Car parts made with PA-CF Low Warp

There are as many uses for our filaments as there are 3D printers and users in this world. We love to come across great applications for our materials. Applications we could not think of when we developed and produced the filaments. Or could think of but never thought we would actually see it. Enter John Pham from Brisbane, Australia, who prints car parts with our PA-CF Low Warp filament.

 

3D printed velocity stacks, all images made by John

We came across these prints on Reddit and contacted John about the amazing quality and practical use of his prints.

Check out the original Reddit post!

John considers himself a hobbyist and has printed about 10kg of PA-CF Low Warp. He has declared it his favorite filament so far to use.

Spacer and velocity stacks, aluminium inserts used to add strength to the parts

 

John is a 3D printing enthusiast who happens to love cars. He adds: “I took this opportunity to try design and print as many parts for my modified Mazda MX-5 as possible. My main printer is a modified Tevo Tornado with a E3D Titan Aero hotend/extruder and 0.5 mm NozzleX, I print at 0.2mm and 0.1mm layer height depending on the parts function. My printing material of choice for functional car parts has always been carbon fiber nylon, and in my opinion colorfabb PA-CF produces the best results. Consistent printing results for myself and customers, good strength, excellent resistance to heat, fuels and oils. It also prints very easily, purple gluestick on 55C glass, no warping, flawless supports, excellent surface finish and dimensional accuracy.”

As you can see, John has quite the skills to print with our engineering grade filament. PA-CF Low Warp is a carbon fiber infused polyamide material with the mechanical properties of a PA6 and excellent printability because of extremely low warp.

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.

It’s not only the velocity stacks that John printed: “I’ve used colorfabb PA-CF to print intake velocity stacks, bulkhead plates, side mirror mount, bonnet prop, work jigs, mounting brackets, 3D printer parts, and electrical connector housings.”

Visit John’s blog for more of his work!

PA-CF Low Warp was developed and released two years ago with LEHVOSS Group. 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 at colorFabb and ships worldwide from stock.

Curious how to print with PA-CF Low Warp? Here is our tutorial!

 

Disclaimer: 3D printing is subject to various factors: material, processing, printer, settings, etc. Using printed parts like car parts or other parts that are used in real life are at the user’s own risk. We recommend expert level printing, like this example, and extensive testing before use. 

Machine clamp

As we have seen before, 3D printing can be used in many production companies to create machine clamps. By using the right filament (and printer) it is easier, faster and cheaper than ever to optimize a production line so it suits your needs. Whereas 3D printing already has proven itself to shorten the prototype stage during product development, in production it can also bring down time to market and costs, while also adding more flexibility in the process.

This machine clamp was designed by our colorFabb team as a demonstrator during the recent Brabantse Metaaldagen, a tradeshow for the metal industry where we had a stand to demonstrate the added value of FDM/FFF 3D printing for various industries.

The clamp was printed on the Ultimaker 2+ using our PA-CF Low Warp with 100% infill. Print settings:

  • Printing temperature: 260C
  • Print speed: 35mm/s
  • Heated bed: –

We printed with a 0.2mm layer height.

Check out our handy tutorial How to Print with PA-CF Low Warp!

About PA-CF Low Warp

PA-CF Low Warp was launched a little over a year ago. It is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. PA-CF Low Warp excels in tensile and impact strength and allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient mechanical properties.

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. 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.

A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. ColorFabb recommends to using wear resistant nozzles, such as E3D hardened steel nozzle or Olsson Ruby nozzle.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now and ships on spools containing either 700gr of 2kg of filament. Click here to go directly to our webshop.

Functional Design Challenge – Prints

A couple of months ago we challenged our users to come up with a design for us to print. The design had to be functional and to be printed with our highly functional PA-CF Low Warp filament. This Functional Design Challenge was quite a success and we announced 5 winners early July.

One of the perks was that we would print their design and send the prints to them. We have finished the prints and they will be shipped today. Below you can see the results:

 

Brent Heylen / part for the Shell Eco marathon, a school project

Original design:

Printed results:

Pol Guixe / filter box for a Fiat Panda

Original sesign:

Printed results:

 

Peter Roodenburg / Prusa fan shroud

Original design:

Printed results:

Oscar Kogenhop / personal shoe stretcher

Original design:

Printed results:

Jaromir Efler / bashguard for a trail bike

Original design:

Printed results:

All entries were judged by three experienced designers and 3D printers:

  • Steve Cox, UK – 3D printing expert when it comes to our metal filled filaments & much more!
  • Brent Wright, US – founder of LifeNabled and changing lifes by using 3D printing. See some of his amazing work here.
  • Gijs Houdijk, NL – technical development manager at colorFabb, knows 3D printing and our filaments better than you know yourself.

The winners received each 2 spools of PA-CF Low Warp and an Olsson Rubby Nozzle, graciously provided by 3DVerkstan in Sweden. Read more about why you should the Olsson Ruby Nozzle for all abrasive 3D printing materials in our recent blog.

All prints were made on various Ultimaker printers.

 

About PA-CF Low Warp

We launched PA-CF Low Warp late last year. It is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. The formulation has been modified to reduce the uptake of moisture by half compared to PA6 and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less sensitive to moisture than most other nylon filaments available in the market.

This tailormade formulation of polyamide features the mechanical properties of a PA6. Tensile strength was measured at 77,99 MPa and impact strength (notched) was measured at 5,44KJ/m2, test specimens both printed on Ultimaker 2+, 260C 0.1mm layerheight with 100% infill.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. For those looking to print with nylon, moisture is a serious topic. PA-CF low warp has been modified to lower the uptake of moisture and slow down the time it takes to fully saturate by 4 times. In practice this means the filament is quite forgiving and user should be able to print with the material without noticing extreme influences of moisture uptake.

Users can now print high strength material without the need of heated chambers. The materials shows very good results for 3D printed parts compared to injection molded data, with only minimal loss in performance. This is a result of the excellent printability of the material, enabling users to acquire optimal performance on desktop FFF 3d printers.

The Olsson Ruby nozzle

Recently we announced the winners of our Design Challenge. The idea was to send us functional designs that we would print with PA-CF Low Warp, our engineering grade and nylon based filament. The PA-CF Low Warp is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. PA-CF Low Warp excels in tensile and impact strength and allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient mechanical properties.

A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. ColorFabb recommends to using wear resistant nozzles, such as the Olsson Ruby nozzle.

Last week, Swedish 3D specialist 3DVerkstan – our distributor in the Nordic countries contacted us. They were more than happy to provide the five winners of the challenge with an Olsson Ruby Nozzle, which would be added to the the 2 spools of PA-CF Low Warp they were already getting.

The Olsson Ruby nozzles

A fantastic gift and a very useful one as well. The winners, who were contacted about this, were very grateful and they can expect the nozzles with them soon. Thank you, 3DVerkstkan for providing these nozzles!

In a world where 3D printing users require more functional and exotic filaments, we try to keep up with the demands. Although we aim to make sure our filaments work on as many printers as possible, we know that not all materials are a good fit for every printer. Abrasive materials like PA-CF Low Warp, XT-CF20, steelFill and to a lesser extent glowFill wear out the standard brass nozzles too fast.

In the words of Daniel Ljungstig, CEO of 3DVerkstan: “The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. He designed it to be able to print extremely hard materials for scientific research at Uppsala University in Sweden.”

We have seen quite some benefits over the regular brass nozzles that are the current industry standard: The ruby nozzle retains the excellent heat conducting properties of brass, while being extremely resistant to wear. This means that you can print your standard materials as usual, but also very abrasive materials such as PA-CF Low Warp, XT-CF20 and steelFill. Daniel Ljungstig adds: “In addition to this, many of our test users have reported an improved surface quality compared to standard nozzles.” 

The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. You can visit the website here.

It is a well established fact by now that our new PA-CF Low Warp filament is all about functionality. We developed this filament with only one goal: to make sure a lot of users have the ability to print high quality printed parts. Even on a cold bed. PA-CF Low Warp is, due to its stiffness and strength, a perfect material for replacement parts and custom made parts.

The PA-CF Low Warp filament is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continuous use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. Most high heat resistant materials will be difficult to print and require heated chambers and / or heated platforms to keep parts from warping the bottom layer. PA-CF Low Warp shows a very low tendency to warp, even at ambient temperature platform.

Eager to get started? Click here to get the basics on how to print with PA-CF Low Warp.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now in our webshop and ships from stock. We currently stock spools of 700 grams, but as from late next week large spools containing 2kg of material will be available as well.

You can also opt to get a unique bundle package, containing one spool of PA-CF Low Warp and the Olsson Ruby Nozzle 0.4mm in our webshop.

Functional Design Challenge – winners!

Recently we challenged our followers to design a functional part and send it to us. You can read the initial announcement right here. The designs are to be printed with our PA-CF Low Warp filament, an engineering grade nylon based filament which can be printed with virtual no warping – even on a non-heated bed.

We received quite a few responses. All entries were judged by three experienced designers and 3D printers:

  • Steve Cox, UK – 3D printing expert when it comes to our metal filled filaments & much more!
  • Brent Wright, US – founder of LifeNabled and changing lifes by using 3D printing. See some of his amazing work here.
  • Gijs Houdijk, NL – technical development manager at colorFabb, knows 3D printing and our filaments better than you know yourself.

They have taken the month of June to judge the designs and chosen five which will be printed by colorFabb. The winners, mentioned below, will receive the print when ready, 2 spools of PA-CF Low Warp and 15% discount for life in our webshop! Thanks to the jury for taking their time!

Here are the winning designs, in no particular order:

 

Brent Heylen / part for the Shell Eco marathon, a school project

Pol Guixe / filter box for a Fiat Panda

Peter Roodenburg / Prusa fan shroud

Oscar Kogenhop / personal shoe stretcher

Jaromir Efler / bashguard for a trail bike

The parts will be printed over the coming weeks and we will keep you updated on the progress! This blog will be updated with the final results once ready, of course.

 

About PA-CF Low Warp

We launched PA-CF Low Warp late last year. It is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. The formulation has been modified to reduce the uptake of moisture by half compared to PA6 and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less sensitive to moisture than most other nylon filaments available in the market.

This tailormade formulation of polyamide features the mechanical properties of a PA6. Tensile strength was measured at 77,99 MPa and impact strength (notched) was measured at 5,44KJ/m2, test specimens both printed on Ultimaker 2+, 260C 0.1mm layerheight with 100% infill.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. For those looking to print with nylon, moisture is a serious topic. PA-CF low warp has been modified to lower the uptake of moisture and slow down the time it takes to fully saturate by 4 times. In practice this means the filament is quite forgiving and user should be able to print with the material without noticing extreme influences of moisture uptake.

Users can now print high strength material without the need of heated chambers. The materials shows very good results for 3D printed parts compared to injection molded data, with only minimal loss in performance. This is a result of the excellent printability of the material, enabling users to acquire optimal performance on desktop FFF 3d printers.

PA-CF Low Warp Design Challenge

3D printing made functional… by you

We like our challenges and for once we ask you to challenge us. With PA-CF Low Warp we think we have developed one of the most durable and functional filaments in the market. And we want to demonstrate that it. We ask you, the creative community, to send us your designs that we will then print with PA-CF Low Warp.

 

Why PA-CF Low Warp?

We launched PA_CF Low Warp late last year. It is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. The formulation has been modified to reduce the uptake of moisture by half compared to PA6 and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less sensitive to moisture than most other nylon filaments available in the market.

This tailormade formulation of polyamide features the mechanical properties of a PA6. Tensile strength was measured at 77,99 MPa and impact strength (notched) was measured at 5,44KJ/m2, test specimens both printed on Ultimaker 2+, 260C 0.1mm layerheight with 100% infill.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. For those looking to print with nylon, moisture is a serious topic. PA-CF low warp has been modified to lower the uptake of moisture and slow down the time it takes to fully saturate by 4 times. In practice this means the filament is quite forgiving and user should be able to print with the material without noticing extreme influences of moisture uptake.

Users can now print high strength material without the need of heated chambers. The materials shows very good results for 3D printed parts compared to injection molded data, with only minimal loss in performance. This is a result of the excellent printability of the material, enabling users to acquire optimal performance on desktop FFF 3d printers.

 

What are we looking for?

There are filaments for vases and trinkets and there are filaments that need to be functional. This is the latter one. With this design contest we aim for original designs that, when printed, can be used in real life. We’re not going to make it easy for you. Below is a summary what we are looking for:

  • The design needs to be functional
  • The design needs to be for everyday use (in a domestic, business or industrial environment)
  • The design needs to be original (no copy-pasting existing parts without any adjustments – you can however make an existing part “better”)
  • The design needs to be IP-free
  • The design needs to be printable within a day 24-48 hours on a normal printer
  • The application needs to be suitable for the toughness of the filament (nothing that can also be done in, say, PLA)
  • Preferably the application of the print can be done by us, in-house so we can test your design
  • You can send in multiple entries (one by one, please)

 

Who’s judging?

Of all the entries we will receive, a jury will pick out the five best and those will be printed by us. These five winning designs will be picked by a jury of experts and your peers. The jury is:

  • Steve Cox, UK – 3D printing expert when it comes to our metal filled filaments & much more!
  • Brent Wright, US – founder of LifeNabled and changing lifes by using 3D printing. See some of his amazing work here.
  • Gijs Houdijk, NL – technical development manager at colorFabb, knows 3D printing and our filaments better than you know yourself.

Check out our recent blog about printing with PA-CF Low Warp to see some excellent examples of the filament is being used in real life.

What’s in it for you?

For the five entries we choose and will print:

  • You’ll receive the print
  • You’ll receive 2 spools of PA-CF Low Warp filament
  • We’ll share your mad design skills with the world
  • So even if you don’t have a printer, you can have your design(s) printed by our team!
  • All valid entries will receive a 15% discount on colorFabb filaments. For life.

 

How?

The hardest part is desiging… and that is entirely up to you. Remember, we are looking for awesome ideas. After that it’s simple. Click here to go to our form. Fill it out, upload the files and sit back.

You can submit your entry until May 31st 2018. After that we will choose five designs to print and test in real life. We will keep you updated through social media of the progress of the prints, etc.

Repairing parts with PA-CF Low Warp

Another field where 3D printing excels in is the replacement of parts. With the right materials 3D printing is a great tool to extend the life of many everyday items. Crucial to this are various factors like modeling skills (if the file of the part is not readily available) and the right material. A functional filament like our PA-CF Low Warp is a perfect match when it comes that latter part.

About a year ago we posted abouy the laundry dryer part printed with colorFabb_HT:

Original post: https://learn.colorfabb.com/laundry-dryer/

This week we saw two examples on Twitter of users making parts with PA-CF Low Warp, our highly functional engineering grade nylon based filament.

First up is Brent Wright. We recently wrote a blog about the use of 3D printing in the field of prosthetics. Brent has been doing fantastic work at a hospital in Guatamala by printing prosthetics making it more accessible and cheaper for local people. You can read the original blog here.

Turns out that Brent is using his 3D printer for other parts as well:

 

https://twitter.com/lifenabled/status/977729672401379328

Image courtesy of Brent Wright

As you can see the original part is no longer available and instead of replacing the entire bed or having an expensive spare part made, Brent went to work and modeled & printed it. This way one saves money, time and also the environment. A small piece of plastic ensures not only that an entire bed is made obsolete, but a new bed also does not need to be transported through the Guatamalan jungle.

Brent has been using PA-CF Low Warp for a bit now, especially for prosthetics:

And we’re happy he has found yet another use for this great filament!

But the need to repair stuff can be found everywhere in the world. We make a small leap from the jungle of Central America to the UK, where Steve Cox resides. Steve is of course no stranger to 3D printing and colorFabb as his excellent skills with bronzeFill have shown. (Click here and here for examples).

Now, Steve was already working with PA-CF Low Warp (see this thread here for an excellent example) and when the vacuum cleaner broke he had the right material in house to print a new part:

When we contacted Steve about this he said: “I think this particular way of utilising 3D printing is something that should get more publicity, especially as we have such environmental pressures on us now.  I think it can definitely play a part in the circular economy because it puts us in a position where we are able to repair and reuse things more effectively than ever before.”

We couldn’t agree more. Steve was so generous to send us some high-res pictures:

 

 

All images courtesy of Steve Cox

Interestingly the vacuum cleaner head is now even stronger than it was before it broke.

Steve also notified us about a website called Happy3D: https://www.happy3d.fr/en/ This website specializes in designs to repair every day objects. You should definitely check this one out!

This was the second Dyson part Steve printed. Before he printed a part that went in the front of the head and held the bearings for the rotating brush. He modelled the part from photographs they sent him and a few critical dimensions.  He then printed the repair part in white nGen and it worked perfectly – the material cost for the part was around 16 Euro cents!

The CAD design by Steve Cox

The printed part, made with nGen White

 

We thank Brent and Steve for sharing their work on Twitter and their ultra fast responses after we contacted them. True makers and problem solvers who are showing us how 3D printing can and should be used. Great job, guys!

 

 

It is a well established fact by now that our new PA-CF Low Warp filament is all about functionality. We developed this filament with only one goal: to make sure a lot of users have the ability to print high quality printed parts. Even on a cold bed. PA-CF Low Warp is, due to its stiffness and strength, a perfect material for replacement parts and custom made parts.

The PA-CF Low Warp filament is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continuous use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. Most high heat resistant materials will be difficult to print and require heated chambers and / or heated platforms to keep parts from warping the bottom layer. PA-CF Low Warp shows a very low tendency to warp, even at ambient temperature platform.

Eager to get started? Click here to get the basics on how to print with PA_CF Low Warp.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now in our webshop and ships from stock. We currently stock spools of 700 grams, but as from late next week large spools containing 2kg of material will be available as well.

You can also opt to get a unique bundle package, containing one spool of PA-CF Low Warp and the Olsson Ruby Nozzle 0.4mm in our webshop.

 

Robotics

It is a well established fact by now that our new PA-CF Low Warp filament is all about functionality. We developed this filament with only one goal: to make sure a lot of users have the ability to print high quality printed parts. Even on a cold bed. In the past weeks we have already shown quite a few prints and their respective qualities (listed below). Another great application for PA-CF Low Warp is the field of robotics and we printed a few parts to show:

Designs:

The prints above have been designed for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) which just kicked off its 2018 season again. You can find a full collection of designs that have been made in the past for the FRC here.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organisation aimed to encourage young people to become science and technology leaders and you should definitely check out their website.

PA-CF Low Warp is, due to its stiffness and strength, a perfect material for robotics and its much needed custom made parts. In that regard it is not that different from the application of this filament for drone parts, about which we wrote last week.

The parts were all printed on our Ultimaker 2+ in our print lab, equipped with 0.4mm Olsson Ruby nozzles. We printed at 260C and a 50C bed. Due to its abrasive nature, the Olsson Ruby nozzles ensure that print quality remains the same for many, many hours and days of printing.

As the name indicates, PA-CF Low Warp is a polyamide (nylon) with carbon fiber. An added bonus is that, unlike many other engineering grade filaments, it has very little warping when printing large objects! Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. It is an engineering grade filament for a wide range of printers and users alike. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

In recent weeks we have printed a lot with PA-CF Low Warp. Below are a few examples:

The PA-CF Low Warp filament is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continuous use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. Most high heat resistant materials will be difficult to print and require heated chambers and / or heated platforms to keep parts from warping the bottom layer. PA-CF Low Warp shows a very low tendency to warp, even at ambient temperature platform.

Eager to get started? Click here to get the basics on how to print with PA_CF Low Warp.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now in our webshop and ships from stock. We currently stock spools of 700 grams, but as from late next week large spools containing 2kg of material will be available as well.

You can also opt to get a unique bundle package, containing one spool of PA-CF Low Warp and the Olsson Ruby Nozzle 0.4mm in our webshop.

Housing

3D printing is uniquely suitable for customizing parts that one needs on the fly. A custom housing, for instance. The original design by Printcontrol was made to be a housing for electronics, but you can use it as a housing in general. We chose our new PA-CF Low Warp filament to print for extra stiffness and toughness.

Original design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:243905

And the matte finish just gives it a very cool and industrial look. We printed on the Ultimaker 2+, using the Olsson Ruby nozzle. Print temperature at 260C and a 50C bed. Layer height is 0.3mm.

As the name indicates, PA-CF Low Warp is a polyamide (nylon) with carbon fiber. An added bonus is that, unlike many other engineering grade filaments, it has very little warping when printing large objects! Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. It is an engineering grade filament for a wide range of printers and users alike.

We have printed a lot with PA-CF Low Warp recently. Below are a few examples:

As said, functionality is key with this filament and it is a material that suits the needs of the professional user perfectly.

The PA-CF Low Warp is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continuous use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. Most high heat resistant materials will be difficult to print and require heated chambers and / or heated platforms to keep parts from warping the bottom layer. PA-CF Low Warp shows a very low tendency to warp, even at ambient temperature platform.

PA-CF Low Warp is a material that has a lot of practical applications. One of them is within the automotive industry. The unique combination of high strength, good temperature resistance and good chemical stability makes this material a good choice for parts in and around the car. It’s used a lot already for brackets and covers.

In general it can be used for functional prototyping and final part manufacturing. For functional prototyping users are often looking for materials which have good toughness, strength and resistance to abrasion. Because of the excellent mechanical strength and heat resistance het material can even be considers for use in final applications. PA-CF low warp has great dimensional stability, because of extremely low warp. The material is therefor unique suited for applications such as jigs & fixtures which require parts with accurate dimensions.

Eager to get started? Click here to get the basics on how to print with PA_CF Low Warp.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now in our webshop and ships from stock.

 

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.

This nozzle, soon on your printer!

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.

 

 

Gimbal

Another aspect where PA-CF Low Warp in excels is the fact that it is light weight, but tough. It is therefore an excellent material for drones for example where weight and strength matter. Today’s featured print is the Open Brushless Gimbal by turbi.

 

Original design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:110731

The recently released high quality engineering filament is an excellent material for these type of demanding applications.

In the example we used printed motors instead of real brushless motors. The frame of the gimball is printed using PA-CF Low Warp on the Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.4mm Olsson Ruby nozzle, using 0.2mm layerheight. It was printed at 260C with 50C bed temp.

As the name indicates, PA-CF Low Warp is a polyamide (nylon) with carbon fiber. An added bonus is that, unlike many other engineering grade filaments, it has very little warping when printing large objects! Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. It is an engineering grade filament for a wide range of printers and users alike.

The PA-CF Low Warp is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints.

It  is the first result of the cooperation between LEHVOSS group and colorFabb. Both companies share the vision to develop high strength engineering materials, without compromising on printability.   Together with LEHVOSS colorFabb created a custom formulation which is optimized for the production of high quality filament and achieving the best possible 3D printing characteristics. PA-CF Low Warp is the first PA based filament released by colorFabb and only released now because it doesn’t compromise on printability. The very low warp characteristic of this material is a truly unique feature of this PA material and allows many users to process nylon material on standard desktop FFF 3D printers.

PA-CF Low Warp allows continuous use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. Most high heat resistant materials will be difficult to print and require heated chambers and / or heated platforms to keep parts from warping the bottom layer. PA-CF Low Warp shows a very low tendency to warp, even at ambient temperature platform.

As can be seen with this example for drone parts, users can now print high strength material without the need of heated chambers. The materials shows very good results for 3D printed specimens compared to injection molded data, with only minimal loss in performance. This is a result of the excellent printability of the material, enabling users to acquire optimal performance on desktop FFF 3d printers.

PA-CF Low Warp is a material that has a lot of practical applications. One of them is within the automotive industry. The unique combination of high strength, good temperature resistance and good chemical stability makes this material a good choice for parts in and around the car. It’s used a lot already for brackets and covers.
In general it can be used for functional prototyping and final part manufacturing. For functional prototyping users are often looking for materials which have good toughness, strength and resistance to abrasion. Because of the excellent mechanical strength and heat resistance het material can even be considers for use in final applications. PA-CF low warp has great dimensional stability, because of extremely low warp. The material is therefor unique suited for applications such as jigs & fixtures which require parts with accurate dimensions.

Eager to get started? Click here to get the basics on how to print with PA_CF Low Warp.

PA-CF Low Warp is available now in our webshop and ships from stock.

 

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.

This nozzle, soon on your printer!

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.