Flexible pliers

Or: How to print pliers with two materials in one print. We’re having a lot of fun with our dual nozzle printers here in the brand new colorFabb HQ and today we showcase once again a great print with two different materials. Yesterday we used nGen as a support material for a drill case print in colorFabb_XT (click here for that post). Today we use nGen again in combination with nGen_FLEX. We present you the flexible pliers:

Design by: I-lab Toulon (modified by colorFabb for dual material printing)

The original concept is from a German institute that the I-Lab team re-worked. Originally intended for a single material (which works perfectly fine we found), we thought it would be more interesting to up the ante, print with two materials and use ngen_FLEX Dark Gray where it matters most while printing the rest with the more rigid nGen Silver Metallic.

This original design creates a completely functional part from a single print, straight from the 3D printer. It brings out the functionality of nGen_FLEX to its fullest by using different internal structures to create more rigid and more flexible sections in a single part.

UPDATE: the files to print your very own Flexible Pliers are now online! You can find the I-Lab design on Thingiverse and Youmagine. Our remixed version for dual material can be found here.

 

For both prints we used the BCN3D Sigma. They took only a couple of hours and we printed with a 0.15mm layer height.

We have printed before with nGen and nGen_FLEX (here) and the (layer) adhesion between these two materials is excellent! Dual extrusion printers like the BCN3D Sigma, the new Ultimaker 3 and the upcoming Stacker S2 (keep your eyes open for that one!) allow for great freedom to design and print truly functional parts.

nGen was released a little over a year ago and is an all-round filament which has many advantages over, say, a 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.

nGen_FLEX was released in September 2016 at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

You can read the initial reception of nGen_FLEX here.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we published last summer: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are available now in our webshop (click here or here) and via our network of distributors and resellers. Click here for a reseller closest to you.

Drill Case

With dual nozzle printers come great possibilities. Two colors, two different materials even. And what if we had a great support material? And what if we already happen to have such a material in our current portfolio? In between moving our entire company our print lab team started testing with using nGen as a support material for colorFabb_XT. A first test resulted in easy break away support with minimal scarring on the model.

For this test we used the GrabCAD’s Drill Case, which was originally designed for injection molding.

Design: https://grabcad.com/library/drill-case-1

We used the dual nozzle Ultimaker 3 with 0.2mm layer height for this print. The surface finish of the colorFabb_XT is fantastic.

Printing a part designed for injection molding is challenging. But with the right settings and some material experimentation we got a great result. To all designers and engineers modeling for injection molding: checkout what you can do with an Ultimaker 3 and colorFabb materials. These results give much more freedom for designing for 3D printing and using functional materials for the best results.

We launched colorFabb_XT over 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.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications and now being a support material is one of them!

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.

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

 

Both nGen and colorFabb_XT are available in our webshop. You can find more information about co-polyesters in general in last year’s blog. Below is a handy chart which explains the differences between the rigid co-polyesters in our current portfolio:

Spool holders

We have a lot of spools in our print lab. We print a lot on 30+ printers and need our filaments handy at a moments notice. That’s why we use the Filament Duck spool holder a lot! These ones were printed with nGen.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1862680 

Recently we printed these for our big PLA Economy spools and now we have made a remix of Bold’s original design. We made all these prints with nGen on the Lulzbot Mini in (and for!) our own print lab.

This version of the filament duck fits our regular spool size.

Now you can place your spools anywhere independently of the spool holder on your printer, easily swap them or even store them on this holder so it’s ready to go whenever you need it.

It’s also really usefull when printing with more than one material or color, allowing easy access to each individual spool.

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, handy gadgets for the print lab 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 together with Lulzbot), 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 and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide, as well as Lulzbot themselves.

Keep an eye out towards our sales section, which has nGen filaments on sale on a weekly basis.

Low Poly R2D2

This is the droid you’re looking for!

We see a rapid rise of dual extrusion prints: two colors or even two materials in one single print. BCN 3D, makers of the Sigma (one of the highest rated printers on 3D Hubs) and our distributor in Spain and Portugal, was kind enough to send us a new set of 0.6mm full metal hot-ends and take them for a test drive. We chose Agustin Flowalistik‘s low poly design for R2D2 and printed with nGen White and Light Blue.

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/low-poly-r2d2-and-c3po-dual-extrusion-version

After installing & calibrating these we saw great results with nGen on the Sigma. We printed at a 0.2mm layer height at 40mm/s. The bed temperature used was 85C and we kept the hot-end temp at a steady 230C.

Agustin shares a lot of high quality models and is also very good at designing dual extrusion parts. We’re fans of his work! Check out his page and Twitter feed for his latest designs and low poly work!

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.

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 and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

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

Wireframe Skull Pencil Holder

Last week we were at the CES in Las Vegas as Lulzbot’s material partner. It was a fantastic show where we met a lot of our users. It was great meeting all of you! And once again we saw several Lulzbot Mini’s and TAZ 6 printers flawlessly printing with nGen during the entire run of the show. Aside from printing during the show, the giant (21kg) Rocktopus was printed with nGen as well and quite a showstopper!

For today’s print of the day we go for small instead of huge on the Lulzbot Mini. For this model we chose the Wireframe Skull Pencil Holder, designed by Phil Nelson.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1388237

We printed these parts on the Lulzbot Mini in our printlab with nGen Purple and nGen Transparent. The height of these prints is only 4cm!! The layer height for these detailed prints was 0.08mm. The combination of the Lulzbot printers and our nGen filaments allow for extreme details.

nGen was launched with Lulzbot a year ago during the CES show. It has been a proven hit ever since and one of our best selling filaments.

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.

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, Lulzbot’s webshop and our distributor network worldwide.

 

Multi-material coupler

Multiple material prints will be more common in the new year. We have several great printers that not only print two colors in one print, but also two materials. This expands the possibilities of 3D printing and give the maker more freedom to make functional products! Today we used both nGen and nGen_FLEX in one single print:

Design: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/flexible-coupler-using-colorfabb-ngen-flex

Designed by Imaginables from Australia, this coupler was made for a multiple material print and they used PLA with our nGen_FLEX. nGen_FLEX as their YouMagine page states, works very well with regular PLA. We opted to print with nGen ourselves, since the combination with nGen_FLEX has proven to be a match made in 3D heaven.

Our print was made on the recemtly launched Ultimaker 3 at a 0.1mm layer height.

Click the image above to see the flexible filament at work!

nGen was released late last year and is an all-round filament which has many advantages over, say, a 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.

nGen_FLEX was released recently at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora based filaments, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we recently published: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Both nGen and nGen_FLEX are available now in our webshop (click here or here) and via our network of distributors and resellers. Click here for a reseller closest to you (Imaginables also resells colorFabb filaments. Click here and here).

Universal Bottle Opener

The day before Christmas we feature a print that is both functional and, more important, has a backstory. Travis Corbett, under the name In3Designs, has designed the Universal Bottle Opener.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1097099

The reason for designing this bottle opener are best explained in Travis’ own words: “My mother was diagnosed with Cushing syndrome over a year ago. Along with many other symptoms muscle deterioration is one of them. She has been treated and is on the road to recovery but she is still very weak. She was telling me that she had to go to her neighbors house so they could open up a bottle for her. She had a bottle opener but not one that would fit a large bottle. I went through a few different designs but now I have a working version. The “Universal Bottle Opener” or “UBO” can open large juice bottles, sports drink bottles, soda bottles, canned drinks, and pop tops!”

This is a fantastic design and we love how 3D printing is being used this way! Keep up the good work, Travis!

For this print we used our all-round nGen filament and printed two bottle openers simultaneously on the Stacker S4 with 2 print heads.

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. You can find out more about nGen by visiting our dedicated landing page.

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.

The printer used was the Stacker S4. With up to 4 print heads working simultaneously, he Stacker is a perfect printer for large scale projects and small series production. You can find more information by visiting our website: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/

 

 

 

Coke bottles

Our nGen filament is a great material for visual prototyping. Recently we used nGen to print Coke bottles in various colors:

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1594463

We printed these bottles on the Swiss made Delta Tower with a 0.2mm layer height. The smooth surface and consistency of the filament, make nGen an ideal material to print large prototypes with. These models were scaled up to nearly 30cm.

We printed this model in 6 colors, but did you know that we offer nGen in 17 colors (including a clear one)?

You can find the full portfolio of nGen in our webshop.

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. We work closely with Eastman to bring the best materials to the market. Find more about co-polyesters, what they are and what the advantages are by visiting our previous blog.

Ever since launching late last year nGen has seen a rapid adoption amongst experienced and new users alike. An early review by 3D Printing For Beginners still holds true to this very day. The ease of use and higher temperature resistance (twice that of PLA!) should make this a go-to filament for everybody who wants to get more from their print.

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. Find out how to print with nGen in our handy tutorial.

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.

You can find more information about nGen by clicking here.

 

Until the end of the year you can benefit from the 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.

Death Star ornament

That’s not a moon, it’s a … Christmas ornament. Lighten up the Christmas tree with some Star Wars holiday spirit! A perfect material is our nGen filament and a touch of glowFill.

Design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:117733

Designed by plainolddave (based on an original idea by Galen Erso, but without the weak spot), the files can be found on Scarif itself, aka Thingiverse. There is no need to go on a dangerous mission. Just click the link and transmit the files to your own rebellion stronghold. We printed the ornaments with nGen light gray and gray metallic for the most part and the trenches with glowFill on the Ultimaker 2+ at a 0.12mm layer height.

nGen is a great all-round filament for every day use.

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.

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.

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

glowFill was launched over 2 years ago and is part of our range of special filaments. It is a fantastic filament to lighten up these dark, wintery days. Great to make a full print with or perfect to accentuate a print like we made to give it an extra special touch!