Coke bottles

Our nGen filament is a great material for visual prototyping. Recently we used nGen to print Coke bottles in various colors:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1594463

We printed these bottles on the Swiss made Delta Tower with a 0.2mm layer height. The smooth surface and consistency of the filament, make nGen an ideal material to print large prototypes with. These models were scaled up to nearly 30cm.

We printed this model in 6 colors, but did you know that we offer nGen in 17 colors (including a clear one)?

You can find the full portfolio of nGen in our webshop.

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. We work closely with Eastman to bring the best materials to the market. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

Ever since launching late last year nGen has seen a rapid adoption amongst experienced and new users alike. An early review by 3D Printing For Beginners still holds true to this very day. The ease of use and higher temperature resistance (twice that of PLA!) should make this a go-to filament for everybody who wants to get more from their print.

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. Find out how to print with nGen in our handy tutorial.

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

You can find more information about nGen by clicking here.

 

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.

Death Star ornament

That’s not a moon, it’s a … Christmas ornament. Lighten up the Christmas tree with some Star Wars holiday spirit! A perfect material is our nGen filament and a touch of glowFill.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:117733

Designed by plainolddave (based on an original idea by Galen Erso, but without the weak spot), the files can be found on Scarif itself, aka Thingiverse. There is no need to go on a dangerous mission. Just click the link and transmit the files to your own rebellion stronghold. We printed the ornaments with nGen light gray and gray metallic for the most part and the trenches with glowFill on the Ultimaker 2+ at a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen is a great all-round filament for every day use.

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

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

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

You can find more information about nGen by clicking here. nGen is available in many great colors.

glowFill was launched over 2 years ago and is part of our range of special filaments. It is a fantastic filament to lighten up these dark, wintery days. Great to make a full print with or perfect to accentuate a print like we made to give it an extra special touch!

I Am 3D Hubs

A few weeks ago 3D Hubs invited us to attend the opening of their new office. As you know, we have been working together with 3D Hubs for quite some time now. All 3D Hubs members are entitled to a discount when ordering from colorFabb.

3D Hubs has its home in Amsterdam and Amsterdam is in the DNA of 3D Hubs. We thought it would be fun to make a variation on the I Amsterdam logo that you can find for real on the Museum Square in the heart of Amsterdam. We adjusted it a bit, we played with it a bit and the result is quite nice:

You can download this very design from our Thingiverse page and print one yourself.

For this print we used bambooFill for the base plate, nGen Red for “I am” and PLA/PHA Standard White for “3D Hubs”. To make it completely Dutch, we printed all the parts on the Ultimaker 2. This print is a perfect example to use various materials from our portfolio together to create the best result!

3D Hubs is of course the platform that connects 3D printers worldwide and offers it as a service to the ones without a 3D printer. One of the primary forces in 3D printing today, 3D Hubs has seen a stellar growth in the past few years with a few succesfull investment rounds, a necessary move to a bigger office in the heart of Amsterdam and a role to educate the world about 3D printing. Read, for instance, their clear article on what 3D printing is.

We are a proud partner of 3D Hubs and are looking to work together with 3D Hubs and its members in 2017 even more!

 

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. Since it is less than two weeks before Christmas, don’t forget to order in time!

Small Part Storage Crates

With so many projects going on in our print lab it is sometimes hard to keep track of all the parts that we use to finish prints. Especially big prints like the Formula 1 car we printed a few months ago or the Moveo Robotic Arm we are working on right now. To organize all the screws, the nuts, the bolts and fasteners we need, we print our own little storage things. Earlier this summer we posted about the little hinged boxes but now we have printed little drawers: the Scifi Small Part Storage Crates, designed by Andrew Bougie.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1489606

We printed these small crates on the MakerBot Replicator 2 in our print lab, using standard print settings. We used our new PLA Economy filament for these prints.

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

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

 

And remember, 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. Since it is less than two weeks before Christmas, don’t forget to order in time!

Moveo

About a month ago we gave you a sneak peek of the Moveo Robotic Arm that was designed by BCN 3D Technologies in Barcelona. A fully functional robotic arm, entirely open source, printed with our range of co-polyesters. We are ready to share more and where we are now.

Design: https://www.bcn3dtechnologies.com/en/bcn3d-moveo-the-future-of-learning/

We are now printing with colorFabb_XT Yellow (and some Dark Gray for the details) on various machines: Of course the BCN 3D Sigma, but we are also printing on the Stacker S4 and Ultimaker 2 to speed up the process, since the BCN Sigma is currently being used for multi material testing.

Since we’re using mostly parts from an old 3D printer we modified the CAD files in SolidWorks to accomodate these new parts. BCN3D’s open source working method also applies to this robot arm design, so all the files are available on BCN’s github page. With most parts being printed or already finished we are now starting to assemble this impressive project and rig up the controlling electronics. For this we plan on using an Azteeg X3 Pro Printer Controller that is powered from a 24v power supply.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project!

Our range of Amphora based co-polyesters are perfectly suited for a project like this. In 2014 colorFabb teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company to develop unique grades of co-polyesters suited for 3D printing. Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer are 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.

So far we have launched four grades, starting with colorFabb_XT in 2014, which is a fantastic functional engineering material. Late 2015 we follow this up with nGen, our next Generation general purpose filament and a drop in replacement for PLA. A wide processing window and perfect reliability make this filament a very popular one in our portfolio.

Earlier this year we followed that up with colorFabb_HT, a high-temperature resistant filament that allows for functional engineering projects that need lasting parts. Recently at the TCT Show in Birmingham we introduced nGen_FLEX to the market, a flexible filament with a Shora A hardness of 95 allowing for functional and flexible parts to be printed.

More information can be found in the blog we wrote about co-polyesters last summer.

You can find our entire portfolio of co-polyesters in our webshop or via our distributors and resellers worldwide of which BCN 3D in Barcelona is one!

And remember, 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. Since it is less than two weeks before Christmas, don’t forget to order in time!

Lodewijk van der Grinten Prijs 2016

Our special filaments are perfectly suited for special occasions, like awards ceremonies. Last night was such a night and a special night for entrepeneurs in our region in and around the Dutch city Venlo, colorFabb’s home town. Every year the Lodewijk van der Grinten prize is awarded to a local entrepeneur or local business who has done something special for and within the city and the region.

Please note: links in this article mostly link to a Dutch language site.

This year there were three nominees: Cabooter Group, Scelta Mushrooms and Pulse Business Solutions. Being nominated is already an honor and all three nominees were awarded with a special trophy to commemorate their nomination. The trophy was custom designed and printed with colorFabb’s special filaments.

The nominees

The big winner of this evening, receiving the big award was Jan Klerken from Scelta Mushrooms for their work in R&D in the world of mushrooms! We congratulate Jan and his team at Scelta Mushrooms with winning this year’s award!

The trophy for the nominees

A little bit about the award…

The Entrepreneur Award is named after Lodewijkvan 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!

The trophy

The trophy for the nominees was designed by Van Alles Wat Ontwerp. It was then printed by the colorFabb print lab team on the Ultimaker 3 using both bronzeFill and copperFill with a 0.2mm layer height – which dual nozzle system was especially suited for this task. It took 38 hours to print every trophy.

After that, we have post-processed the prints further by sanding the outer edges roughly and quickly. After that we used a polishing wheel to do the bulk of the polishing and finalized the print by polishing the details manually with some steel wool.

Check the video below for how the print was designed and printed (not in real time, of course):

Our special filaments have proven themselves to be quite award worthy, after seeing our woodFill, bronzeFill and copperFill have been used for the bioPlastics award only 2 weeks ago! You can read the post on that here.

colorFabb’s entire range of special filaments are available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide. If you are interested in post-processing the metal filled filaments, look no further than the article we wrote earlier this year about post-processing! But if you decide to look further, there is a nice collection of articles and blogs to be found here.

And remember, 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. Since it is less than two weeks before Christmas, don’t forget to order in time!

Car door handle

Last week we posted about the oil funnel we printed with nGen_FLEX on the Lulzbot mini. This week we have printed another, more crucial car part. for a Mitsubishi Space Wagon a replacement car handle was needed and again we wondered: Why not print it? For this print we used colorFabb_XT.

Based on the real part, this is a custom design and printed on the Kossel XL with a 0.12mm layer height.

Initially a test version was made in colorFabb_XT Yellow with the final part being printed with colorFabb_XT Black.

colorFabb_XT has the right properties for this print which need strength and toughness.

We launched colorFabb_XT 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.

You can find the data sheets and other documentation on our website: http://colorfabb.com/Materials/

colorFabb_XT is available in 14 colors, including clear, and was the first in our range of co-polyesters to be launched. It has been widely adopted by prosumers and engineers as one of their go-to materials for functional prototyping. You can find more about how to print with colorFabb_XT in our tutorial. If you want to learn more about co-polyesters, don’t skip our blog on these functional materials made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers.

 

And remember, 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. Since it is less than two weeks before Christmas, don’t forget to order in time!

Puzzle Draudi dual print

With a wide range of filaments in our portfolio it is only natural that we are drawn towards dual extrusion. Recently we made the Ultimaker drill on the new Ultimaker 3, but we have been printing a lot with our trusted BCN Sigma as well. A print we made a while ago on this printer from Barcelona was the dual print with nGen and nGen_FLEX on the Sigma, showing that two different materials can be printed as one object.

Today’s print highlights our brand new PLA Economy and is BCN’s signature Puzzle Draudi:

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:948575

This print was made on a 0.2mm layerheight.

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.

PLA Economy is only available on 2.2kg spools, in a limited amount of colors, but very competitively priced. Perfectly suited for printer owners who use large volumes of PLA.

You can order PLA Economy right now from our webshop. It has been an overwhelming success ever since launching and our production team is currently catching up with the large demand. Order now to make sure you will receive your filaments as soon as possible.

 

And remember, 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.

 

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.”

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 

 

Slipper

“These shoes are made for printing, and that’s just what we do…”

Or something similar. Anyhow, we ran into the fine people of MassPortal recently at the Formnext a couple of weeks ago and they showed us a design of a slipper that impressed us. We immediately found the design a perfect match for our nGen_FLEX filament!

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Custom designed by the MassPortal team, this print is fully functional! We used our nGen_FLEX and of course printed it on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED printer. The file will be posted soon by MassPortal.

We used the following settings:

  • 0.2mm layerheight
  • 35 mm/s (for overhangs)
  • 240C
  • 100% cooling (for overhangs)
  • 80C Bed + buildTak

The slipper size we printed is 19.1cm / 7.5inch, which is similar to the following shoe sizes:

US Size = 13
EURO Size = 31
UK Size = 12

colorfabb_ngen_flex_mass_portal_slipper

Our brand new semi flexible nGen_FLEX was launched a little over two months ago during the TCT Show. With a Shore A hardness of 95 and the high glass temperature of 120+ degrees C this is a truly functional 3D printing filament.

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

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

nGen_FLEX is available in our webshop: Click here. You can also obtain our filaments through our network of distributors and resellers. Click here for the one nearest to you.

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

And remember, 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.

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