Falcon 9

The sky is the place to be this summer… We’ve already shot some new drone footage and are heavily into RC planes (with some exciting news to come soon!). The sky, however, is a pretty big place and there is plenty to explore beyond the stratosphere. Enter SpaceX and its continuous news grabbing headlines with one succesfull launch after the next and, granted, some unsuccesfull ones. To honor them we decided to print the Falcon 9 rocket since our trusted Saturn V was feeling a bit lonely at the office.

Printed to scale

The Saturn V was printed by Korneel Bullens four years ago and it has survived multiple trade shows, one office relocation, a curious dog and the occassional cleaning accident. Now it’s time to extend the space port here at colorFabb with SpaceX’s famous Falcon 9.

Inspired by the latest Falcon 9 Crew Dragon launch we decided to print a model in the same scale as the Saturn 5 so we can get a great sense of scale between the two rockets.

 

The Falcon 9 is SpaceX’s highly succesfull two-stage rocket. Click here to have a good view on all sides of this rocket.

We combined files from two projects into one build:

  • The “Falcon 9 Model” by Anthony Williams (link here)
  • The “Dragon – M3” by An Duong (link here)

With some quick internet research we figured out the scale for the Falcon 9 and adjusted all the parts in the slicer software. Now, as printed, the Falcon 9 stands a proud 109cm but seems small compared with its 1960s classic brother the Saturn V which measures 180cm (rocket alone).

Unfortunately we had to scale down the Dragon M3 model too much for all the fine detail to be properly displayed. The model by An Duong is very detailed and would be best printed without scaling down. An Duong also offers an even more detailed version DRAGON – MS

 

For this model we used:

All three filaments are available now and ship daily from stock.

(The Saturn V was printed entirely with nGen – check out the original blog here).

 

 

More rockets and space ships will be added later…

Coffee tray

Growth of a company can be measured in a lot of different ways. Economists and historians will debate for years what the best way is, but at colorFabb we measure it by the size of our coffee tray. Whenever someone in the office goes for a coffee, courtesy dictates that he or she will bring coffee for all of the colleagues. As from this week, our coffee tray was upgraded significantly to allow for all our coffee to be brought into the office and passed around at once:

In-house design by our intern Aron Smolenaars

This print was made with our PLA Semi-Matte Black and due to the size (33 x 37cm) we required a bit more than the standard desktop 3D printer. The Stacker S4 is a great printer where we could use of the bigger-than-average build platform.

Long hours at colorFabb to develop, produce and ship the best possible 3D printing filaments mean an equal amount of coffee to be consumed at the office. Carrying it around is limited by the heat of the cups, the lack of multiple limbs and opening doors. Hence the coffee tray which is already enjoying its third iteration.

Previous designs, starting with 3 cup holders, then 8 and now 16…

The coffee tray, seemingly whimsical, is a great example of how 3D printing can offer quick solutions for everyday work space challenges. Like burnt fingers.

When developing our semi-matte PLA (available in black and white) we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. PLA Semi-Matte Black (and white) will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

Our semi-matte PLA filament eliminates the glossy appearance seen on most PLA 3D prints. The highlights on the surface will be less visible, resulting in an overall cleaner and much higher quality look.

PLA Semi-Matte Black contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

 

PLA Semi-Matte Black and White are available from stock and ship daily, worldwide.

 

About Stacker

The Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. Recently the even larger Stacker S4 XL was added to the portfolio. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make them versatile printers. Small series production or large scale prototyping are no problem for the Stacker printers! This US based printer is very reliable and is a perfect match for any professional looking for serious 3D printing. You can find the full product specifications on our dedicated Stacker page.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means their printers are designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. This printer has been designed to be used in a professional environment, be it for large prototypes or small series production.

The Stacker printers on display in our print lab

As many of you know, we are the distributor of Stacker 3D printers in Europe. We have been working with Stacker ever since their first prototype and now have several in our print lab. In the past 6 years we have seen 3D printing emerging from a hobby market to more professional uses. A lot of our users are using 3D printing to make a living or at least support their business in one way or another.

Interested? Get a quote or contact us!

SNES Cart Holder

Where new tech meets not so old tech. One of our colleagues to his Prusa MK3 to good use and printed a holder designed by Ken Walton for his beloved Super Nintendo Carts:

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2653679

Printed on the Prusa MK3 with standard PLA settings. He used PLA Semi Matte Black for this print.

When developing our PLA Semi Matte Black we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. The brand new PLA Semi-Matte Black, released earlier this year, will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

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

This filament contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

The difference between regular PLA and PLA Semi Matte Black can be spotted easily:

 

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

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

XL spools and samples are available as well.

 

Jet engine nozzle

3D printing is first and foremost an excellent tool for prototyping and modelling. Especially for complex prints. With that in mind we have printed an example of a jet engine nozzle, the variable-area nozzle for use on EDF RC airplanes designed by Marco Colucci to be more specific. Benefits of 3D printing are how complex designs can be seen, held and assessed early in a development process.

Design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2991269

As Marco explains in his Imgur post how this project came to be: “The idea for this project came from a friend and RC airplane enthusiast suggesting the “crazy” idea of mounting a variable-area nozzle on his next build. Of course, me being me, as soon as I heard the word crazy he had my full attention.” You can find more information in his detailed post on Imgur.

This model consists of 23 individual parts and it is an excellent example of a complex print with moving parts. A Hackaday article has been written about the functional application of the jet engine nozzle as it was designed.

We printed all parts on the Ultimaker 2, using PLA Semi Matte Black and colorFabb_XT Light Gray and Dark Gray. As for the settings we used the standard PLA settings for PLA Semi Matte Black and we used CPE settings for colorFabb_XT.

We launched colorFabb_XT almost 4 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 temperature resistance, styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation.

colorFabb_XT is available in 14 colors, including clear.

Our range of Amphora based co-polyesters are perfectly suited for a project like this. In 2014 colorFabb teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company to develop unique grades of co-polyesters suited for 3D printing. Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer are a low-odor, styrene-free choice that is uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

More information can be found in the blog we wrote about co-polyesters last summer.

 

 

When developing our PLA Semi Matte Black we’ve been looking for a solution which doesn’t involve fibers to achieve a less glossy surface finish. We did not want to loose the ease of use our PLA and keep print settings and parameters as close to regular PLA setttings. For a full matte finish our XT-CF20 and PA_CF Low Warp do the trick, but they need a hardened steel nozzle to print with. The brand new PLA Semi-Matte Black, released earlier this year, will bring a new aesthetic quality to our range of PLA filaments.

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

This filament contains no fibers and prints at regular PLA temperatures and settings. The material is as reliable and easy to work with as any other PLA type material.

PLA Semi-Matte Black is available now.