3d printing Archives - Page 28 of 31

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

Turbine prop

For today’s print we chose part of the GE “Build Your Own Jet Engine” project which can be found on Thingiverse. For this print we selected our bright red nGen filament and the result is stunning.

Design by GE: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:392115

Measuring 26cm across, we printed this part on the Leapfrog HS and it performed extremely well with our nGen filament. This part, printed at a 0.1mm layer height, took approximately 12 hours to print.

nGen was released late last year as our second Amphora based co-polyester from Eastman Chemical Company, after succesfully launching colorFabb_XT in 2014. Since then, we have also launched the high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and recently the semi-flexible nGen_FLEX.

nGen is a perfect all-round material to make prototypes, big and small. nGen comes in 17 great and carefully selected colors . Because of nGen’s good mechanical properties parts will last a long time.

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 about nGen, based on Eastman Amphora AM3300, on our dedicated nGen landing page.

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

3d printing colorfabb leapfrog HS ngen turbine prop

Cycle Bottle Cage in XT-CF20

Stereotyping is not our thing, but we admit to one thing: the Dutch cycle a lot! Combined with all the 3D printing activity here in the low lands it is only a matter of time when cycling and 3D printing meet up. We have printed bike parts before (click here) and have found more designs to print. For today’s print we have found the Cycle Bottle Cage by francfalco which we printed with XT-CF20.

Design by francfalco: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:439490

We all have Eastman Tritan drinking bottles here and found it only apt that we should be able to bring them along when we are cycling. Eastman Chemical Company is of course our partner for our Amphora 3D Polymer based co-polyesters: nGen, nGen_FLEX, colorFabb_XT and colorFabb_HT.

XT-CF20 is our first Amphora based special filament, launched nearly two years ago, made with colorFabb_XT and 20% carbon fibres. More information can be found here. XT-CF20 has received some really good reviews on our website. It may not be the easiest filament to print with, but the results can be stunning. The functionality, stiffness and the matte finish are true selling points of this material.

We printed the bottle cage on a Massportal Pharaoh ED with a 0.2mm layer height.

colorFabb’s XT-CF20 is available in our webshop.

3d printing bike colorfabb cycle bottle cage cycling eastman massportal water bottle xt-cf20

PLA/PHAlloween

It is almost Halloween again and our print lab printed a pumpkin in Dutch Orange PLA/PHA to stay in the spirit.

Pumpkin: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:25935

Sir Fill by Ola Sundberg: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501831

PLA/PHA was the first product group we launched almost 4 years ago (how time flies…) and Dutch Orange has been consistently one of our top colors. PLA/PHA is the unique blend of PHA added to our PLA to make the filament less brittle. PHA is like PLA a bio-polyester.

Since we used a golden oldie as our material for this print, we also decided to use on of our trusted Ultimaker Originals for this print job. As always, it performed remarkably well in combination with our PLA/PHA, printing on a 0.2mm layer height.

PLA/PHA is available in a wide variety of 30 diverse colors. Check them out in our webshop!

Have a great Halloween and a fantastic weekend!

3d printing colorfabb halloween pla/pha pumpkin sir fill ultimaker original

Toyota Corolla

We don’t only print big cars (like, for instance, the F1 car), but also smaller ones, like this Toyota Corolla AE86 toy car (which measures 12cm). For this print we used nGen Black and Gray Metallic.

Design: click here.

Inspired by the anime series Initial D and modelled by Jurica Pranjic it has a drif bodykit and Work Meister S1 Wheels. You can find Jurica’s full portfolio on MyMiniFactory.

nGen is a perfect all-round material to make prototypes, big and small, For toys we need materials with great colors and good stable mechanical properties. nGen comes in 17 great and carefully selected colors . Because of nGen’s good mechanical properties parts will last a long time.

This print was made on the Ultimaker 2 with a 0.1mm layer height.

You can find more information about nGen, based on Eastman Amphora AM3300, on our dedicated nGen landing page.

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

3d printing colorfabb ngen toy toyota ultimaker

Dual print with nGen and nGen_FLEX

Today’s featured print is a demonstrator model we also used at the recent TCT Show. For this model, which is our own design, we used nGen Gold Metallic for the base and nGen_FLEX Dark Gray for the flexible part.

Printing on the BCN3D Sigma we see how a world of opportunities opens up when you are able to use two different materials in the same print. The layer adhesion between the two materials is downright excellent.

nGen was released late last year 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.

nGen_FLEX was released recently at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, 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. 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 recently published: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are available now in our webshop (click here or here) and via our network of distributors and resellers. Click here for a reseller closest to you.

3d printing amphora bcn sigma colorfabb eastman functional ngen ngen_flex tct

Water cap with nGen_FLEX

We are always looking for functional designs that we can use in real life. And when it comes to functionality we always go for one of our Amphora based co-polyester filaments. Developed with Eastman Chemical Company, we currently offer four grades: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and the recently launched nGen_FLEX.

And with this nGen_FLEX, which won great reviews after launching, we printed a water cap, designed by Peter Krige.

Design by Peter Krige, click here.

As described by the designer himself: “A hose or plastic tube is attached to the inner nozzle on the Water Cap. This is then inserted into the water container. The cap is screwed on and the inner rubber washer ensures an air tight seal. The water container is half filled with water. Then a longer piece of hose or plastic tube is attached to the outer nozzle and its other end installed in the flex tap. The flex tap works by creating a kink in the tube which controls or stops the water flow depending on how much the user flexes the handle. A bicycle pump is connected to the schrader valve and the container pressurised with air.”

With nGen_FLEX we created a truly functional print of this design. nGen_FLEX was launched succesfully at the TCT Show recently and is our first semi-flexible filament. It has a Shore A hardness of 95 and has very good printability on a wide variety of printers, even the ones with Bowden tubes which are in general challenging to print flexible filaments on. The heat resistance of over 120 degrees C adds to the functionality and even allows steam sterilization of your print when needed! You can find more information about the material, the data sheets and print tutorials on our dedicated landing page.

We printed the water cap on the Mass Portal Pharaoh 3D with a 0.2mm layer height.

nGen_FLEX is now available in both dark gray and black. Click here for availability online.

3d printing amphora colorfabb flex functional mass portal ngen_flex water cap

Dodecahedron with XT-CF20

A few weeks ago we printed a Rhombic Dodecahedron Derived Figure with nGen Light Blue. You can find the original post here. We use this model, made by Fred Bartels, a lot lately to test our filaments with. The print we want to share today is the same dodecahedron, but printed with XT-CF20.

Design by Fred Bartels: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:539489

We introducted XT-CF20 early 2015, containing 20% carbon fibres with colorFabb_XT.

Due to the abrasive nature of XT-CF20 we always used hardened steel nozzles to print this filament. In recent weeks, however, we have been extensively testing with the Olsson Ruby nozzle, provided to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor in the Nordic region and producer of these new nozzles. You can find the Death Gun mask here and Robot Action figure here for examples printed with this new nozzle that will be released in November.

As you can see we have had fantastic results with this new nozzle.

We printed the dodecahedron on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.1mm layer height.

XT-CF20 is available now in our webshop.

3d printing colorfabb design dodecahedron fred bartels nozzle olsson ultimaker xt-cf20

How to post-process co-polyesters

Of course we love our prints as they are. We put great effort to choose the best materials and the finest materials. With our “How To…” posts we want everybody to be able to create the best prints possible on a wide variety of printers. We have written before about post-processing our metal filled filaments, which literally truly shine when processed the right way. More links to blogs about post-processing these special filaments can be found here.

Beyond the special filaments, which have great aesthetic properties, we also have our range of co-polyesters: nGen, colorFabb_XT and colorFabb_HT and we received quite a few questions about post-processing these materials. To find our more about the materials themselves, check out the blog we have written before by clicking here.

Developed by Eastman Chemical Company, Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers are the basis of our co-polyesters and offer 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. With superior melt strength and dimensional stability, our range of co-polyesters deliver advanced bridging capabilities to create stronger and more detailed items—with low odor and low emissions.

Now, once a print comes of the printer and you want to be doing something truly functional with it you may need some kind of post-processing with it, also called secondary operations. Be it painting, drilling or glueing there are multiple ways to work with a printed object once it has been printed, but before you can use it. You can truly bring 3D printing into your life by making useful applications.

For instance, you need to drill into a part. This should be no problem with co-polyesters. We recommend drills specifically made for plastic. Steel drills are possible, but only when grounded. Tips like these are to be found in the brochure that Eastman has prepared and which you can find by clicking here.

Click on the image below to find the full guide prepared by Eastman Chemical Company:

Our range of co-polyesters are available online.

3d printing amphora colorfabb colorfabb_ht colorfabb_xt eastman functional ngen post-processing

Scissor Snake with our colorfabb_XT

We found the very handy scissor snake on Pinshape by Richard Swika and printed it with our colorfabb_XT. This design “enables people with limited use of their hands to manipulate small objects at a distance in a fun and effective way,” according to Swika.The original design can be found on Pinshape: https://pinshape.com/items/25747-3d-printed-scissor-snake-easy-grip-custom It can easily be customized according to your needs.

We printed this design as one single print on the Ultimaker 2, using colorFabb_XT Light Blue as our material of choice with a layer height of 0.15mm. 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.

3d printing colorfabb colorfabb_xt functional light blue pinshape scissor snake ultimaker 2