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.

Image

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

Image

 

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

 

678782

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

 

 

 

RC Planes

Last year’s LW-PLA has found a steady following in the RC Plane community. We have already posted about our lightweight filament in our blog where we highlighted Eclipson’s Model V plane (click here to go directly to that blog). Over the past few months we have seen more use of LW-PLA by makers of RC planes following Eclipson’s lead.

Below is a short summary of videos we found recently on Youtube. (Updated on June 9th with the two top videos)

 

Videos

Slope soaring by Airfection RC Gliders (Youtube)

 

By 3DLabPrint (Youtube)

 

By Coen L (Youtube)

 

https://youtu.be/zosspO7DSN8

By RC Air Adventures (Youtube)

 

By ADDIMP 3D (Youtube)

 

By 3Dlabprint (Youtube)

 

By Airfection RC Gliders (Youtube)

 

By Wernersgyro (Youtube)

 

By Localfiend (Youtube) (more information)

LW-PLA is the first filament of its kind using an active foaming technology to achieve lightweight, low density PLA parts.

Daily worldwide shipping from stock! Visit our webshop!

 

Printing RC planes is not the only application where LW-PLA excels. Other succesfull applications are printing of insoles and cosplay, where the weight of the printed suit can be significantly reduced!

 

About LW-PLA

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

varioShore TPU Black

Now available: varioShore TPU Black.

Design by Flying Ginger (link), remixed by colorFabb with inscription

With the launch of varioShore TPU in October last year we added a new flagship product to our ever expanding portfolio of high quality 3D printing filaments. Initially launched in a single neutral color, varioShore TPU can now also be ordered as a black filament. We recently ran a poll on both Twitter and Facebook and our users clearly chose black as our next varioShore TPU color:

 

What is varioShore TPU?

varioShore TPU allows users to vary the density of the material by adjusting temperature and material throughput (speed & layerheight). At temperatures between 200 and 250C the materials will start to expand to roughly 1.4-1.6 times its original volume. This means the material can be printed at low flow rates (60-70%), to compensate the active foaming, which in return gives very soft printed parts. Between 190-200C the material can be printed without foaming, resulting in different haptics and harder prints compared to foamed samples.

This part is an excellent demonstrator for varioShore TPU material. The ergonomic grip of the bike handle really is perfect to demonstrate the haptic experience of a foamed TPU material. It’s very different from a regular TPU material, much softer surface and better grip.

3 main advantages

varioShore TPU is flexible in more ways than one:

  1. This material is not limited to one shore hardness, but with the right print settings you can have multiple shore hardnesses – even in one print!
  2. We used our LW-PLA technology in this filament as well to reduce weight significantly. Although the weight reduction of varioShore TPU is not as significant as LW-PLA, the weight of the overall print is noticable and can make the difference for prints where weight matters.
  3. Prints that need a soft touch, like handle bars for bikes or shoe soles are no problem anymore with varioShore TPU.

 

“It really is a fantastic development… Incredible innovation.” – Steve Cox

“Another astonishing FDM material development from the colorFabb team.” – Richard Horne

“Another amazing product by colorFabb!” – Bart Tangermann

 

Click here to head directly to our webshop. Shipping starts in week 8 of February.

colorFabb_HT – made with Eastman Tritan™

colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied. With certain FDA approvals and chemical resistance it is an engineering grade material that has been in high demand with the professional users and hobbyists alike.

 

Print near transparent parts with colorFabb_HT (original blog post here)

colorFabb_HT: Tritan Technology

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and 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 with a Tg of over 100⁰C. Amphora is Eastman’s brand of co-polyesters dedicated for 3D printing. Our nGen, colorFabb_XT and nGen_FLEX are also made with Amphora materials.

Image result for eastman amphora

colorFabb_HT is enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology. Tritan is Eastman’s flagship product and has been succesfully added to the 3D printing portfolio with colorFabb_HT. Learn more about Tritan on Eastman’s dedicated website.

You can find more documentation here:

  • Technical Data Sheet (TDS)
  • Safety Data Sheet (SDS)
  • Product Regulatory Information Sheet (PRIS)

 

Copolyesters explained

The way we see it, FDM 3D printing filaments will be all about functionality in the future. How you are going to use your prints in the real world will define what material you choose. We have found a lot of characteristics in Eastman’s range of Amphora co-polyesters that offer functionality, durability and efficiency. Added benefits compared to ABS are the low-odor while printing and that Amphora based filaments are styrene free.

Compared to PLA, Amphora features a much better heat resistance, starting at 75C for colorFabb XT, 85C for colorFabb nGen and 100C for colorFabb HT. Below is a chart how our range of co-polyesters compare to other materials like PLA and ABS:

Learn more about co-polyesters in our previous blog.

 

High tech clamps, printed with colorFabb_HT on the Leapfrog Bolt by Peter de Corte

colorFabb_HT is uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particular those who need their creations to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and temperature resistance. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

 

 

colorFabb_HT prints

One of the unique features of colorFabb_HT is the ability to print near transparent parts. Due to the high flow characteristics it is now possible to print parts that are almost see-through. Check out the blog we wrote about it previously here.

 

Original post

Another aspect of the filament is its ability to print extremely detailed prints, like seen below:

Tiny Hellboy by Geoff W. / Hex3D. Original post 

Although our range of co-polyesters already look extremely good, there are quite a few way how you can perform so-called secondary operations, like glueing, painting, etc. Click the image below for more information:

678778

 

Below are some of the prints we made in the past few years with colorFabb_HT:

Old and broken laundry dryer part left, new printed one on the right. Original post

 

 

Air gun adapter by colorFabb. Original post

 

Brushless motor by MakeSEA, colorFabb_HT print in combination with steelFill. Original post 

 

Vertical windmill by Michael Broderick. Original post

 

Dremel tool holder by mitchnajmitch, printed with colorFabb_HT and woodFill. Original post

colorFabb_HT is available in five colors, as 700gr and 2kg spools. It ships daily and from stock. Click here to go to our webshop.

colorFabb_HT is available in Clear, Black, White, Light Gray and Dark Gray

Longboard Wheels

In recent months we have added quite a few new materials in our webshop. To showcase two of them we have combined them into one functional print. We used Iroprint F80213 by Huntsman and our brand new Tough PLA to print longboard wheels.

The Street Wheels for Longboard were designed by Zenjota (link)

The two components are printed seperately and assembled after printing:

 

Iroprint F80213 features good abrasive resistance amongst other key features. In this case the tire feels grippy and offers dampening due to the infill and shore A85. It is a polyether-based Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) with shore A85. Key features, aside from the abrasive resistance, are high elasticity, cut and scratch resistance and good low temperature performance. Being polyether-based, it offers a good hydrolysis resistance. Developed by chemical specialist Huntsman, Iroprint F80213 stands out in our range for delivering prints with a mat finish, resulting in a high-quality touch and feel of the final object.

Iroprint F80213 by Huntsman is one of the materials which settings can easily be accessed in the Ultimaker Market Place in Cura.

The inner rim is printed with colorFabb Tough PLA. We decided for a 100% infill to achieve maximum stiffness with this material and at the same time toughness. The part was printed at 230c and 0.2mm layerheight.

Our Tough PLA is a custom blend which retains the ease of use of PLA but adds serious toughness to the material. As a result the material is a lot less brittle than regular PLA filaments and has a higher impact strength.

The recommended printing temperatures are 210C-230C and 50-60C heated bed temperature. The print speed can be set to 40-50 mm/s. For better overhang performance we recommend using slower outer perimeter speed, 20-30 mm/s.

We release Tough PLA in two colors: black and white, which are available now and ship from stock.

varioShore TPU is available now!

varioShore TPU is the latest innovative 3D printing filament by colorFabb and is now available. Our varioShore TPU is flexible in more ways than one!

Printing handle bars is a great application due to the soft touch characteristics of varioShore TPU.

varioShore TPU is available now. Click here to go directly to our webshop!

varioShore TPU allows users to vary the density of the material by adjusting temperature and material throughput (speed & layerheight). At temperatures between 200 and 250C the materials will start to expand to roughly 1.4-1.6 times its original volume. This means the material can be printed at low flow rates (60-70%), to compensate the active foaming, which in return gives very soft printed parts. Between 190-200C the material can be printed without foaming, resulting in different haptics and harder prints compared to foamed samples.

We sent several spools to beta testers and this is what they had to say about it:

“It really is a fantastic development… Incredible innovation.” – Steve Cox

“Another astonishing FDM material development from the colorFabb team.” – Richard Horne

“Another amazing product by colorFabb!” – Bart Tangermann

 

Lubrizol co-operation

For this development colorFabb partnered with Lubrizol Engineered Polymers, a leading global producer of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), used in everyday consumer and industrial applications, with a strong global manufacturing and supply network.

Lubrizol Engineered Polymers’ expertise in TPU chemistry was key to provide a customized TPU with a wide range of processing temperatures and adequate melt viscosity, meeting the requirements during extrusion and printing. A wider range of thermal stability and melt rheology allows an extended upper range of printing temperatures to maximize the range of densities achieved through colorFabb’s unique filament foaming technology.

The result is a filament with a base TPU of 92A, which will work with most standard extruder set-ups for both Bowden and direct drive systems.

Main features

The main features of varioShore TPU are:

Variable shorehardness

This material is not limited to one shore hardness, but with the right print settings you can have multiple shore hardnesses – even in one print!

Reduced weight / density

colorFabb used the technology previously used in their light weight LW-PLA in this filament as well to reduce weight significantly. Although the weight reduction of varioShore TPU is not as significant as LW-PLA, the weight of the overall print is noticeable and can make the difference for prints where weight matters.

Soft touch surface

Prints that need a soft touch, like handle bars for bikes or shoe soles are no problem anymore with varioShore TPU.

It is, in short, a filament that is flexible in more ways than one. colorFabb initially offers one variety: a very neat natural filament without colorant on spools with 700 grams of filament. For settings, tips and tricks we refer to the product page on the colorFabb website.

Retail pricing is € 41.28 excl. VAT (or € 49.95 including VAT) per spool.

varioShore TPU is available as from today from colorFabb and ships daily, worldwide and from stock. With the release of varioShore TPU, right on the heels of Laser Marking PLA, colorFabb remains on the cutting edge of material development for 3D printing.

 

Tips & Tricks

At colorFabb we have a well-equipped 3d printing studio with many popular 3d printers. Our varioShore TPU has been tested using various 3D printers, which has resulted in the following recommended settings.

Adviced 3d printing temperature: 190C-250C

Adviced 3d print speed: 20-30 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 20-40C

Cooling fan: Use the least amount of cooling when maximum foaming is required. For better overhang performance use 50-100% cooling.

We advise our users to use standard TPU settings as a base setting for developing your own pre-sets.

Make sure the distance between nozzle and platform is not to small, especially if the material is being foamed while printing, the pressure will need to be released from the hot-end to prevent clogging and feeder issues.

Material summary

Name: colorFabb varioShore TPU

Diameter Tolerance: ± 0.1 mm

Density: 1,2-1,3 g/cm3

Availability: Right Now!

 

Awesome designs used in this blog

OpenRC 1:10 RC Truggy Rims AirLess by 123CUT (link)

Ergonomic bike handle grips (flex/tpu) by Flying_Ginger (link)

Handle for 1966 HD M50S by barspin (link)

igus

In our effort to offer the widest range of 3D printing filaments possible we are proud to announce that now also offer igus® iglide filaments in our webshop!

 

igus filaments are all about functionality. The iglide® range of filaments are 3D printing materials for maximum service in moving applications. You can create custom parts with significantly higher wear resistance than standard filament. The iglide materials benefits include:

  • High degree of wear resistance, similar to that of injection molded iglide® components
  • Igus has more than 30 years of experience in the development of high-performance plastics for moving applications
  • Tested in Igus’ own laboratory

Click here to go to our webshop!

igus filaments range of 3D print materials for simple processing with very good wear values, and filaments with very good friction properties, high strength and elongation, up to chemically resistant materials and those that are suitable for FFF/FDM 3D printing. Igus uses its innovative polymer materials to develop products that provide creative solutions and exceed customers’ expectations while delivering fast, accurate service.

3D print materials from igus are stable and wear-resistant materials made of iglide high-performance plastics. They guarantee a long service life of the individual wearing parts due to an exceptionally high degree of resistance to abrasion.

Their tribologically optimized filaments are up to 50 times more abrasion-resistant than standard 3D print materials. This results in higher levels of effectiveness. So you can produce prototypes and small series more quickly and cost effectively. Printed components can also quickly replace wear parts and reduce downtime periods. At colorFabb we offer now 3 filaments, in both 1.75mm and 2.85mm:

 

iglide® I150-PF filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • The Tribo-filament that is easiest to process
  • igus® adhesive film is required for a non-heated print bed
  • Very good wear values up to a p*v value of 0.2 N*m/s
  • Good mechanical properties
  • igus® adhesive film is required for a non-heated print bed
  • Flexural strength: 54 MPa
  • Color: White

 

iglide® I180-BL-PF filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • Excellent wear behaviour
  • Flexural strength: 46 / 33 MPa
  • Color: Black

iglide® I180-PF, filament for 3D printing (webshop)

  • Excellent wear behaviour
  • Flexural strength: 46 / 33 MPa
  • Color: White

 

About Igus

“igus® plastics for longer life”

Günter Blase began igus back on 15th October 1964 in a double garage in Cologne. For the first 20 years, the company worked as a supplier of complex technical polymer components. However, in 1983 Frank Blase established reinforced plastic energy chain systems and injection molded polymer bearings as two distinct product groups and set up a network of sales engineers. These seemingly unrelated products are linked together through the belief in making functionally advanced, yet affordable polymer components and assemblies. Between 1985 and 2016, igus® grew from 40 to more than 2,950 employees distributed between the head office in Germany and 35 subsidiary companies around the world. igus also has representative partners in more than 35 other countries. igus will continue to invest in expansion in the coming years, thanks to the opportunities for growth provided by modern materials.

Mission statement:
igus uses its innovative polymer materials to develop products that provide creative solutions and exceed our customers’ expectations while delivering fast, accurate service.

 

Coffee tray

Growth of a company can be measured in a lot of different ways. Economists and historians will debate for years what the best way is, but at colorFabb we measure it by the size of our coffee tray. Whenever someone in the office goes for a coffee, courtesy dictates that he or she will bring coffee for all of the colleagues. As from this week, our coffee tray was upgraded significantly to allow for all our coffee to be brought into the office and passed around at once:

In-house design by our intern Aron Smolenaars

This print was made with our PLA Semi-Matte Black and due to the size (33 x 37cm) we required a bit more than the standard desktop 3D printer. The Stacker S4 is a great printer where we could use of the bigger-than-average build platform.

Long hours at colorFabb to develop, produce and ship the best possible 3D printing filaments mean an equal amount of coffee to be consumed at the office. Carrying it around is limited by the heat of the cups, the lack of multiple limbs and opening doors. Hence the coffee tray which is already enjoying its third iteration.

Previous designs, starting with 3 cup holders, then 8 and now 16…

The coffee tray, seemingly whimsical, is a great example of how 3D printing can offer quick solutions for everyday work space challenges. Like burnt fingers.

When developing our semi-matte PLA (available in black and white) we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. PLA Semi-Matte Black (and white) will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

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.

PLA Semi-Matte Black 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.

 

PLA Semi-Matte Black and White are available from stock and ship daily, worldwide.

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

Print your own toolbox inlay

Updated: We have added the link to the Thingiverse page so you can print your own inlay!

With 3D printing comes great customization. With the right design skills, the right printer and the right materials one can make unique prints that not only look good, but are also extremely handy. Speaking of handy, having the right tools on hand is essential in every work space (print labs in particular), but what starts with some plyers and a screwdriver can easily grow into a collection of dozens of tools. Or more. And no tools are created equally, nor are the needs of the maker. To bring more order into this chaos we decided to design and print our own toolbox inlay:

Custom in-house design (Thingiverse link)

We used our trusted Stacker S4 printer for this print, making use of the full build plate of this industrial grade 3D printer. We printed with a 0.6mm nozzle and 0.2mm layer height. Infill was 10% (printed every two layers).

Material of choice to print the toolbox inlay was our very own (and extremely popular) PLA Economy Silver.

We printed 3 layers to store our tools, which fit inside a standard case which can be bought at any hardware store. This way you can easily store your tools in the way you want it: Everything is always in the right place, your tools can easily be moved from one work site to the other and when you pack up you see at a glance if you have not forgotten anything.

Print your own inlay now by heading to our Thingiverse page.

The design was made in SolidWorks, our design software of choice:

Render of the design in SolidWorks

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November of 2016. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black, silver and dark blue.

 

PLA Economy

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop. You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

 

G1 thread extender

Ah, the summer… When everybody and everything slows down, wisely, to a much calmer pace. With the current temperatures we see the need to take extra care of our lawns as well. And we wouldn’t be colorFabb if 3D printing couldn’t be fit in there somewhere. One of our engineers needed a G1 thread extender for his garden watering system and designed one himself:

Design by Jos Deelen, Team colorFabb

The thread extender was printed on the Ultimaker 3, using a 0.12mm layer height, 3 perimeters and 95% infill. The material of choice is our very first copolyester colorFabb_XT. The color for this print is Light Green – grassy and fresh.

We launched colorFabb_XT almost 4 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 temperature resistance, styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation. It will allow the user to produce 3D printed functional products in a safe way and is ideally suited for prints like the thread extender.

colorFabb_XT is available in 14 colors, including clear.

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. 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.

A little over a year ago we followed that up with colorFabb_HT, a high-temperature resistant filament that allows for functional engineering projects that need lasting parts. colorFabb_HT is enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology.

At last year’s 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.