy" https://t.co/IV2YHnNdar

— Joel Telling – 3D Printing Nerd ✋ (@joeltelling) September 28, 2016

Have been testing @colorFabb Ngen Flex on unheated @BuildTak. Works quite well for low density parts. Large parts work well with raft.

— Printed Solid (@PrintedSolid) October 5, 2016

First large-scale print using @ColorFabb #ngenflex
Looking good, great shine! Printed on a brim of PLA for bed adhesion!#improvisation pic.twitter.com/aJnhFPeUCz

— Steve Cox (@SteveCox3D) October 5, 2016

You can find out more about nGen_FLEX by clicking here to go to our dedicated landing page. nGen_FLEX is available in two colors: Dashing black and stylish dark gray. And yes, it prints very well with printers with a Bowden tube. Yes, it prints at normal speed. Yes, it has a high temperature resistance (125 degrees C). Yes, the layer adhesion is very good. In terms of functionality and ease of printing we have you covered.

nGen_FLEX is made for those who are seriously looking for a engineering grade semi-flex material, capable of withstanding high temperatures, good chemical stability and result in tough parts fit for real world use. With nGen_FLEX you won’t need to compromise too much on printing speed and the need for specialized flex-extruders is eliminated.

nGen_FLEX is made with Eastman Amphora™ Flex 3D Polymer FL6000. 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.

3d printing colorfabb ngen_flex

TCT Show 2016 recap

Hi all,

We wrapped up the TCT Show 2016. Packed our goods, stacked them on the pallets and everything is heading back to colorFabb HQ again soon. We’re about to board our plane and leave Birmingham once more. It has been a great two days in Birmingham, meeting old friends and making new ones. We were there with our partners Stacker and Eastman Chemical Company, answering all your questions, showing the prints and the printers and giving away a lot of free samples of our co-polyesters.

Two true artists dropped by: Steve Cox and Tony Short. They brought us their finest prints to showcase at our booth. Steve brought a statue, printed with bronzeFill and manually polished:

Also, Tony Short dropped by and gave us a fantastic present: a gift box based on the colorFabb logo. You can see it for yourself. This gift is much appreciated and will get a special place at the office.

As we said, true artists who not only know how to print, but how to post-process to achieve the highest quality possible.

Of course we had a big announcement at the beginning of the show. We launched nGen_FLEX this week and the initial reactions at show were extremely positive. Our new flexible filament has a Tg of over 125 degrees and is extremely well suited for engineering parts and prosthetics. Based on a co-polyester from Eastman, you can be assured of the high quality of the material. We have created a dedicated landing page for nGen_FLEX, which you can reach by clicking here.

We recently sent a few people spools to test nGen_FLEX and we saw an overwhelming support for our latest filament. Here are a few mentions of our beta testers:

Layer adhesion is great and you can use this semi-flexible material with a Bowden tube, which we showed while printing on an Ultimaker 2+ with nGen_FLEX continuously during the show.

nGen_FLEX is now available in black and dark gray.

The one feature print everybody talked about was the OpenRC F1 Car, designed by Daniel Norée, we published about last week. If you missed it, you can catch up here. We printed the entire car (a full 107cm long) with co-polyester based filaments: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and of course our latest nGen_FLEX which we used for the tires.

The F1 car was mostly printed on the Stacker S4 during the summer. We had the Stacker on site during the TCT, printing technical parts – 4 at the same time! The Stacker S4 is a perfect printer for large scale projects and small series production. You can find more information by visiting our website: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/

A final honorable mention goes out to the team of Creat3D, our UK distributor. They built a big colorFabb tower at their stand!

We want to thank everybody who visited us or followed the TCT Show through social media. Special thanks to Ludovic and Richard from Eastman, as well as Norston from Stacker to man the stand with us during these two busy days. It was great meeting everybody again and are too many to mention.

We hope to see you again next year!

(Oh, and don’t forget: the 10% discount code in our webshop will be valid the entire weekend. Use TCT2016 as the coupon code for a 10% discount on all spools of filament!)

3d printing colorfabb colorfabb_ht colorfabb_xt eastman ngen ngen_flex show specials stacker steve cox tct tony short

nGen_FLEX, our new flexible 3D printing filament

Today, on the first day of the TCT Show, we proudly announce and launch our new 3D printing filament:

nGen_FLEX

Heat resistance 125C | FDA compliance | Styrene-free | BPA-free

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 for pre-ordering today: Click here. Shipping will commence next week.

It 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.

nGen_FLEX will initially be available in two colors: Dark Gray and Black. Other colors may be released after initial launch including the possibility for skintone colors. Several skintone colors have already be developed and will be on display at the TCT Show this week. nGen_FLEX is a great material to print prosthetics, for instance.

Fingers: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:387072/#files / Hand and mount: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:380665

For those who are looking for a durable flexible material to be used in their prototypes, demonstrators or even final parts, look no further. The filament has excellent chemical resistance and extremely high temperature resistance. nGen_FLEX is temperature resistant to about 125C. That means 3D printed objects can be steam sterilized at 121C.

nGen_FLEX is engineered as a semi-flexible materials which allows most users to print at regular print speeds, cutting down build times compared to other very flexible filaments. Also Bowden style 3D printers, 1.75mm and 2.85mm, will be able to push this filament through without much trouble.

You can find many more advantages of this material on our dedicated landing page: http://ngen-flex.colorfabb.com/

Because of its durable nature the material is an excellent choice for making your own tools and clamps. Whether it’s an improvement for your workshop or actual custom made parts for a productionline, this material will be uniquely suited for the job. One project we used nGen_FLEX for this summer was the F1 open RC project. We wanted to print the entire car with co-polyester filament and found nGen_FLEX to be perfect for the tires.

During the summer we have been busy testing this material on several printers. Below you can find the settings of some of these printers. Click on the table to find our more about our recommended settings:

nGen_FLEX is available for pre-ordering now and will start shipping next week. Price for a spool, which contains 650 grams, is € 39.95 (incl. VAT), so that is € 33 excluding VAT for a full spool of filament!

You can find us this week at the TCT Show in Birmingham, where we are showcasing several prints made with nGen_FLEX: the F1 car, the prosthetic hand, several functional parts and a skateboard (the wheels were printed with nGen_FLEX). If you are at the show or near Birmingham, we are in Hall 3A, Stand B36.

3d printing amphora announcement colorfabb eastman filament functional new material ngen_flex

OpenRC F1 project release

Earlier this year we came across the new design Daniel Norée made: an F1 car, his follow-up to the OpenRC Truggy design we had printed previously. “After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion that a Formula 1 car would probably a perfect follow up project to the Truggy!” says Daniel Norée. Hence, the OpenRC Formula 1 car was born.

As he stepped up his game we felt we had to step up ours as well. First of all we set our print engineer Jos Deelen at work with scaling up the design to 250%. When it came to a choice of materials we didn’t have to think for very long: co-polyesters. Which one? All of them. We found that different parts had different requirements and with nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and our brand new nGen_FLEX. we almost had all our bases covered. If you want to know more about co-polyesters, click here for a blog we posted this summer explaining these great materials we developed with Eastman Chemical Company.

The tyres were made with our new nGen_FLEX filament, released during the TCT Show om September 28th 2016. You can read all about our new semi-flexible filament here: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ngen_flex/

We have published the 250% scaled files on Thingiverse: Thing:1834126. On Thingiverse you can find all the files as well as a more detailed description about how to build your own 1m long OpenRC Formula 1 car. The helmet used in the driver seat is Thing:170222.

We are very proud of the result:

“I learned alot from the OpenRC Truggy and i wanted to use what i had learned in the new project,” Daniel told us. His aim was to design a car with a simpler design and without the hard-to-source parts. According to Daniel, another important part was the material: “While many failed on the Truggy due to the need of hard to print materials like Polycarbonate and it´s likes this time materials like PLA or Co-Polyesters should do the job.”

He spent a couple of intense weeks in Fusion 360 CAD designing the F1 and the result was introduced at a trade fair in Sweden together with Autodesk.

Although Daniel aimed to make a simpler design, the sheer size of the F1 car was a great challenge to get it right. And we did get it right. Due to the size of several parts we used the Stacker S4 printer for the bulk of the print work with great results. It measures a full 107cm from the front to the end. Using all the functional materials (old, new and upcoming…) we had at our disposal we completed the job and recently we took the car out for a test drive.

You can see the results below:

The F1 car will be on display at the TCT Show next week where you can find us at stand B36, running the co-polyester filaments on the Stacker S4.

You can find more about our co-polyesters on our dedicated landing pages for nGen and colorFabb_HT. Our colorFabb_XT, nGen, colorFabb_HT and XT-CF20 are available online.

Follow Daniel Norée’s work and especially his Open RC project here: http://danielnoree.com/?cat=6

Get a quote for the Stacker S4! For the USA, click here. For Europe, click here.

3d printing amphora co-polyesters colorfabb colorfabb_ht colorfabb_xt daniel noree f1 ngen OpenRC stacker xt-cf20

TCT Show 2016

For the third time in a row we will be attending the TCT Show in Birmingham this year. On September 28th and 29th (yes, this is within two weeks and yes, time is indeed flying) we are at stand B36 in the NEC in Birmingham. In 2014, our first time in Birmingham, we showcased our then brand new colorFabb_XT there.

Looking back one year, in 2015, we featured the Stacker on our stand and showcased the then new XT-CF20, as well as the launch of corkFill. And now, in 2016, we are back again to join the other exhibitors at the TCT to show the latest and greatest in the world of 3D printing. You can find us at stand B36.

Events like the TCT Show are great since they draw a great crowd and we love meeting the people there. That’s why we are coming back to the TCT Show for the third time and you can find us at stand B36, having varous printers running our best and newest materials. One of the printers will be the Stacker S4, the go-to printer for small series and large volume printing. You can find more information about the Stacker here: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/ Shipping of the Stacker S4 will start mid-October.

Keen to know what we are up to next? It is almost a tradition that we announce something at the shows we attend and the TCT Show in no exception. What the announcement is, we’re not telling yet, but we cannot wait to reveal it.

So, we hope to see you soon in Birmingham. Drop by for a chat at stand B36, get some free samples and discuss 3D printing with us! We look forward to a great time at the TCT once again. While you’re at the TCT Show, drop by at Creat3D, our UK distributor, at stand B20 and Aleph Objects, makers of the Lulzbot Mini and the recently launched TAZ 6 printers at stand D36.

In the meantime, check out the teaser of one of the main prints we will be showcasing during the show:

Have a great weekend!

Team colorFabb

2016 3d printing co-polyester colorfabb launch news show stacker tct