6 years colorFabb_XT: A Look Back

This week it has been exactly 6 years ago that we launched colorFabb_XT at the 2014 edition of the 3D Print Show in London (remember those days?). With all the new materials, growth of colorFabb (& 3D printing in general) and our relentless goal to keep innovating it is sometimes easy to forget how special this moment was for colorFabb. Not only was this the first time a large chemical company (Eastman Chemical Company from Kingsport, TN) publicly partnered with a filament producer – something which is the norm today – but it also meant shifting our focus to functional materials.

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Our launch event booth at the London 3D Print Show 2014

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Eastman’s Amphora 3D polymers are low-odor and styrene free materials specifically developed for 3D printing. With Amphora based filaments, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

 

“Is Amphora a good material to 3D print? Absolutely – just make sure you have a heated build surface before you order some.”- Fabbaloo’s initial review

 

Platform Jack printed with colorFabb_XT by Intentional3D

 

colorFabb teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company to create colorFabb_XT, made with Eastman Amphora AM1800 3D Polymer. colorFabb_XT’s unique formulation features excellent properties: high strength, very high toughness, odor neutral processing and improved temperatures resistance. With its styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation colorFabb_XT allows the user to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way.

 

After launching colorFabb_XT we launched several other copolyester filaments: nGen, colorFabb_HT, nGen_FLEX, PETG Economy and nGen_LUX. To read more about what the differences are and what the best applications for each material are, check out our blog What We Talk About When We Talk About Co-Polyesters.

 

Toyota engine made with colorFabb_XT by Korneel Bullens

 

With colorFabb_XT we have seen quite some amazing applications: from garden sprinklers to prosthetics (more below). As a functional material goes, it is one of the workhorses of the filament world. It does not end with the print itself. We have received numerous requests about post-processing. Together with Eastman we made a handy secondary operations guide for those who feel their finished print needs more work.

Read: How to post-process co-polyesters

 

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Although we have phased out some colors of the colorFabb_XT product line – with a few still on sale at the time of writing – we still ship the most popular ones daily, worldwide and from stock. Head to our webshop for your daily dose of XT!

 

Previous colorFabb_XT posts

Below are a few of the prints we made with colorFabb_XT over the past years.

Scissor Snake with our colorfabb_XT

Lamp hanger in colorFabb_XT

Garden sprinkler

Drain exit

Micrometer holder

GoPro Bike Mount

Prosthetic design

Upgrading our equipment

Prosthetic prototypes

Car door handle

NEMA 17 4:1 reduction gearbox

Remote control housing

3D printed pennyboard

 

 

 

RapidPro

This week, starting today,  you can find us at the RapidPro Trade show and conference in Veldhoven on March 7, 8 and 9. It was four years ago that colorFabb debuted at this very show and we are attending again for the fifth consecutive year.

For the first time, we will be at the Industrial part of the show floor. You can find us at stand 16.


Stacker S2

This year the Stacker S2 3D printer will makes it debut at the colorFabb stand. The S2 was launched on Kickstarter last week and reached its goal within 4 hours after the campaign kick-off. The S2 is a two head industrial grade printer specifically built for education, manufacturing and design pro markets.

colorFabb is proud partner of Stacker and is the official distributor for the EMEA region. At colorFabb we have been extensively testing with both the S2 and S4 in our print lab with our entire range of filaments.

Read our previous blog on our experience with the Stacker S2.
The S2 shares most of the same design and engineering of its bigger sibling, the model S4. The larger model S4 has been shipped to customers since August of 2016 and has proven itself as a reliable industrial grade 3D printer.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means the S2 was designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. The way “industrial grade” is achieved begins with superior engineering and high-quality components, and ends with an Stacker’s innovative new assembly method.

Come and see for yourself at the RapidPro in the next few days at stand 16. A full product description of the Stacker printers can be found here.

At the show we will be printing on both the Stacker S2 and S4. Materials of choice are the range of co-polyesters we released in the past few years. Co-polyesters are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer, materials which provide for low-odor and styrene-free options that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

A featured print at the organizer’s booth is the Moveo Robot Arm by BCN3D, entirely printed with co-polyester filaments. Printed with colorFabb_XT Yellow and nGen Dark Gray. For the timing belts, we used nGen_FLEX Black. Printed by our own 3D print engineer Jos Deelen.

We have teased about this project before (here and here), but you can now and we are proud to finally show the results at the RapidPro!

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

Find out more about Amphora in this blog we posted last year. colorFabb_XT was our first co-polyester based filament, released in 2014. 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 (enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology).and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX.

Our range of co-polyester based filaments are available online.

During the entire week you can get a 10% discount on all our spools of filaments (samples and printers excluded) by using the discount code RAPIDPRO2017 in our webshop. (Use this link to immediately get your 10% discount!)

 

We hope to see you in the next few days in Veldhoven and if you can’t make it, keep an eye out on our social media accounts for the latest updates!