3D Scanner

Combining several technologies is what we love here at colorFabb. 3D Scanning, smart phones and a little thing called 3D printing (you may have heard about it). We even combined two vastly different materials, namely colorFabb_XT and PLA Economy.

Today’s featured print, straight from our print lab, is Dave Clarke’s $30 3D scanner:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1762299

This scanner won the Pinshape 2016 Top Functional Design award, and rightfully so. Congrats, Dave!

You can spend a lot of money on accessories for your smart phone, but why not print a fully functional scanner? We will give the scanner and the results a spin soon, but for now we have the scanner printed:

You can find the full tutorial for this model here.

We printed on one of the Ultimaker 2+ in our print lab. For the housing parts we used PLA Economy Black with 0,6 nozzle on 0,2mm layerheight.
The technical parts and phone holder we printed with  colorFabb_XT Clear with 0,25mm nozzle on 0,1mm layerheight.

PLA Economy was launched November 2016 and it has been a big hit ever since. Only now we are catching up with the demand for this new and great filament! We have been printing quite a lot with our new PLA Economy line. A few examples are:

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

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

As said, the technical parts were printed with colorFabb_XT. We launched colorFabb_XT over 2 years ago at the London 3D Print Show together with Eastman Chemical Company. Eastman is our material partner for co-polyesters. colorFabb_XT is made with Amphora AM1800 and 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.

Both colorFabb_XT is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM1800. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

Our filaments available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

http://colorfabb.com/storelocator/

steelFill

Back in June 2016 we announced steelFill to the world. In September we launched steelFill officially. Today we have printed an aptly themed object with steelFill : the Man of Steel logo.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:246349

Modelled by Filippo Panza, this design is based on the current Superman series and quite appropiate for our steelFill.

With steelFill we are added a fourth metal based filament to our portfolio after succesfully releasing bronzeFill in 2014, copperFill later that year and brassFill in early 2015. As with these other filaments, the key is post-processing and you can use similar techniques as with our other special metal based filaments.

You can find the full tutorial on how to print with steelFill here.

This part was printed on the Makerbot Replicator 2 with a 0.2mm layer height at 210 degrees C. steelFill is an abrassive filament and not kind to the standard brass nozzles.

For the nozzle we chose the Olsson Ruby nozzle 1.75mm version. the ruby nozzle retains the excellent heat conducting properties of brass, while being extremely resistant to wear. This means that you can print your standard materials as usual, but also very abrasive materials such as steelFill but also our XT-CF20.

The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers.

This nozzle was generously supplied to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor and partner in the Nordic regiona and manufacturer of the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. For more information about the nozzle, contact 3DVerkstan: info@3dverkstan.se

There will be a separate blog about post-processing this piece later on. You can find more prints made with steelFill, which have been post-processed, here:

Yeah, we like our superheroes…

steelFill is available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

PLA/PHA Natural

Eager followers of our Twitter account have noticed that we have been printing quite a bit recently with PLA/PHA Natural in recent weeks:

And there is a good reason for this. PLA/PHA is our signature PLA filament which we exactly launched 4 years ago this month. The added PHA makes our grade of PLA tougher and less brittle than generic PLA grades in the market. PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is like PLA a bio-polyester, so our unique blend is still 100% biodegradeable. This material is available in 30 colors, but today we focus on the one without a color: PLA/PHA Natural.

Due to the work of Spectra3D we have found that our filament is perfectly suited for investment casting. You can read our previous blog on Spectra3D’s work here.

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.

The results are phenomenal if we say so ourselves and we took ourselves to the task to print technical parts for investment casting ourself. Check out the results:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1643878

These engine block parts are a great design and you will see more of this design soon… (and that’s all we are going to say about this).

Another part we printed is intended for steel casting:

Design: https://grabcad.com/library/steel-casting-2

Both parts were printed on an Ultimaker 2 with a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.2mm layer height, resulting in a flawless surface quality.

In the past years, after the initial launch of our line of PLA/PHA filaments, we have released many other 3D printing filaments, like woodFill, bronzeFill, colorFabb_XT and one of the bestselling filaments: nGen. For a full timeline, click here. It is good, however, to go back to where it all started and find applications for the filament that started it all.

PLA/PHA Natural has been a favorite of professional designers ever since we launched it four years ago and has been a bestseller since. Our PLA/PHA range has received very good reviews over the years.

It has proven to be an extremely reliable filament for prototyping and investment casting.

PLA/PHA Natural is on sale this week. Get your spool now at a discounted price and find out the benefits of this filament soon on your own printer! Click here to go to the product page.

In the meantime, we keep printing…

Sneak peek

Last week we announced that we had moved to a new state of the art facility to accomodate our vision for the growth of colorFabb. The entire team has worked hard to facilitate this move in a record time.  Today, we present you a first sneak peek of our new production facility.

 

We have completed the first stage of moving to our new plant. Production lines have
been installed and are running.

We’re here to fulfill your filament needs.

Our new address is:

colorFabb BV

Bremweg 7

5951 DK Belfeld (Venlo)

The Netherlands

Stay tuned for more…

 

Educational Brake Caliper

One of the noble applications of 3D printing in general is education. Chris Halliday has, with this in mind, designed an educational brake caliper, which we used for a visual demonstration, printed with various nGen colors:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1362673

Printed on Ultimaker 2+ with nGen Yellow, Orange, Gray Metallic and Light Green.

This brake caliper is not only a nice visual demonstration to 3D print for yourself, it also comes with detailed documentation with regards to printing, assembly and even how it works. It’s a learning experience which is suitable for grades 8 up to 12. It even comes with it’s own brake caliper quiz & answer sheet! Check out the Thingiverse link for Chris’ detailed tutorial!

Check out Chris’ 3D Hub here.

nGen was released a little over a year ago and is an all-round filament which has many advantages over, say, a PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. Visual prototyping has never been better than with nGen.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300, part of a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. Aside from nGen, we have colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and the semi-flexible nGen_FLEX in our portfolio.

Eastman has done an extensive study about off-gassing during 3D printing. You can find an extract of the results here.

With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we published last summer: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Tape dispenser

If you ship as much as we do you run through a lot of tape. Strangely enough, we seem to misplace our tape dispenser a lot as well. And why not print one or two as a spare? Here’s nGen coming to the rescue!

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:648772

Printed with nGen Yellow on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED, we made this on a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, a tape dispenser being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over PLA. The temperature resistance is over 80 degrees C and it works on most printers with a heated build plate.  nGen is a low-odor, styrene-free material uniquely suited for 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range. With nGen you will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle—even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require. These properties make nGen more workable at a wider breadth of temperatures, producing reliable results and resulting in less waste. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop

Universal Bottle Opener

The day before Christmas we feature a print that is both functional and, more important, has a backstory. Travis Corbett, under the name In3Designs, has designed the Universal Bottle Opener.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1097099

The reason for designing this bottle opener are best explained in Travis’ own words: “My mother was diagnosed with Cushing syndrome over a year ago. Along with many other symptoms muscle deterioration is one of them. She has been treated and is on the road to recovery but she is still very weak. She was telling me that she had to go to her neighbors house so they could open up a bottle for her. She had a bottle opener but not one that would fit a large bottle. I went through a few different designs but now I have a working version. The “Universal Bottle Opener” or “UBO” can open large juice bottles, sports drink bottles, soda bottles, canned drinks, and pop tops!”

This is a fantastic design and we love how 3D printing is being used this way! Keep up the good work, Travis!

For this print we used our all-round nGen filament and printed two bottle openers simultaneously on the Stacker S4 with 2 print heads.

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

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

The printer used was the Stacker S4. With up to 4 print heads working simultaneously, he Stacker 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/

 

 

 

2016 recap

Another year flew by like it was nothing. Wasn’t it only yesterday that it was 2015? And a little over week from now it’s 2017! It is time for our annual recap. If you want to see what we did before, catch up with 2014 and 2015. Then, get ready for our 2016 recap!

As they say, time flies when you are having fun. What a year it was: here at colorFabb we cannot recall one day that was boring or unexciting. Every day brought something new and exciting and we have no doubt that 2017 will bring even more excitement. To give you a quick overview, here is colorFabb by the numbers right now:

  • Over 430 stock keeping units (individual articles)
  • Over 30 printers in two printlabs for testing
  • Nearly 20 shows so far we have exhibited on (and met a lot of you)
  • 17 distributors worldwide and counting, with a lot more resellers
  • 6 production lines
  • 5 years since the first idea for colorFabb took shape
  • 4 years active!
  • 3 article groups (co-polyesters, PLA/PHA and specials)
  • 2 hours of sleep we get on average every night
  • 1 kick-ass team to bring colorFabb filaments to your printer!

You can find the timeline of the past four years here. Below are the highlights of last year in a more or less chronological order. Grab that cup of coffee, sit back and scroll down! Enjoy!

Let’s start at the beginning: January. As is tradition in the world of tech, the first week of the year all eyes (biological and digital) are focused on Las Vegas. Aleph Objects, producer of the highly rated Lulzbot Mini and Taz 3D printers invited us to join them at the Sands convention centre for the entire show, an invitation we gladly accepted. Aleph’s printers and our then recently launched nGen filament are a great match. nGen is available at the Lulzbot store, as well as other colorFabb filaments.

During this show we also launched nGen in a big way. nGen is of course our all-round filament for 3D printing. We introduced it in a limited capacity at the end of 2015. At the core of its reliability is the special chemical make-up of the Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer, which results in a good melt stability. From pellet to filament to 3D print, nGen retains its material properties very well, meaning more stable results with less waste of time and material.

One of the first, widely shared, reviews about nGen was from 3D Printing For Beginners. Click here to re-read this glowing review, which still holds up to this very day. nGen is currently available in 17 exciting colors.

In January and February we also held our time-lapse contest. Over 80 valid entries entered to win the grand prize of 48 spools of filament. You can find the full list with all entries by clicking here. Slovenian company AKLIH won this contest with the following entry:

 

To learn more about AKLIH and their work, look no further than the blog we recently wrote about them.

And then it was March and we attended the RapidPro show again. This show is where it all started for colorFabb 4 years ago, early 2013. After several months of preparations we announced our first products there. Now, for the fourth time there, we announced another exciting new product at the show: colorFabb_HT.

ColorFabb_HT is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance – which is over 100 degrees C. ColorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. ColorFabb_HT is made with BPA-free Eastman Amphora HT5300 3D polymer. You can read all about this excellent engineering material on our dedicated landing page.

Another feature that can be achieved with colorFabb_HT is a certain degree of transparancy. You can read our blog about this here or marvel at the see-through print we made:

 

In April we geared up for what is claimed to be the biggest industrial trade show in the world: The Hannover Messe. Like the year before we were there with the Eastman Amphora based filaments and of course the Stacker S4 3D printer. The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, even visited us!

In May we held a poll to see what you fine people really think of us. The results surprised us! Here are some figures:

  • Over 86% of our customers rate our products and services a 8 or higher!
  • Over 95% of our customers would definitely recommend our products to other users!
  • Over 91% of customers who contacted our support desk rated the service as “Awesome”!

These are quite staggering numbers and we are proud of them. This is by no means a sign that we can sit back and relax. We have taken your feedback and are working on this. One of the issues that we heard most (“Shipping costs!”) are being worked on as we speak. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks to see an exciting announcement regarding shipping of our filaments!

Aside from a lot of work behind the scenes to future-proof colorFabb for the future, all efforts were aimed at the AM Show in Amsterdam. Originally part of the 3D Print Show in London, the AM Show was completely re-branded and held for the first time in the RAI in Amsterdam in the last week of June. Although debates still go on about the quantity of the visitors we can safely say that the quality of the visitors was high.

We announced a new material at the show: steelFill, our fourth metal based filament. After succesfully launching bronzeFill in 2014, copperFill later that year and brassFill in early 2015, steelFill has already seen a rapid adoption. As with these other filaments, the key is post-processing and you can use similar techniques as with our other special metal based filaments (more on that later, keep scrolling).

Design by Geoff W. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571321

 

One of the biggest draws during the AM Show was the huge Saturn V rocket, which was printed by Korneel Bullens. Entirely printed with nGen the total build took over 3500 hours on a total of 4 Ultimaker 2+ printers, 1 of them being a Ultimaker 2+ Extended. The rocket stands at 2.5 meters high. You can read all about this huge print in September’s blog.

After the AM Show summer holidays started all over the northern hemisphere. We took some time off, one by one, and this is also a good place to talk about post-processing (since everybody has a bit more time during their vacation, we think). This year we wrote several blogs about post-processing our materials. Of course, it is our aim to release materials that look awesome straight from the printer but we know there is a need for post-processing in certain cases, especially with our special filaments.

Below is a summary of post-processing resources:

One request we are still working on is a blog on glueing 3D printed parts. This will be published soon.

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

During the summer we also started warehousing filaments in the US. colorFabb USA, Inc provides our distributors in North America with our filaments. It is our aim to have our products faster and more efficiently available in the US through our distributor network.

Early September we also revamped our tutorial site: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ Originally intended as a site for tutorials, we have expanded the scope a bit by adding a News section where all the latest news (including this blog) can be found. The most active part is the Featured Print section where we regularly post prints we make in our print lab or feature prints that we found made from our materials.  Keep an eye out on this blog for all the latest and greatest colorFabb related items!

The post-holiday 3D printing season cannot start without attending the TCT Show. You can read the full recap here, but we want to highlight two things from that show.

First of all the release of our first semi-flexible filament: nGen_FLEX. 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.

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.

It is chemically resistant and has a temperature resistance of over 120 degrees C. We have released this material in two colors: black and dark gray. We are looking at making skintone colors commercially available. nGen_FLEX was very well received. We have assembled the initial reviews.

Another highlight of the show was our Open RC Formula 1 project release. Designed by Daniel Norée (for the design, click here), we scaled his design 250% and used our entire range of co-polyester filaments, including nGen_FLEX for the wheels, to print this beast of a car! Check out the accompanying video:

October was a relatively quiet month, but only because we knew that come the end of the year it would be extremely busy. And we were right.

Starting in November we celebrated our fourth birthday. It had been four years in November since we started with colorFabb. It has been a roller coaster ride ever since and we could never ever have anticipated the success that colorFabb has experienced! We celebrate this with offering a great discount in our webshop: Buy 4, but Pay 3! The the exception of PLA Economy spools and samples, this applies to all other filaments. This promotion lasts until the end of this year, so there is still time to take advantage of this great deal!

 

Wait, we skipped a beat… We mentioned PLA Economy without properly introducing it here. In recent years we were asked quite regularly if there would be a colorFabb branded filament available in a more competitive price range. We have taken our time to source a raw material that would still be high quality, but which we would be able to offer at a much lower price. We found that PLA formulation with an impact modifier with our new PLA Economy range. Available in 4 colors and on 2.2kg spools only, this new filament offers a great value for your money.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862683

As we did last year, we participated in the consumer madness called Black Friday. On top of the Buy 4, Pay 3 promotion we granted a 15% discount on all filaments, which resulted in longer delivery times and some serious overtime for our production and logistics teams.

Let’s take a step back and appreciate the awesome team we work with here. Everybody working at colorFabb – from production to finance, from IT to logistics, from material development to sales and from our team in the print lab to the management team – we all have one single goal: to bring the best possible 3D printing filament to your printer. It’s a simple goal, but also an ambitious one. Every day the entire team improves the processes and tries to find ways to improve our products and services. The result is always a team effort. With the best individual input we can bring in, we accomplish the best possible product and service as Team colorFabb.

Design by Tony Short (more info here)

It’s a small step from Team colorFabb to Team 3D printing. Of course we are talking about 3D Printing Day, which is becoming an annual event. December 3rd has been announced 3D Printing Day by 3D Hubs for eternity now. 3D Hubs is one of our partners and they recently released a great blog to explain what 3D printing exactly is. Of course you know it, but we find it a very handy tool to explain to new customers the possibilities of 3D printing. In this link you can also find some of the best prints we have made and seen this year so far.

3D Hubs also opened their new office in the middle of Amsterdam recently and we were there during the grand opening. We also made them a little present: The I Amsterdam logo which can be found on the Museum Square. If you are a 3D Hubs, print one yourself! You can find the design on Thingiverse.

As the year is ending, the days are at their shortest and the festive lights are everywhere we found that our filaments are being used in more and more practical ways. We started a series of regular blogs about companies who use our filaments in new and innovative ways. In the past weeks we have written three of them and we have quite a few more lined up. Below is a short summary of the companies we have highlighted so far:

AKLIH Design, making 3D printed design products with woodFill

Spectra3D, using PLA/PHA Natural for investment casting

Mathis Orthopédie, printing with colorFabb_XT to make prototype prosthetics


Almost at the end of the year and this blog. What we want to share is Tom Sanladerer’s video review of our PLA/PHA. This review is part of Tom’s Filaween review series. We started with PLA/PHA four years ago and it is always good to see that a product that is already in the market for four years is still highly appreciated.

It is good to look back sometimes and appreciate what we have.

That said, we are gearing up for 2017. A lot of great things are being prepared and we will keep you updated! For your information, we will not close next week, although some of our staff will be on a short break. Webshop orders will ship daily from Tuesday till Friday and as from January 2nd we are back in full operation again.

If you happen to be in Las Vegas at the CES, please drop by at the Aleph Objects booth in the Sands: Hall A-D, Booth 42524 where we will be as well!

The entire colorFabb team wishes you a merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

 

For one more week, until the end of the year you can benefit from the 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.

Underwater Hockey sticks

It is the season of giving and we can only imagine the amount of 3D printed items given away. One give away that was printed recently were little commemorative underwater hockey sticks. For this bulk print job we used our new PLA Economy filament.

Design by Joshyu: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:129665

Scaled at 20% from its original design, these little sticks were all printed on the Ultimaker 2+.

Underwater hockey is a sport that is played on the bottom of a swimming pool where two teams push and move a puck over the bottom of that pool. Although fairly unknown with the mass audiences, it is played worldwide.

PLA Economy was used for these prints since this new filament is a perfect filament to make such a give away, especially when they need to be produced in bulk and small series production. There were 33 little sticks per build plate, taking up approx. 5-6 hours per printer to finish the job. In total, nearly 200 were printed.

PLA Economy was launched only a month ago and we’ve been sold out ever since. With all the back orders having shipped now, we are creating a stock situation. We have been printing quite a lot with our new PLA Economy line. A few examples are:

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 have released PLA Economy in four colors: White (RAL 9010), Black (RAL 9005, Red (RAL 3020) and Silver (RAL 9023). This PLA grade has been tested extensively and is being produced and shipped by the same colorFabb team you are used to so you know we are not compromising on quality. You can rely with this filament on the same high standards that colorFabb is known for. It is available only on 2.2kg spools.

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

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862683

Prosthetic prototypes

One application for 3D printing that we are seeing a lot of potential in is the the field of prosthetics. Of course we all know the good work that projects like Enable and 3D Life Prints are doing, but 3D printing is already being used in the field of prosthetics as we speak. We have been following the French company Mathis Orthopédie for some time now on social media and specifically on their Twitter page.

 

We got in touch with them to know a little bit more about this exciting application for 3D printing. They use 3D printing not for the final application, but instead for the phase before that to make sure the prosthetic is fitting well and make sure the measurements and comfort are perfect.

Customization is one of the key aspects for prosthetics since no body is the same. 3D printing offers this on an unprecedented scale, but of course it doesn’t end there. Skills in both fields of prosthetics and 3D printing are essential in combination with the right materials.

With over 40 years of experience in prosthetics, Mathis Orthopédie is one of the leading companies in their field. 3D printing enables Mathis to customize the prosthetics for each and individual customer. It also significantly reduces waste and increases speed to bring the right prosthetic faster to the person in need by 3D printing the prototypes.

We have already seen 3D printing providing dramatic changes in bringing prototypes to life, products to the market and even finding its way into centuries old technologies like investment casting, but there are few ways where 3D printing can make such a personal impact on people daily lives as with prosthetics. Below is Mathis’  company video where you can see partially printed prosthetics being tested:

The material of choice they have been using is our colorFabb_XT, made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM1800. Launched in September 2014, it is a fantastic functional engineering material. With colorFabb_XT we achieved to produce a filament that provides good strength and toughness, as well as certain FDA food contact compliances. It has found a wide audience amongst users looking for extra functionality. with a temperature resistance of 75+ degrees, this filament offers high strength and very high toughness, odor neutral processing, a styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation. It allows the user, like Mathis Orthopédie, to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way.

colorFabb_XT was our first co-polyester based filament. Our portfolio of co-polyester based filaments, made with Eastman Amphora polymers, has since extended with the all-round nGen, the high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here.

The functionality that colorFabb_XT offers makes it a great material for prosthetics, as Mathis Orthopédie is using it. For visual prototyping, one of the materials Mathis uses is our colorFabb PLA/PHA natural, which has become a standard in the past 4 years as an extremely reliable filament.

For their printers they use Ultimakers and a Delta Tower.

Mathis Orthopédie strives for excellence in all aspects of the prosthetics they offer and have chosen colorFabb_XT as their primary material for this application. Be sure you visit their website (in French) and follow them on Twitter and Facebook, where they regularly share their works in progress.

 

 

This is the third part of an ongoing series of blogs about companies that use colorFabb filaments in unique and exciting ways. Recently we published about AKLIH, the Slovenian design company who use our woodFill filaments for their products, and last week we wrote about Spectra3D‘s use of 3D printing for investment casting.  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