Light Weight Plane

November 15 update: Now with video of the first flight! Scroll down to see the spectacular footage!

When we launched our light weight filament LW-PLA earlier this year we saw a lot of handy applications: cosplay, medical instruments, grips. Every print where weight is of the essence. The most positive replies we got were from the drone and RC plane community. One of the companies specialized in RC planes, Eclipson Airplanes from Spain, contacted us and were very interested in our latest offering. During the summer the Eclipson team worked on a light weight plane design specifically made to be printed with LW-PLA. Here is a first look at their Model V plane:

All designs and images by Eclipson Airplanes

A few details about the Model V plane:

  • Total weight of the printed parts 170 gr
  • Ready to flight weight (estimated) 380 gr
  • Wing span 1.370mm
  • Wing area 16 dm2
  • Wing loading 24gr/dm2

You can find more information about this design on the dedicated Model V page.

“This means that this airplane holds a new world record, it is the lightest RC plane in terms of wing loading.”

  • Team Eclipson

Rendering with Eclipson logo

When printed with regular PLA, the plane would weigh twice as much and as we all know: every gram counts in aviation. As Eclipson states on its homepage:

“Drag and weight are the two main enemies of any flying machine, reduce those two forces to the minimum was one of the main goal of this project since the conceptual phase.
The drag was reduced thanks to its streamlined shapes, clean design, V tail, high aspect ratio or winglets. Special mention deserves the wing, which is simply the best we have ever designed, this wing has a great balance between safety (docile stall characteristic) efficiency (high lift to drag ratio) maneuverability (high roll rate) and strength. Landing gear, tail and wing can be detached from the fuselage allowing you to print only damaged parts in case of crash.”

Not only did the LW-PLA reduce weight significantly, the Eclipson team also found out that LW-PLA worked extremely well for them when printing the landing gear thanks to its flexibility.

The Model V light weight plane will be for sale from Eclipson from mid-October. Keep an eye out for this excellent plane!

Located in Madrid, Spain, Eclipson Airplanes is specialized in the design of RC Planes and they have already several models available (click here to see their portfolio).

The Model V design is available for purchase at Eclipson (follow this link) and it has already made its maiden flight!

 

About LW-PLA

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

 

Decreasing flow means using less filament. Therefore users can expect to print 2-3 times more parts using LW-PLA compared to a regular PLA spool. LW-PLA prints in a fantastic matte looking surface finish and is very easy to post process. Any oozing or stringing artifacts rub right off and the surface is easily sanded for a smooth finish. Find out more here.

Curious how to print with LW-PLA? Find out more in our tutorial!

LW-PLA is available in Black and Natural and is available now. We ship daily, worldwide and from stock.

Cosplay

Only two weeks ago we released our brand new lightweight 3D printing filament LW-PLA. With its active foaming technology it can reduce weight of a printed part with 65%, which makes it ideally suited for prints where weight matters. There are a lot of applications for this new material and one of them is for use in cosplay parts.

Parametric Cosplay Shoulder Armor by qxpmikeqxp / design

The Parametric Cosplay Shoulder Armor by Mike Lobsinger is a great example. We already know that 3D printing is extensively used by the cosplay community to make unique parts for ever more extravagant costumes. With larger sizes of the costumes weight becomes a factor of course and that is exactly where LW-PLA comes in.

We ran a comparison test with our regular PLA/PHA and LW-PLA:

Left: PLA/PHA, right LW-PLA

We printed on the Ultimaker 2+ witha  0.6mm nozzle and 0.1mm layer height for both materials. For the PLA/PHA we printed at 210C and a bed temperature of 50C with 100%. This resulted in a print of 120 grams. As for LW-PLA we printed at 245C with a 50C bed temperature and with 50% flow. The print ended up less than half at 54 grams!

Find out more on our dedicated landing page!

As you can see, LW-PLA is perfectly suited for lighweight prop making. It is easy to sand to create a smooth surface finish. 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.

Click here to read more on how to print with LW-PLA in our handy tutorial.

Reduce weight and make your cosplay and attributes lighter, more practical and comfortable. With LW-PLA you can dress like a superhero without needing the strength of a superhero.

LW-PLA is available now.

LW-PLA

We proudly present our brand new 3D printing filament: LW-PLA

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

“We need challenging materials, we need to work with or find ways around the limitations and allow more people to experiment with exciting developments like this foaming PLA.” – Richard Horne, aka RichRap3D

Read Richard’s review of LW-PLA here.

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.

LW-PLA, with the LW standing for Lightweight, is available as from today in two colors: Black and Natural.

 

 

Recently we held a contest where people from all over the world sent in their ideas what they wanted to print with our brand new LW-PLA. Ideas ranged from cosplay to drones and from wheelchair aides to wind turbines. Every print where weight matters can benefit from LW-PLA.

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

Material

colorFabb LW-PLA

Diameter Tolerance

± 0.1 mm

Density

1.210-1.430 g·cm-3 (non activated density)
0.403 – 0,476 g·cm-3 (maximum activated density)

Glass Transition Temperature

55C

Material data sheets can be found here. Click on the images below to go directly to our product pages or click here:

 

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.

LW-PLA was developed under our new colorFabb Labs program. colorFabb Labs is dedicated to bring more innovative materials faster to the market. It is colorFabb’s aim to meet customers’ needs in terms of materials and 3D printing services. Stay tuned for more exciting developments this year.

LW-PLA ships as from today, April 12 2019, from our webshop and can be found under the Specials, as well as colorFabb Labs. Samples and XL spools will be available at a later date.

How to print with LW-PLA

colorFabb LW-PLA is available in our webshop

How to print with LW-PLA

At colorFabb material development never stops. We’re starting 2019 with a fascinating new material, first of its kind in FFF 3D printing materials.

We’re proud to announce, colorFabb LW-PLA. This filament uses an active foaming technology which is triggered by temperature. At it’s peak the filament will expand nearly 3x it’s volume, meaning users can decrease flow by 65% to obtain lightweight parts, or use the expanding properties to speed up print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

Continue reading

What would you print with LW-PLA?

Update April 3rd 2019: winners have been selected!

Over 130 ideas were submitted in the past two weeks & we have selected 6 winners. We opted for one extra winner due to the high quality of entries and when it came down to the last six we simply could not choose. We will hopefully soon share the awesome things they have been able to print. We have selected winners in the following categories:

  • Drones (50+ entries who submitted drone ideas)
  • Cosplay
  • Laminated composite parts
  • Sound absorbing modules
  • Writing aides
  • Wheelchair parts

The winners have already been contacted and spools will be shipped this week ahead of the public release soon. We cannot wait to see the results! The submission form has been closed. We will announce more information (release date, pre-ordering, pricing, etc.) very soon!

Original post:

At colorFabb material development never stops. We’re starting the 2019 with a fascinating new material, first of its kind in FFF 3D printing materials.

We’re proud to announce colorFabb LW-PLA. This light weight filament uses an active foaming technology which is triggered by temperature. At it’s peak the filament will expand 3x it’s volume, meaning users can decrease flow by 60-65% to obtain light weight parts, or use the expanding properties to speed up print time by using big layer heights or single extra thick perimeters.

Continue reading