Tape dispenser

If you ship as much as we do you run through a lot of tape. Strangely enough, we seem to misplace our tape dispenser a lot as well. And why not print one or two as a spare? Here’s nGen coming to the rescue!

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:648772

Printed with nGen Yellow on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED, we made this on a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, a tape dispenser being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over 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. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

nGen is available through our webshop

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

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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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Bioplastics Award

The feature print we want to show today is special in more than one way. Normally, our prints are for in-house use and showing off what our filaments are capable of on a wide variety of platforms. Today’s print however has been made by us to be presented as an award: The Bioplastics Award!

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The Bioplastics Award is annually given during the Bioplastics Conference to a company who has achieved something special in the field of bioplastics. This year, the jury selected a project on which three companies had collaborated: the new bioplastics wrapper of the Snickers bars. The project started when a product manager at the Mars factory in Veghel, the Netherlands, approached Rodenburg, the Dutch bioplastics producer, with a challenge: Could Rodenburg develop a biobased packaging material for Mars’ candy bars that was just as good as the one the company was currently using?

The answer was “Yes!” and after some trials the product was approved, resulting – amongst others – in the Bioplastics Award 2016. You can read the full article here.

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Bioplastics Magazine is the leading magazine in the world in regards to bioplastics. They have published about colorFabb before, which you can read about here and about Stacker as well.  The magazine organizes the annual Bioplastics conference which was held this year on November 29 and 30 in Berlin.

The award was printed by us with colorFabb special filaments: woodFill, bronzeFill and copperFill. The base polymer of these materials is our very own PLA/PHA, which has been the basis of a wide range of filaments, both a portfolio of 30 colors and our special filaments, for the past four years.

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The woodFill base plate was printed no the Swiss made DeltaTower while the bronzeFill and copperFill parts were printed on the MassPortal Pharaoh and post-processed afterwards.

You can find more information about post-processing in our dedicated blog here and in a collection of articles.

colorFabb’s entire range of special filaments are available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide. 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!

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Display Stand

As a follow up of yesterday’s post, we are today showing the stand for the Raspberry Pi display case. Designed by the aptly named TheRaspberryPiGuy, we printed the display stand in a very sharp looking nGen Red.

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Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:995394

For this print we used the MassPortal Pharaoh ED printer at 0.1mm layer height.

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.

touchscreen_display_stand

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.

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You can find more information about nGen by clicking here. nGen is available in 17 colors.

Learn more about printing with nGen by visiting our tutorial.

Remote control housing

To start the week we printed a housing for FGS-2xx Fibaro remote control double relay. This relay is used to control outside lighting with a webinterface. For this print we used two of our finest materials: colorFabb_XT for the housing and nGen_FLEX for the sealing parts. Both are based on Amphora 3D Polymer by Eastman Chemical Company.

img_9993Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1860624

The rigid housing was printed on the Kossel XL, while the seal – printed with nGen_FLEX, was printed on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED. In both cases we used a 0.1mm layer height.

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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.

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.

colorFabb_XT is available in fourteen colors in our webshop.

nGen_FLEX is available in two colors in our webshop.

 

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.

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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.

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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.

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Coat hangers 3D printed with nGen filament

We used nGen filament to print coat hangers in a variety of colors. nGen is a general purpose 3D printing material that is perfectly suited to be used for prints that can be used in real life. These coat hangers were printed on the MassPortal Pharaoh ED in our own print lab.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1088960

coathanger-1 coathanger-2

 

 

Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer

Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer is 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.

nGen is made with Amphora AM3300 and has 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 exhibits advanced overhang ability, excellent looks, and large printing temperature range—empowering large panel of users to create durable and useful items. Learn more about nGen on our special dedicated landing page.