ColorFabb Learn

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.

What would you print with LW-PLA?

Update April 3rd 2019: winners have been selected!

Over 130 ideas were submitted in the past two weeks & we have selected 6 winners. We opted for one extra winner due to the high quality of entries and when it came down to the last six we simply could not choose. We will hopefully soon share the awesome things they have been able to print. We have selected winners in the following categories:

Drones (50+ entries who submitted drone ideas)
Cosplay
Laminated composite parts
Sound absorbing modules
Writing aides
Wheelchair parts

The winners have already been contacted and spools will be shipped this week ahead of the public release soon. We cannot wait to see the results! The submission form has been closed. We will announce more information (release date, pre-ordering, pricing, etc.) very soon!

Original post:

At colorFabb material development never stops. We’re starting the 2019 with a fascinating new material, first of its kind in FFF 3D printing materials.

We’re proud to announce colorFabb LW-PLA. This light weight filament uses an active foaming technology which is triggered by temperature. At it’s peak the filament will expand 3x it’s volume, meaning users can decrease flow by 60-65% to obtain light weight parts, or use the expanding properties to speed up print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

3d printing colorfabb light weight lw pla material release new material

2018 Recap

Another year has passed and we’re gearing up for a (let’s be honest) well-deserved holiday break. Before we head home, let’s look back at the past year with a short recap.

5 years of colorFabb

We started the year with our fifth anniversary, which seems so long ago already. Take a trip down Memory Lane and read our blogs about our birthday here.

New material releases

No new year without new materials. And we released quite a bit. From aesthetical to functional, we’ve added quite a bit to our portfolio.

nGen_LUX

Our most luxurious filament so far. A unique development based on our best-selling nGen. Make your prints stand out! Full release notes **here**.

ngen Transparent

Adding no less than six amazing transparent colors to our nGen line-up! Read more **here**.

PLA Semi-Matte Black and White

Our first semi-matte filament (black) was released in March and an instant hit. Check out the **original blog**.

… followed in December with Semi-Matte White (after popular demand). More **here**.

Color on Demand

If one development defined the year here at colorFabb, it was Color on Demand. Custom color design has already allowed hundreds of customers to print with the color they actually need.

Custom color filaments, made to order. We offer the largest portfolio of PLA colors in the world. **Learn more about our unique service**.

Pen design by Batch.Works. Original post.

PA Neat

Ultimaker Market Place

And more…

Of course there was much more news in the past year.

We started working with Ninjatek who is our new distributor in North America and we are theirs in Europe
We were nominated for the Lodewijk van der Grintenprijs (but sadly did not win)
We saw some great use of Stacker 3D printers at companies like Mifa and Optima
We visited Tinkertoys and learned why they choose colorFabb PLA/PHA as their go-to filament
We learned about the awesome Project Unicorn and their use of our filaments
We did not start drone deliveries (and it was quite surprising how many people thought we would).

Stay up to date with our latest News and Featured Prints.

The entire colorFabb team wishes you happy holidays, a merry Christmas and a great 2019!

2018 3d printing colorfabb recap

nGen AM3300 in Ultimaker Market Place

Not long after we announced that XT-CF20 was added to the Ultimaker Market Place in Cura 3.6 in addition to Color on Demand PLA and woodFill we are happy to tell you that nGen now also is a part of the Market Place. Sort of…

Twin RC waterjet by Ewolve

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2752198

The Ultimaker Market Place makes it easier for users of the Ultimaker 3 and S5 to use pre-set profiles for third party filaments which have been tested by both the filaments manufacturers and Ultimaker themselves to achieve the best possible user experience.

Important: To choose the optimal nGen settings in the Market Place head to the Eastman entries and choose AM3300, the base material for nGen.

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.

Printed with nGen Red on the Ultimaker S5 with 0.15mm layer height.

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.”

“The material has good print bed adhesion, low warping and low shrinkage. Easy to print.”

Beyond our initial goals to create a filament that prints well and holds up to every day 3D printing tasks we have since found out more properties of the filament, giving it a great advantage. For instance, we recently came across a business case where a printed object made with nGen has been under water in the ocean for 16 months! And it did not loose its functional properties!

And you can get highly detailed prints as well:

_dsc0029_smaller — *Model balustrade. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/detailed-balustrade/*

Although nGen is a true star in our portfolio, it doesn’t feel too good to perform a supporting role from time to time. Literally. In combination with colorFabb_XT nGen filament can also be used as a breakaway support. Complex designs like the drill case below do need support material and we found that nGen did a great job in that department.

*Drill case. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/drill-case/*

Another great material it works extremely well with is our nGen_FLEX:

*Pliers (click image for the gif to play). Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/pliers*

*Coupler (click image for the gif to play). Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/coupler/*

It is not only materials nGen plays well with. It also performs extremely well on a wide range of printers. And with the addition of AM3300 to the Ultimaker Market Place in Cura 3.6, printing with nGen is easier than ever.

3d printing am3300 colorfabb eastman market place ngen ultimaker

PLA Semi-Matte White

Late March of this year we launched PLA Semi-Matte Black. Where most of our filaments have a classy shine to it, we recognized the demand for a less glossy filament and we released PLA Semi-Matte Black. It has been a bestseller since. In recent months we have worked hard to make a new variety, which is available as from today: PLA Semi-Matte White

PLA Semi-Matte White is a great material for architects and modelers looking for a different aesthetic. 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.

It is a bit hard to capture on camera, but the difference is very well noticable with the bare eye.

As with its black sibling PLA Semi-Matte White 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. Below are some of the examples we printed in our print lab:

The Great Pyramid of Giza by MakerBot

Ultimaker S5 – 210C-60C bed
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:296260

Old Guard Tower by jansentee3d

Ultimaker 2+ – 210C-60C bed
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3178793

Lightfield Building by ibudmen

Ultimaker 2+ – 210C-60C bed
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:132585

Edificio Banco Pastor, A Coruña by IES_Eusebio_da_Guarda

Ultimaker 2+ – 210C-60C bed
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2959776

PLA Semi-Matte White is a great addition to our ever expanding portfolio of filaments and available now on spools containing 750 grams of filament. Samples and XL spools will follow in due time. Shipping starts today. Go directly to our webshop by clicking button below.

Buy PLA Semi-Matte White

3d printing colorfabb new material pla release semi matte white

Lodewijk van der Grinten Prize 2018

We have tweeted and posted about the Lodewijk van der Grinten Prize before. In this post we will go further into what the prize is and why we were nominated.

Back in September we heard that our CEO Ruud Rouleaux was nominated for the Lodewijk van der Grinten Prize 2018. Together with two other nominees he is in the race to win this prestigious regional award for entrepeneurs. In less than two weeks, on December 11th to be precise, we will know who won. In this blog we will explain a bit more about this award, its history and the other nominees.

A bit of history

The story begins over 100 years ago. The award is named after Lodewijk van der Grinten (1831 – 1895), founder of the current Océ. The name is not chosen without reason. Océ has become one of the biggest economic powers in Venlo and its region. The award is an initiative of the Foundation Lodewijk van der Grinten Business Award, in which LLTB Horst Venlo, Venlo Small and Medium Businesses (MKB), Entrepreneurial Venlo and the city of Venlo participate. It is handed out during a ceremony ever since 2010. The award is also made possible by sponsors, of which colorFabb is one.

The city if Venlo is located in the south of the Netherlands, next to the German border and in between the big harbors of Rotterdam and Antwerpen on one side and the German Ruhr area and Central Europe on the other side. Venlo and its surrounding region has been called one of the (if not the) best logistics hubs of Europe! With so much business in the area it is hard to stand out, which makes winning the award such an achievement!

Every year the organisation picks a theme and this year’s theme is Groeibriljantjes, a Dutch collquialism for relatively young companies which are excelling within their field. Beyond a start-up but growing with great energy. Literal translation comes down to “growth brilliance”, but it is not only growth that matters. Also vision, innovation and a clear strategy are things that matter.

The nominees

Why we are nominated

Now, it is clear for everyone who even dabbled very minimally in 3D printing that this industry can cause a lot of change. Not saying that it is already there (the hype has passed and there is still no 3D printer in every household – nor do we have flying cars, but that’s another story), but “3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything” (the words of Barack Obama, not ours – although we have this painted on one of our walls).

As colorFabb we started with basic PLA filament and expanded to special materials (woodFill, bronzeFill, etc.) before starting strategic partnerships with companies like Eastman, Lehmann+Voss, etc. to create more functional filaments. Our portfolio is now more diverse than ever (check our catalogue for a glimpse) and with Color on Demand we are making the first steps to create custom made filaments for our users.

But we don’t see ourselves as a filament producer alone. We offer complete sollutions in terms of polymers and 3D printing. With our sister companies Helian Polymers (masterbatches, additives and bioplastics and mostly active in the injection molding industry) and Blackbelt 3D (the revolutionary belt printer) and operating from our state-of-the-art, environmentally conscious 3D Application Center we offer more added value than just a spool of filament. With our customers we actively develop applications, work on custom materials and advice on how to implement 3D printing in all kinds of companies.

The synergy between the companies, the discussions with our customers and the connections to raw material suppliers, OEMs and all the in-house knowledge make colorFabb a unique player in 3D printing. Something the jury has also acknowledged by nominating us. Already proud to be nominated (the award is kind of a big deal here), we have been doing our best to win it.

Full disclosure: colorFabb has been involved with the Lodewijk van der Grinten Prize before by printing the commemorative awards for the nominees in the past few years. You can find more here and here.

Printed with nGen_LUX

What we did so far

On September 11th, Ruud held a pitch for the jury to present colorFabb and what it stands for. It went very well. You can get an idea of that afternoon here:

https://www.facebook.com/LvdGprijs/videos/300540593867584/

After a full company presentation, the jury visited us to see what we are actually up to. A short impression can be seen here:

https://twitter.com/LvdGprijs/status/1057703993235988481

After visits to the other nominees the jury’s out to discuss who will be the winner. It will be a very tight race and it’s going to be very exciting who won on December 11th. Why? Let’s look at…

The other nominees

Rudy Claessens from Caroz. Caroz is a service provider in logistics. Remember how we wrote that Venlo is a logistical hotspot? Caroz is using this geographical position and combines it with clever IT solutions and specialists to make the complex world of logistics managable for their customers. Based in Venlo, they also hold office in China and offer unique logistics solutions.

Roy Hermans from Hermans Group. An entirely different field is where Hermans Group works in: Indoor recreational parks for young, but also old-but-young-at-heart. The Ballorig indoor playgrounds are already very well-known in this region, but the Hermans Group focusses on fitness and sports as well and is rapidly expanding with hundreds of employees!

Roy, Rudy and Ruud. Fun fact: all of them 43 years young

3d printing award colorfabb lodewijk van der grinten prize

Ultimaker Market Place

Updated: XT-CF20 has been added as well!

We are proud to announce that two of our filaments have been added to the Ultimaker Market Place. By adding both Color on Demand ( PLA ) and woodFill to the market place it is easier than ever to start printing with the right settings on Ultimaker printers. How? Download the latest version of Cura (3.6) and add the profiles as detailed in the short video below:

https://youtu.be/h_5mp_TK5zw

Our filaments have always been tested on Ultimaker 3D printers ever since the beginning. In fact, the very idea of colorFabb started with an Ultimaker Original and it was the first printer we tested on back in 2012. Fun fact: that printer is still in our print lab. We have added more printers to our test lab ever since and have made sure that every major Ultimaker release was added to it as well: The Ultimaker 2, 2+, 3 and S5 are all part of our standard range of printers to ensure our filaments work as flawless as possible on these highly popular Dutch printers.

We’re joining an ever expanding range of premium material brands in the market place.

Update December 14th: We are happy to announce that XT-CF20 has been added to the list as well. Simply add the profile the same way as described above to make functional prints that need extra stiffness.

CARBON FIBER IS ABRASIVE: A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. Therefore we recommend to use hardened steel nozzles for this material.

Will more materials be added? Probably in due time. But rest assured that, as mentioned above, we have tested all of our materials on the Ultimaker printers at our disposal. One can also choose Ultimaker materials as a starting point (like CPE settings for our colorFabb_XT and CPE+ for colorFabb_HT). We also share the settings of most of our materials on dedicated blogs, like:

Still not sure if you’re on the right track? Contact us at support@colorfabb.com so we can help you further!

3d printing color on demand colorfabb cura market place ultimaker woodfill

Ninjatek

As from today we carry Ninjatek filaments in our webshop! With this addition we are breaking new ground in the 3D filament world. For the first time two leading manufacturers of 3D printing filament are working closely together to ensure the right filaments end up in the hands of the end user.

Ninjatek is owned by Fenner Drives. Fenner Drives is located in the Manheim, PA and will distribute colorFabb’s filaments in the North American market (check their website here). colorFabb, based in the Netherlands, will distribute Fenner Drives’ Ninjatek branded filaments in Europe and the Middle East. You can find our Ninjatek dedicated webshop here.

NinjaTek is a high performance additive manufacturing material supplier. Like colorFabb it started in 2013 and has been on the forefront of filament development ever since. Ninjatek is the leading producer of flexible filament in the 3D printing industry. Its popularity was built on unique performance characteristics and consistent product quality, which is an area that we continue they concentrate on. As a division of Fenner Drives it leverages 50 years of extrusion and manufacturing expertise with a unique expertise in polyurethane materials.

It is the first time in FDM 3D printing that two filament producers start such an intense co-operation. and colorFabb is proud to be the official Ninjatek partner in Europe. All items in our webshop ship from stock and can be combined with colorFabb filaments.

We offer the most popular filaments in the Ninjatek product lines Ninjaflex, Cheetah and Armadillo.

Need help choosing which filament is right for your project? Our product comparison chart offers a “good / better / best” rating system for comparing key performance points, This chart was designed to help users choose which product is best suited for their application.

Functional printing with Armadillo

3d printing colorfabb ninjatek

woodFill: 5 years of special 3D printing filaments

Today it is exactly five years ago that we launched woodFill at the 3D Print Show in London. It was our first special 3D printing filament! Let’s look back!

Design: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-39788

Our first special filament was woodFill. In our first year of existence (this was in 2013 – ancient times by now) we had a great filament, PLA/PHA, in the market and we were already looking for more filaments to be added to the portfolio. Someone asked us a very serious question: “Why don’t you make a wood filament?” We thought: “Why not?” Granted, we weren’t the first, but the filament world was still young and with our compounding partner FKuR, located in Willich, Germany, we went to work.

Elephant design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:257911 Both the elephant and acorn were printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.6mm nozzle and a 0.2mm layer height. Print speed was 40mm/s with 20% infill and a nozzle temperature of 210C. Part of the acorn was printed with corkFill.

True story: We produced the first test run of filament late October 2013, put it on the printer and… it worked! Flawlessly! This was mere days before we were off to the 3D Printing Show in London, early November 2013. With the few spools we had we printed a lot of examples, put them in our suitcases and off we went! (By train, it was still the olden days…)

The very first woodFill print… ever

The 3D Printing Show was an amazing experience. As luck (or mad negotiation skills) would have it, we were placed right at the entrance. As anyone who has ever printed with woodFill knows, the material really smells like wood when printing. And that was exactly what the visitors smelled when they entered the show floor.

As heard many, many times during those 3 days:

“It smells like… wood.”

“That’s because there is real wood in the filament.”

“But how did you get the smell in there?”

“Because there is real wood in the filament.”

We admit, the main component is our signature PLA/PHA, but the wood is what makes the filament truly special.

We started with two variations: woodFill Fine and woodFill Coarse. Problem was that the Coarse could only be printed with a 0.8 nozzle and sales reflected that people were not eager to switch nozzles a lot. Only after a few months we discontinued woodFill Coarse and focused entirely on woodFill Fine. But a few times every year someone informs if there are still some spools of the Coarse left.

We have literally sent out thousands of woodFill spools all over the world and it has been a solid hit with our customers, old and new. Its ease of printing (can your printer print PLA? If yes, you can print woodFill. If no, buy a new printer) has really helped, but again: the smell of wood during printing, that authentic woodshop idea has been appealing for a lot of printers. And be honest: the prints look like they have been carved from… wood.

Below are some (but not all, at all) great examples of woodFill creations:

Tony Short’s gift box. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/colorfabb-gift-box/

Megafone amplifiers by AKLIH. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/aklih/

Print+ headphone. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/printplus/

Replicas of historic church figures. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/excellence-woodfill-3d-printing/

Some printed examples on the Lulzbot Mini: https://learn.colorfabb.com/woodfill-lulzbot/

After woodFill we expanded the range with bambooFill (since discontinued) and corkFill (still available). Both great materials, but woodFill will have a special place in our portfolio as our first special filament. Don’t believe us? Read the five star reviews on our website:

woodFill is available in our webshop and through our reseller network. We offer both 600 grams and 1800 grams (XL) spools.

Part of this blog was previously published in another blog

3d printing 5 years colorfabb special filaments woodfill

brassFill

In the past year we have launched quite a few new filaments: PA-CF Low Warp, nGen_LUX, PA Neat and of course our Color on Demand. As more filaments enter our portfolio we sometimes have to make the hard decision to discontinue a product as well. This time we have to announce that as from now we will no longer produce brassFill.

brassFill was released early 2015 and was the third of our special metal filled filaments after releasing bronzeFill andf copperFill the year before. Although we have seen excellent prints made with brassFill it was always a more more demanding material to print with and not for the faint of heart.

Due to the increased pricing compared with the other metal filled filaments it was priced higher and combined with the fact the filament was at times quite a challenge it never became as popular as the other special filaments.

Earlier this summer we were faced with the choice to either invest in new stock or to discontinue brassFill. Since popularity has been declining we made the hard decision to convert the remaining raw material that we had and call it quits after that. Although we are sure that brassFill has quite a few fans, we see this as a necessary move.

We have already sold out the 1.75mm filaments and the remaining stock of 2.85mm filament is the last we have produced. You can check the current stock here.

This is your last chance to order brassFill! #

colorFabb remains commited to bring you a wide range of 3D printing filaments that allow users worldwide unique aesthetical and functional qualities. Check out our catalogue for the full range of filaments.

Sir Fill bids brassFill farewell. Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501831

# At the time of writing, see date on the top of this blog. Resellers and distributors may have limited stock.

3d printing brassfill colorfabb