New filaments are coming fast and strong here at colorFabb these days. Talking about strong… Today we release our latest 3D printing filament: Tough PLA.
Our Tough PLA is a custom blend which retains the ease of use of PLA but adds serious toughness to the material. As a result the material is a lot less brittle than regular PLA filaments and has a higher impact strength.
The recommended printing temperatures are 210C-230C and 50-60C heated bed temperature. The print speed can be set to 40-50 mm/s. For better overhang performance we recommend using slower outer perimeter speed, 20-30 mm/s.
We release Tough PLA in two colors: black and white, which are available now and ship from stock.
PLA Tough was developed under our new colorFabb Labs program. colorFabb Labs is dedicated to bring more innovative materials faster to the market. It is colorFabb’s aim to meet customers’ needs in terms of materials and 3D printing services. Stay tuned for more exciting developments this year.
PLA Tough is available in black and white on 750 grams spools.
varioShore TPU is the latest innovative 3D printing filament by colorFabb and is now available. Our varioShore TPU is flexible in more ways than one!
Printing handle bars is a great application due to the soft touch characteristics of varioShore TPU.
varioShore TPU is available now. Click here to go directly to our webshop!
varioShore TPU allows users to vary the density of the material by adjusting temperature and material throughput (speed & layerheight). At temperatures between 200 and 250C the materials will start to expand to roughly 1.4-1.6 times its original volume. This means the material can be printed at low flow rates (60-70%), to compensate the active foaming, which in return gives very soft printed parts. Between 190-200C the material can be printed without foaming, resulting in different haptics and harder prints compared to foamed samples.
We sent several spools to beta testers and this is what they had to say about it:
“It really is a fantastic development… Incredible innovation.” – Steve Cox
“Another astonishing FDM material development from the colorFabb team.” – Richard Horne
For this development colorFabb partnered with Lubrizol Engineered Polymers, a leading global producer of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), used in everyday consumer and industrial applications, with a strong global manufacturing and supply network.
Lubrizol Engineered Polymers’ expertise in TPU chemistry was key to provide a customized TPU with a wide range of processing temperatures and adequate melt viscosity, meeting the requirements during extrusion and printing. A wider range of thermal stability and melt rheology allows an extended upper range of printing temperatures to maximize the range of densities achieved through colorFabb’s unique filament foaming technology.
The result is a filament with a base TPU of 92A, which will work with most standard extruder set-ups for both Bowden and direct drive systems.
Main features
The main features of varioShore TPU are:
Variable shorehardness
This material is not limited to one shore hardness, but with the right print settings you can have multiple shore hardnesses – even in one print!
Reduced weight / density
colorFabb used the technology previously used in their light weight LW-PLA in this filament as well to reduce weight significantly. Although the weight reduction of varioShore TPU is not as significant as LW-PLA, the weight of the overall print is noticeable and can make the difference for prints where weight matters.
Soft touch surface
Prints that need a soft touch, like handle bars for bikes or shoe soles are no problem anymore with varioShore TPU.
It is, in short, a filament that is flexible in more ways than one. colorFabb initially offers one variety: a very neat natural filament without colorant on spools with 700 grams of filament. For settings, tips and tricks we refer to the product page on the colorFabb website.
Retail pricing is € 41.28 excl. VAT (or € 49.95 including VAT) per spool.
varioShore TPU is available as from today from colorFabb and ships daily, worldwide and from stock. With the release of varioShore TPU, right on the heels of Laser Marking PLA, colorFabb remains on the cutting edge of material development for 3D printing.
Tips & Tricks
At colorFabb we have a well-equipped 3d printing studio with many popular 3d printers. Our varioShore TPU has been tested using various 3D printers, which has resulted in the following recommended settings.
Adviced 3d printing temperature: 190C-250C
Adviced 3d print speed: 20-30 mm/s
Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 20-40C
Cooling fan: Use the least amount of cooling when maximum foaming is required. For better overhang performance use 50-100% cooling.
We advise our users to use standard TPU settings as a base setting for developing your own pre-sets.
Make sure the distance between nozzle and platform is not to small, especially if the material is being foamed while printing, the pressure will need to be released from the hot-end to prevent clogging and feeder issues.
Late March of this year we launched PLA Semi-Matte Black. Where most of our filaments have a classy shine to it, we recognized the demand for a less glossy filament and we released PLA Semi-Matte Black. It has been a bestseller since. In recent months we have worked hard to make a new variety, which is available as from today: PLA Semi-Matte White
PLA Semi-Matte White is a great material for architects and modelers looking for a different aesthetic. 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.
It is a bit hard to capture on camera, but the difference is very well noticable with the bare eye.
As with its black sibling PLA Semi-Matte White 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. Below are some of the examples we printed in our print lab:
PLA Semi-Matte White is a great addition to our ever expanding portfolio of filaments and available now on spools containing 750 grams of filament. Samples and XL spools will follow in due time. Shipping starts today. Go directly to our webshop by clicking button below.
“Steel yourself”
Today we are happy to announce the release of our new metal based filament:
Iron Man Bust by Geoff.W – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571321
Announced at the AM Show in Amsterdam end of June this new specialty material is available as from today.
With steelFill we are adding a fourth metal based filament to our portfolio after succesfully announcing bronzeFill in 2014, copperFill later that year and brassFill in early 2015. As with these other filaments, the key is post-processing and you can use similar techniques as with our other special metal based filaments.
Print Settings
Probably the biggest difference compared to 3D printing our other metal infused filaments would be our advice to change your regular brass nozzle for a steel or hardened steel nozzle. The steel powder we use for steelFill can affect the brass nozzle after printing enough of this material, for better reliability on the long run a steel nozzle is recommended.
Other settings such as, printing temperature, heated buildplatform, layerheight, cooling and retraction will be covered in our tutorial.
After printing steelFill will have nice matte drak gray finish. With similar polishing techniques used on bronzeFill, copperFill and brassFill it’s possible to smooth out the outer surface and expose the metal particles. Now the surface start’s to resemble a dark glossy steel look. SteelFill won’t rust, since the powder is stainless steel.
steelFill is the latest addition to our expanding range of special materials.
steelFill is available now: http://colorfabb.com/steelfill
