Indicator Light

3D printing is an excellent tool for visual prototyping. Today’s print is a great example of a prototype to give a customer a good look and feel of the part before mass production starts. We printed an indicator light.

Custom in-house design

Printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with both nGen Transparent and PLA Economy Black. Both of them with 0.2mm layer height. nGen was printed at 240⁰C and a bed temp of 75⁰C while PLA Economy was printed a bit cooler, resp. 215⁰C and 55⁰C.

nGen Orange Transparent was recently added, as well as five other transparent colors in our nGen portfolio – bringing the total number of available colors to 23.

For another great use of nGen transparent filament, check out the blog earlier this week where we printed a working traffic light.

With our nGen Transparent colors you can print objects that have a great shine and stand out from the crowd, even from far away. With the right settings you can even print translucent objects to a degree as you can see!

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.

The black part was printed with PLA Economy.

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November 2016. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver. In 2017 we added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.

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.

Traffic Light

Today’s print is a multi-material print since we like to mix up the filaments we have in our ever expanding portfolio. Our intern Sven Hacken went to work and designed a fully functional traffic light!

Design by Sven Hacken / CLOUD3D: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2826057

And the funny thing is: it works like a charm!

All parts were made on the Ultimaker 2, 2+ and 3. Below is a listing of the materials and settings we used:

[table id=13 /]

The variety of materials used is exemplary of the work Sven is doing in our print lab. Material of choice for the opaque, rigid parts was PLA Economy. For the transparent parts the obvious choice was our new line of transparent nGen colors and even nGen_FLEX was needed for the base feet.

For the light inside, Sven used a USB camping light (link here).

 

We recently added 6 new transparent colors to our portfolio of nGen filaments:

These six 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. With the right settings you can even print translucent objects to a degree as you can see!

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.

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November 2016. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver. In 2017 we added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.

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.

The small feet on the bottom were printed with nGen_FLEX. nGen_FLEX was our very first step into flexible filaments. Our main focus before had been rigid and stiff materials, but we found that we should add a functional filament to our portfolio that met the needs of our users. Our co-operation with Eastman Chemical Company has lead to the release in the fall of 2016 of nGen_FLEX – made with Eastman Amphora FL6000.

nGen_FLEX is a semi-flexible filament with a Shore A hardness of 95. This enables users with the Bowden tube printer (like Ultimakers, for instance) to print with this filament without an effort. Of course the user can influence how flexible a print should feel by adjusting infill and perimeter settings. nGen_FLEX is temperature resistant to about 130C. That means 3D printed objects can be steam sterilized at 121C which is a great asset for medical / laboratory environments.
You can read more in our recent blog post where we revisited nGen_FLEX.

Candy dispenser

First world problems arose at the office when candy was lying around freely. First world solutions were found by printing a candy dispenser. Of course it has to stand out anywhere and we just so happened to have the right filament for the job: nGen_LUX

Original design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2636622 (no candy included)

Originally designed by HelioxLab, we found it necessary to adjust the reservoir a bit to contain more candy. Because more is always better when candy is involved [citation needed] . For the most parts we used nGen_LUX and for the reservoir regular nGen Clear. All parts were printed on the Ultimaker 2+. The settings used were:

Layerheight: All parts except reservoir were printed at 0.2mm – which already results in a stunning surface quality with nGen_LUX. The reservoir was printed at 0.5mm and with 150% material flow. For the print speed we used the standard nGen speed for the nGen_LUX parts and once again the reservois was the exception; we used 75% of the standard nGen speed for that one.

Printing temperatures were uniform for the entire print. Printing at 240⁰C with the print bed at a comfortable 75⁰C

Yes, printed at 0.2mm layer height.

We used three of five nGen_LUX colors currently available: Star Yellow, Nature Green and Regal Violet.

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. 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.

It is now available in 5 awesome colors:

nGen_LUX 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. 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. Believe us when we say that the photos don’t do the prints real justice…

 

 

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. It can be printed with the very same settings as nGen.

Click here to go directly to our webshop. For a bit more information, click here.

 

 

Another very cool print we made recently with nGen_LUX is Project Unicorn. Click the image below for the story behind that print!

Action sensor

When sports meets 3D printing… We have all seen those exciting images during sports games that are repeated over and over: that very cool angle just behind the goal or up close with the ball. Those images need to be captured. French company Action Sensor specializes in making the cameras and mounts for this very application.

As per Action Sensor’s comments:

“This camera installed on the top of the basketball basket records and tweets automatically (or moderated to be adapted to the player, sponsor, …) the most interesting few seconds of the Basket Ball games, when the team scores (automatic ball detection, automatic recording).

Thanks to nGen based on Amphora AM3300 and nGen_Flex based on Amphora FL6000, both brand materials from Eastman Chemical Company, durability in harsh environment can be achieved. First system has been installed more than 6 months ago and is working daily since.”

The parts connecting the aluminum profile are made with nGen_FLEX, which is perfectly suited to resist to the impact of the ball without breaking. Rigidity has been finetuned thank to the infill ratio.

These parts have been printed on Ultimaker 2+ (nGen_Flex and nGen) and Prusa i3  (nGen) in no time thank to the good and fast printability of both filaments.

You can find more information about the Action Sensor on their website:

http://www.action-sensor.com/

 

About nGen

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.

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.

Recently we added 6 bright transparent colors to our nGen portfolio, bringing the total to 23 colors. All these colors are available now in our webshop and ship from stock. Click here to go directly to our webshop.

 

About nGen_FLEX

nGen_FLEX was our very first step into flexible filaments. Our main focus before had been rigid and stiff materials, but we found that we should add a functional filament to our portfolio that met the needs of our users. Our co-operation with Eastman Chemical Company has lead to the release in the fall of 2016 of nGen_FLEX – made with Eastman Amphora FL6000.
nGen_FLEX is a semi-flexible filament with a Shore A hardness of 95. This enables users with the Bowden tube printer (like Ultimakers, for instance) to print with this filament without an effort. Of course the user can influence how flexible a print should feel by adjusting infill and perimeter settings. nGen_FLEX is temperature resistant to about 130C. That means 3D printed objects can be steam sterilized at 121C which is a great asset for medical / laboratory environments.
nGen_FLEX is made for those who are seriously looking for a engineering grade semi-flex material, capable of withstanding high temperatures, good chemical stability and result in tough parts fit for real world use. With nGen_FLEX you won’t need to compromise too much on printing speed and the need for specialized flex-extruders is elminated. After the launch we received a lot of acclaim for the filament:
“ with @ColorFabb – prints very easily, on @Ultimaker bowden even!” – Joel Telling
“Very impressed by the flexibility of the filament and its ability to be printed without special extruders.” – Michael Teeuw
“Works quite well for low density parts.” – Matthew Gorton, Printed Solid
“Looking good, great shine!” – Steve Cox
You can find more here. Visit our dedicated landing page for more information:
nGen_FLEX is currently available in Black, Dark Gray and Clear. Click here to head directly to our webshop.

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.

5 Years colorFabb: nGen revisited

We  launched our first filament range, PLA/PHA, in February 2013. In this short, limited series of blogs we look back at some of the materials released in the past five years. Earlier we wrote about woodFill. This second installment looks back at nGen.

 

Our range of nGen colors… with more to come soon!

To talk about nGen is to talk about colorFabb_XT and the start of our co-operation with Eastman Chemical Company. Back in 2013 we got in touch with Eastman Chemical Company from Kingsport, TN. We were looking for new exciting (and most of all, functional) materials to turn into filaments and Eastman was looking for a dedicated partner already in the world of 3D printing. Eastman is a worldwide specialist in co-polyesters and has since launched a range of materials specifically for 3D printing, called Amphora. Check out their website for more information. We signed an agreement to co-operate together early 2014 and went to work. The first filament released, colorFabb_XT, was later that year during the 3D Print Show in London.

colorFabb_XT is a great engineering grade filament that can be used for a lot of applications that need to perform. We found however that there was still a gap between our (or any) PLA filament and filaments like colorFabb_XT. In the summer of 2015 we were vigorously testing with a new raw material that came from Eastman, code name AM3300. The more we tested the more we were convinced this was going to be a material that was going to be a hit with users, old and new. We only didn’t know how big a hit it would become.

We decided to call this new filament “nGen” – next Generation. We believed then (and still do) that this filament was a next step for 3D printing materials. It was our goal to bring a filament to the market that has functional properties, looks astonishingly good and prints like a dream.

After a small launch in November of that year we went big and launched with Aleph Objects, makes of the excellent Lulzbot printers, at their stand at the CES Show in January of that year.

Lulzbot stand at the CES 2016, Las Vegas

nGen 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 or our blog about co-polyesters.

 

Lulzbot mascotte Rocktopus printed with 21kg of nGen on the CES 2017

nGen is an amazing material which enables users to create parts with gorgeous detail and the benefit of long term stability. Don’t just take our word for it. Below are some of the reviews that our users posted in our webshop:

“Its just the perfect Filament for me!”

“Printing as easy as PLA, but with better material properties.”

“nGen is very predictable and strong.”

“nGen is always my “go to” filament. It just prints beautifully. It’s strong, handles heat well, reliable, and just looks great.”

“… prints like butter 🙂 and the finish is absolutely perfect.”

“The material has good print bed adhesion, low warping and low shrinkage. Easy to print.”

 

Beyond our initial goals to create a filament that prints well and holds up to every day 3D printing tasks we have since found out more properties of the filament, giving it a great advantage. For instance, we recently came across a business case where a printed object made with nGen has been under water in the ocean for 16 months! And it did not loose its functional properties!

And you can get highly detailed prints as well:

_dsc0029_smaller

Model balustrade. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/detailed-balustrade/

Although nGen is a true star in our portfolio, it doesn’t feel too good to perform a supporting role from time to time. Literally. In combination with colorFabb_XT nGen filament can also be used as a breakaway support. Complex designs like the drill case below do need support material and we found that nGen did a great job in that department.

Drill case. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/drill-case/

 

Another great material it works extremely well with is our nGen_FLEX:

Pliers (click image for the gif to play). Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/pliers

 

Coupler (click image for the gif to play). Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/coupler/

 

It is not only materials nGen plays well with. It also performs extremely well on a wide range of printers.

On the Lulzbot TAZ 6. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/hyper-soccer-ball/

 

colorfabb_ngen_mixee_wallet-3

On the Ultimaker . Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/mixee-wallet/

 

On the Robo R2. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ngen-robo-r2/

turbine_prop

On the Leapfrog HS. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/turbine-prop/

 

Below is a small selection of varied prints we have posted about in the past two years:

20160912_114524

RC 180 degree camera housing. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/rc-180-degree-hd-camera-printed-ngen/

 

ngen-saturn

Saturn V Rocket. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ngen-saturn-v-rocket/

 

Robot arm. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/robot-arm/

Educational Brake Caliper. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/caliper/

 

Eccentrically Cycloidal Drive Mode. Original post:  https://learn.colorfabb.com/eccentrically-cycloidal-drive-model/

 

Universal Bottle Opener. Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ubo/

 

colorfabb_ngen_flexbot-quadcotper-v2-0-3

Flexbot quadcopter: https://learn.colorfabb.com/flexbot-quadcopter/

 

More than once we have heard from our users that after trying nGen they have never looked back at PLA. And why should they? nGen is PLA and more.

And we are not done yet with nGen yet. Next up: nGen_LUX. We have used the basis of nGen to develop a new material that will look like no other 3D printing filament. We will release that one this very month! Stay also tuned for more nGen colors coming soon… We have six more colors lined up for you.

 

 

Eager to try out nGen? Now is the right time to place your order. During this month, February 2018, we celebrate our fifth anniversary by giving every fifth spool you order in our webshop for free. Click on the banner below for more info:

We also run a contest: post your favorite colorFabb print online, tag us and use hashtag #5yearscolorfabb and maybe you will win a value pack with 16 spools of our filaments! Again, more info by clicking the banner below:

All blogs and articles about our fifth anniversary can be found by clicking here.

Robot arm

Who doesn’t like robotics? We printed our own robotic arm last year and it is always great to see our filaments converted into cool prints like robotics! Enter Carl van Heezik, teacher and researcher at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. He wanted to design a robot that looked like a real industrial robot and should function as an inspiration for students and makers, especially since it can be made for about 10 euros!

The robot has 3-degrees of freedom, enough to pick up bouncing balls. Most industrial robotic arms have 3 additional degrees of freedom to orient the gripper at the correct angle. For spherical shaped objects this is not needed.

You can download the STL files here. Carl also created a series of videos to explain the process, the first one below:

The three instruction videos he has made, are now online. The first video is a demo of the robot, the second shows the assembly of the gripper and the third shows the assembly of the arm.

Carl exlained how he got into 3D printing: “The price level of rapid development tools like 3D printing and CNC milling has come to a point where everyone can afford it. 3D printing technology has evolved rapidly during the last decade. Especially the advancements in materials, such as the filaments from companies like colorFabb, make 3D printing interesting. For students, educators and startups there is free professional design software, like Autodesk Fusion 360, which I used for this design. You will only appreciate 3D printing if you explore its possibilities and limitation.”

Carl is very clear about his material choice, our nGen: “Several years ago I visited the colorFabb factory where I talked to some engineers and was impressed by their knowledge about polymers. nGen was introduced as a new filament and I got some samples. I used it to print some old designs and noticed a drastically improved result.”

He lists the following advantages of nGen over other materials he tried:

  • It does not have the nasty toxic smell of ABS
  • It has better material properties than PLA
  • The consistent quality make for predictable results
  • Printing on a PEI bed results in good adhesion and no tools needed to remove the print

For the parts he used the following settings:

We thank Carl for sharing his work and using our nGen filament in such an awesome way!

 

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping 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. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

 

#5yearscolorfabb

During this month, February 2018, we celebrate our fifth anniversary by giving every fifth spool you order in our webshop for free. Click on the banner below for more info:

We also run a contest: post your favorite colorFabb print online, tag us and use hashtag #5yearscolorfabb and maybe you will win a value pack with 16 spools of our filaments! Again, more info by clicking the banner below:

All blogs and articles about our fifth anniversary can be found by clicking here.

nGen on the Robo R2

Today we feature not one single print, but rather a filament on a particular printer. As the title vaguely suggests, it’s all about nGen on the Robo R2 today. When we received the Robo R2 for testing purposes we immediately started with nGen instead of the default PLA. And the results are amazing!

Y pipe connector M20/27 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2045452
Material: nGen Gold Metallic – 0.1mm layerheight

The Robo R2 printer is available at colorFabb as from this week. As recently announced we act as Robo’s distributing partner in the Benelux and you can order the Robo R2 now with a free spool of nGen! We feel that the right combination of hardware and material makes for a great user experience and with the Robo R2 combined with our nGen we have once more found this synergy.

With a printer like the new Robo R2 you have a reliable machine that works flawlessly with our nGen filament, enabling end users to make durable and good-looking parts! The compact, but professional looking printer allows for prints of 20x20x25cm & accepts a lot of different materials. Together with Robo we are currently testing all of our materials on this printer.

 

The Robo R2 is currently available in our brand new webshop and we ship from stock. For € 1399 (excluding VAT) you get a terrific printer with a free spool of nGen filament to make that awesome print right away!

If you are at the TCT in Birmingham this year, do not hesitate to drop by. We are in stand H39 and one of the featured printers is the R2! Visit us to see this printer in action, look at our latest offerings or just have a chat!

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping 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!

Shelf Bracket by Starscream83 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1428665
Material: nGen Red – 0.2mm layerheight

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.

Right Fractured Lateral Tibial Condyle By Hamish Mead https://www.youmagine.com/designs/right-fractured-lateral-tibial-condyle
Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight

Batman by LeoDDC https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:352540
Material: nGen Dark Gray – 0.2mm layerheight

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. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews.

 

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

 

Vase with the MOARstruder

When speed matters it is hard to beat the Lulzbot TAZ 6 in combination with the MOARstruder. 3D printing is a great tool to create on the spot, but it can sometimes be painfully slow. Aleph Objects, the makers of the Lulzbot 3D printers, have acknowledged this and released the MOARstruder, which is advertised as Bigger, Faster, Stronger. The LulzBot TAZ MOARstruder Tool Head is a high output tool head with an extra-long heater block, dual print cooling fans, and a 1.2 mm diameter nozzle. These features enable high-speed printing and tough 3D printed objects.

As their reselling partner we have been testing extensively with this tool head, designed for prints that need to be finished fast. As a test case we chose the Curved Honeycomb Vase by Eggnot:

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

We printed the vases with nGen Clear on the Lulzbot TAZ 6. With the Moarstruders big 1.2mm nozzle we printed this vase with only a single perimeter in vase mode, in under 2 hours.

To give you an idea about the scale, let’s place the vase on one of our XL spools (30cm diameter):

 

 

 

About nGen

 nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping 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. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews.

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide. Also, check out Lulzbot’s webshop for nGen availability.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

 

Lulzbot TAZ 6

Engineers, designers, educators, and makers agree: The LulzBot TAZ 6 is the most reliable, easiest-to-use desktop 3D printer ever, featuring innovative self-leveling and self-cleaning, and a modular tool head design for flexible and multi-material upgrades. With proven 3D printing technology and one of the largest print volumes in its class, the LulzBot TAZ 6 is ready to work.

3D printing is more reliable than ever with the integrated automatic bed leveling system, all metal LulzBot v2 Hot End, and heated PEI print surface.  With the all metal hot end, you can take advantage of the cutting edge market for new materials. Perfect for both large and small objects, the heated PEI build surface keeps your 3D printed objects in place when hot and releases when cool. With Cura LulzBot Edition, you have hundreds of quickprint profiles built in for seamless 3D printing.

The Lulzbot TAZ 6 is now available in our webshop at € 3.025 including VAT / € 2.500 excluding VAT.

Not sold yet? The TAZ 6 was recently reviewed by Richard Horne (RichRap) and Joel Telling (3DPrintingNerd). See their videos below:

You can find Richard’s full blog here.

And of course Joel Telling‘s review:

Richard and Joel have convinced you, we’re sure, but we’ll throw in a bit more:

  • free shipping in Europe
  • 4 (four!) free spools of our nGen filament!

Interested in the Lulzbot TAZ 6 and the MOARstruder? Contact us at sales@colorfabb.com to discuss the options.

Back to school kit

At colorFabb we have stressed again and again and again and again that it is more fun to print the things you need than to buy them. It is September 1st and for most of the younger colorFabb users it is back to school again. No worries, younger colorFabb users, this will change when you grow up: you will go to work instead of school.

Anyhow, we thought it would be fun to print a few much needed things that are useful for everybody heading back to school: a drafting set and a pencil case. For these prints we used nGen, our all-round 3D printing filament made with Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer.

Back to Basics Drafting Set by asbeg
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:152531

Nested Pencil Case by Gyrobot
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:146792

Both prints were printed with nGen on the Ultimaker 2+ at 0.2mm layer height. Temperature was 230 degrees C with the heated bed at 85 degrees C.

The protractor handle was printed with nGen Red, the print was stopped and we finished the numbers, etc. with nGen Black.

Material of choice is our trusted nGen filament. nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping 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. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews and is on sale right now! (Sale occurs at the moment of publishing and only for a limited time).

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA: