DPA-100

Today we announce a brand new colorFabb material: DPA-100 – our first dissolvable support filament, specifically made for engineering materials.

colorFabb_XT and colorFabb PETG Economy printed with DPA-100. Topology optimized shelf bracket – by toms3dp

 

Learn more about the how-to and technical details here.

 

Beyond PVA

Unlike PVA our DPA-100 is less sensitive to moisture uptake and offers better shelf-life and print performance over time. It is a Dissolvable Polyacrylate material made to work specifically with engineering grade materials which are not suited for PVA, like PETG, ABS, ASA, PC and PA filaments. We have extensively tested DPA-100 on various 3D printing materials available in the market, both colorFabb and non-colorFabb branded.

DPA-100 is also perfectly suited for our range of co-polyester filaments: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT and PETG Economy.

Quick guide: Which material and how?

Match Hotend temp Support Bed temp
nGen Yes 250 C 90C
colorFabb_XT Yes 250 C 90C
colorFabb_HT Yes 260 C 110C
PETG Economy Yes 250 C 90C
Generic ABS Yes 250C 100C
Generic ASA Yes 250C 100C

Read our full DPA-100 guide about the technical specifications and how to print.

 

Design by Ken Schulze

How to dissolve

Printing with DPA-100 is the first step. Dissolving the material is the second one. In order to dissolve DPA-100 you need a mild alkaline solution which is heated and stirred. At higher temperature DPA-100 will dissolve faster than at lower temperature. The temperature you choose depends on the temperature resistance of your build material. In general 20c below the temperature resistance of your build material is a safe settings. Thicker models would be less likely to deform and can handle temperatures closer to softening temperature. The minimum pH value for the alkaline solution is >10. We recommend using our DPA Detergent for making the alkaline solution.

The DPA Detergent is sold seperately from the DPA-100 filament.

 

Bicycle Helmet by Neomek

 

Detergent disclaimer

The detergent, dissolved in water, produces a mild alkaline which usually, together with the dissolved support material, can (in limited quantities) be disposed of via the wastewater. Please check your local regulations. You can acquire our waste profile datasheet by contacting support@colorfabb.com

Availability

DPA-100 and DPA detergent are available now exclusively from colorFabb’s website. Please note they are to be purchased separately.

DPA-100 is available as a 0.5kg spool and retails at € 120 ex VAT. Click here to head to our webshop.

DPA Detergent can be purchased per 1 kg drum at € 18 ex VAT and can be found here.

You can find all the relevant data sheets on the product pages.

 

Laser Marking PLA

In our effort to bring you the most innovative materials, we release a brand new 3D printing filament today: Laser Marking PLA.

Laser Marking PLA contains a laser-sensitive additive optimized to work within a 980-1064 nm wavelength. The material has been tested successfully with a Nd:YAG- and fiber lasers. Laser marking PLA will not work with CO2 lasers. A proper laser is required to use this filament.

Laser Marking PLA is available now and ships from stock! (Click here!)

Our latest filament innovation makes laser markings more stunning than ever! One great application can be to create mementos and souvenirs, or give your 3D print an extra touch with a very special message:

Another great application is to create bar codes and QR codes, as well as other unique product information on items that were produced in a limited series. It gives your products a more professional and distinguished look:

 

The material features all the benefits you already know from a regular PLA material. Ease of printing on many platforms, no warping when printing large parts and very good fine detail 3D printing. Laser Marking PLA is our first step into laser marking materials for FDM printers and are interested to know what our community needs are with regards to these materials.

Laser Marking PLA is available in a light grey color to start with, close to RAL 9018 but not an exact match.

(An actual representation of laser marking)

Our unique filament has various advantageous over conventional marking technologies:

  • Markings are permanent, waterproof, wear and heat resistant, lightfast and resistant to chemicals,
  • Flexibility in marking designs,
  • No pre or post-treatment required.

Laser Marking PLA is available now as 750 grams spools and part of our colorFabb Labs program where we release new innovative filaments that meet very specific needs. Click here to go directly to our webshop.

 

(Not an actual representation of laser marking)

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.

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

PA Neat

We proudly announce our new addition in our range of functional filaments: PA Neat. A brand new unfilled, heat resistant, low warp PA.

PA Neat is a polyamide (nylon) filament with no additives and pure functionality. Hence the name, PA Neat.

Demand for functional filaments is ever growing. The base PA formulation is similar to the PA_CF Low Warp we released last year, but without the carbon fiber. This also means that this material is much less abrassive then the previous version and plays nice with your nozzles.

Let’s compare PA with PLA, still the most popular material in the market. PLA is Poly Lactic Acid with a heat distortion temperature (HDT) of 45 degrees C. It is not temperature resistant and fairly brittle. Although easy to print, it lacks real functionality for most applications. PA (polyamide) on the other hand has a continuous service temperature of 120C thus highly temperature resistant and tough. This makes it a perfect material for the professional user to make durable prints that need to perform.

Now wait, doesn’t PA warp like crazy? Well, it used to, but we fixed that and warping is only minimal with our new PA Neat.

At colorFabb we have a well-equipped 3d printing studio with many popular 3d printers. Our grade of PA Neat Low Warp has been tested using various 3D printers, which has resulted in the following recommended settings:

Adviced 3d printing temperature:
265C-290C

Adviced 3d print speed:
30 – 40 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary):
ambient – 50C

For heated glass plate buildsurface we can recommend using 3DLac for extra adhesion.

Cooling fan
0% fan cooling is adivesed to achieve best possible layer to layer adhesion. If a geometry needs cooling a maximum for 50% regular fan speed is advised.

Please note: Due to high stiffness of 2.85mm filament we recommend users to use spoolmounts which have some friction between spool and holder, to prevent unspooling of filament.

The filament may absorb moisture from the environment. If absorbed moisture levels are too high, users will see excessive oozing of material on travelmoves and rough outer surface of printed parts. Drying is advised using filament dryers, drying temperature set at 70-80C for 4-6 hours.

We all love PLA and we still see a lot of PLA coming on the market. At colorFabb we only look for added value (like with Color on Demand) or for functionality like we do with PA Neat – a truly functional solution.

PA Neat is available now in our webshop. It ships daily from stock and worldwide.

Direct webshop link: https://colorfabb.com/pa-neat

PLA Semi Matte Black

Today we announce the launch of a new filament: PLA Semi-Matte Black

When developing our semi-matte PLA 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. The brand new PLA Semi-Matte Black 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.

The example below shows the difference between PLA Economy Black and PLA Semi-Matte Black. The part was printed on the Prusa I3 MK2s using the material switch option. The entire part was printed with 210C.

Left: PLA Economy Black / Right: PLA Semi Matte Black

If you’re looking to upgrade your 3D printed projects to the next level, our PLA Semi-Matte will do the trick.

Design by Eggnot: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2376777

PLA Semi-Matte 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.

Design by PRATRIK: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2268356

 

PLA Semi-Matte Black is available now. Click on the image below to go directly to our webshop:

XL spools and samples are available as well.

nGen Transparent Colors

This season has nGen written all over it. Right after our very successful launch of the long awaited nGen_LUX last week are adding new colors to our “regular” nGen portfolio. And they are all transparent colors!

In the past two years we have had quite some demand for transparent colors in the nGen range. As from today we offer the following colors:

Twisty Vase by TimLParis: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1371418

The colors are added to a rich mix of 17 colors, bringing the total to 23 colors of nGen filament you can choose from as from today! With nGen Transparent colors you can print objects that have a great shine and stand out from the crowd, even from far away.

nGen is a true all-round material suitable for most day to day 3D printing activities. At the core of its reliability is the special chemical make-up of the Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer, which results in a good melt stability. From pellet to filament to 3D print, nGen retains its material properties very well, meaning more stable results with less waste of time and material.


Poly Bracelet by 3dfactorytlv: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:415835

It was launched over two years ago and has been a hit ever since. This is not without reason. It is true all-round material suitable for most day to day 3D printing activities. Its chemical make up ensures a very consistent quality. An advantage over PLA is its elevated temperature resistance: 80 degrees instead of 45 degrees, so even in hotter climates (or a hot summer day) the material holds up extremely well. Below is a comparison chart of several of the Amphora based filaments compared to commodity materials like ABS and PLA.

You can read more on our dedicated landing page, our blog about co-polyesters or our most recent blog revisiting this filament.

Our brand new nGen transparent colors are available now in our webshop and ship from stock. Click here to go directly to our webshop. Samples will be available end of next week.

Faceted Bowl and Vase by billbo1958: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2230232

 

Also available: nGen_LUX, our brand new luxurious high-end filament. Read more about what makes this filament so special here.

nGen_LUX is here

It’s finally here… We proudly present our brand new filament nGen_LUX.

Custom design by colorFabb

nGen_LUX is a unique development based on our best selling co-polyester nGen, made with Eastman Amphora AM3300 3d Polymer. The excellent clarity of the base AM3300 makes this material uniquely suited for the extremely rare pigment used in nGen_LUX.

It is our new standard in how a 3D printed object can look. It is the filament for the users who wants to bring something extraordinary their work. It is the filament that needs to give that added value.

Polygon Vase by Antonin Nosek (EDGEdesign): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2755758

 

Carved Stone Vase Pair by davvyk: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2181381

At colorFabb we are always looking to meet our customer’s needs and offer filaments with added value. The aesthetics of nGen_LUX allow for a new step in production and prototyping, especially for cosmetics, packaging, interior parts, electronics housings and many more applications.

The “Lux” not only stands for luxurious – which is definitely the look of the prints – but also refers to the unit of illumination used worldwide. And light is what makes this filament truly special. The material uses diffuse reflection to scatter light in all directions. For the eye it’s nearly impossible to spot layering, even at 0.2mm layerheight. nGen_LUX allows users to print visually appealing models without the need of post processing. nGen_LUX features all the characteristics of our regular nGen: good chemical stability, elevated temperature resistance (85C) and thus allows users to print creations that are functional, durable, efficient and attractive.

Printed at 0.2mm

Vase by Kristaps Politis (KRISP3D): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2519263

nGen_LUX is the first special filament based on nGen and the second one in our range of co-polyesters after XT-CF20, our carbon fibre enforced filament based on colorFabb_XT.

 

Quick facts

Material: colorFabb nGen_LUX

Diameter Tolerance: ± 0.05 mm

Density: 1.2 g•cm-3

Glass Transition Temperature: 85C

Adviced 3d printing temperature: 220-240C
Adviced 3d print speed: 40-70 mm/s
Advised Heated bed: 75-85C

Villa Desk Plant Pot by David Payne (Qrome): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2779537

 

Colors

We initially launch 5 colors, with more to come in the next few months. The colors we selected to begin with are:

Champagne Gold

This pale shade of gold reminds of the subtle and unmistakably beautiful color of champagne. It’s elegant and classy and will add instant luxury to any 3D printing project.

Diamond Black

Stylish and luxurious, our Diamond Black looks like diamond dust has used during the production of this filament. A beautiful black is combined with a rich shade of sparkles, resulting in the ultimate black filament.

Regal Violet

Violet is the color of majesty, luxury and extravagance and thus perfectly suited for nGen_LUX. Make your prints stand out with a lustrous, rich cherry like violet – perfectly suited for making the most amazing final parts.

Star Yellow

A bright yellow gold, with loads of sparkly goodness that seems to be forged inside a star. A highly visible color that looks great from afar and even better up close. This might be the brightest yellow gold we’ve seen in a filament.

Nature Green

Green means positive. Green means life. Green means nature. Bring an extraordinary and unique look to your creations. This shade of green is a mix of the most amazing emerald green and decent amount of what looks like fairy dust.

As mentioned there will be more colors coming up! Stay tuned.

nGen_LUX is available for ordering now. Shipping starts on Monday February 26th. RRP is € 66.07 / € 79.95 (excl / incl VAT) for 750 grams of filament.

Click here to go directly to our webshop.

 

Tips & Tricks

Build platform

nGen_LUX gives the best results on a heated build platform, 75C to about 85C is usually needed for proper adhesion to a glass plate. Optionally users could decide to use products such as 3DLac to improve adhesion.

Printing on a cold bed is possible for small to medium sized parts but not advised for large parts which will be prone to warping.

 

Cooling

Too much cooling will create brittle parts with bad layer-to-layer adhesion. Therefor we recommend starting with 50% cooling. It’s always best to print with the least amount of cooling to get the best possible layer-to-layer adhesion.

 

The brand new nGen_LUX fits perfectly in colorFabb’s portfolio that consists of both functional and aesthetical filaments.  Pictures can say more than a thousand words, but prints made with nGen_LUX have to be seen!

nGen_LUX was announced during the TCT in Birmingham last year. Originally planned for release in November 2017 we had to postpone the release to ensure a high quality filament. The audience at the show was unanimous with praise when they saw the printed parts we had there. Best reaction of them all: “This just looks too good!”

nGen_LUX is based on our trusted bestseller nGen. We have been testing the filament in our print lab on the most popular printers in the market right now: the Prusa i3, both the Stacker S2 and S4, the Lulzbot TAZ 6 and Mini, the Robo R2 and C2, the Ultimaker range of printers and the Mass Portal Pharaoh. Rest assured that if your printer works with nGen (and most of them with a heated bed do) you can achieve the stellar results we have seen so far.

Origami Vase by Kristaps Politis (KRISP3D): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2500119

 

PA-CF Low Warp

Today we proudly announce the release of PA-CF Low Warp, a carbon fiber infused polyamide material with the mechanical properties of a PA6 and excellent printability because of extremely low warp. This new filament, which will be available for pre-order as from now and will start shipping as soon as tomorrow, is the first material developed under our new partnership with LEHVOSS Group.

The material can be printed on desktop FFF 3D printers, which have a temperature range of at least 260°C on the hot-end and the ability to mount an abrasive resistant nozzle. PA-CF Low Warp excels in tensile and impact strength and allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. The formulation has been modified to reduce uptake of moisture and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point compared to unmodified PA6. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less affected by moisture then most other nylon filaments available in the market.

The material shows good results when printed at ambient temperature, or cold bed. The advised processing temperature for this material is set between 260C and 280C. You can find more information about the printability of PA-CF Low Warp on our dedicated landing page.

PA-CF low warp is available for pre-order now and will start shipping tomorrow.

Visit our webshop

“The ability to print engineering level materials on any desktop 3D printer is very exciting. In most cases engineering materials can be very challenging to print, but what we’ve seen from our tests on several popular 3D printers is that the PA-CF Low Warp has excellent properties and can even be printed without warping on a build plate at ambient temperature. This is huge value for a material which is known to be difficult to print.”, said Ruud Rouleaux, director at colorFabb B.V.

“We are excited that colorFabb have chosen our materials for their high-performance PA filaments. With our product line LUVOCOM 3F for extrusion based 3D printing we are focusing in high-performance applications. Our materials enable 3D printing to be used not only for the traditional prototyping applications but also for functional parts and series production. Having an improved layer adhesion and reduced warping, coupled with the high-quality filament technology of colorFabb, makes the whole process reliable and repeatable.”  said Thiago Medeiros Araujo, Market Development 3D Printing at LEHVOSS Group.

As with previous materials we have created a dedicated landing page for this filaments, which you can visit here.

About LEHVOSS Group

The LEHVOSS Group, under the management of Lehmann&Voss&Co., is a group of companies that develops, produces and markets chemical and mineral specialities for various industrial clients. Lehmann&Voss&Co., in Hamburg Germany, was founded in 1894.

LUVOCOM® high-performance compounds as well as the 3D printing materials LUVOSINT® and LUVOCOM® 3F extend the range of applications for plastics and ensure that the products produced from them in many industries are able to reliably fulfil their function, even when subject to stringent requirements. The materials with exactly defined properties are based on almost all available thermoplastics and are tailor-made to individual customer requirements.

 

The Olsson Ruby Nozzle – One nozzle for all materials

Due to the abrassive nature of the filament we recommend the use of hardened nozzles for the best performance of the material and printer. For this reason we are offering the Olsson Ruby Nozzles with the purchase of PA-CF Low Warp. You can find the combined offer here.

We have published about the use of the Olsson Ruby Nozzle before and we are very enthusiastic about the use of this filament combined with abrassive materials like PA-CF Low Warp, but also XT-CF20 and steelFill.

The ruby mounted at the tip assures that even the toughest materials will be printable. It was originally designed for printing with a composite of Boron Carbide (B4C), the third hardest known material in the world. Since most of the Olsson Ruby is made from brass, with its excellent heat conductivity, performance and throughput is first-class.

The Olsson Ruby is manufactured, assembled and tested in a high-quality facility in Sweden. This is why 3DVerkstan – also colorFabb’s partner in the region – guarantees the very best quality and tolerances.

As from now you can purchase the Olsson Ruby Nozzle 0.4mm in combination with PA-CF Low Warp in our webshop.

Full design attributions:

Motorcycle brake lever by Mark3D_GmbH

Fully 3D printed modular RC Sailplane by Walt

Torqueboards Mount Pulley Cover by emancarrillo

C – Beam 20/80 by Mindless

72mm exhaust fan for 3d printer to 3″ hose by BloomingtonFPV