RapidPro – A Visual Recap

This week we attended the RapidPro for the fifth consecutive year. It was exactly four years ago that colorFabb started here at this very show and it has been a great ride ever since. We had a great three days in Veldhoven and thank everybody who visited us and took the time to have a chat with us.

Below is a visual recap of this year’s RapidPro

The booth

Our basis and business card. For the first time we positioned ourselves in the Industrial part of the show, showcasing not only our functional co-polyester filaments, made with Eastman Amphora™, but also the Stacker printer which we distribute as well as our new services like modeling for 3D printing, engineering and printing itself.

 

The visitors

The one factor that makes or breaks a show are the visitors. And we seem to get the best of them every show! Thanks everybody for dropping by.

The Stacker 3D Printer

Featured printer in our booth this year was the recently launched Stacker S2 (available here and on Kickstarter). With two printers in our booth and one at the Mikro Centrum central booth it was easily the best represented printer of the show!  Interested in this printer? Contact us at sales@colorfabb.com

 

Moveo Robotic Arm

The Moveo robotic arm was designed by BCN (and we teased it before). Entirely printed, even the belts, we were proud to finally reveal this project at the RapidPro this year, where it was part of the Mikro Centrum booth in the middle of all the action.

And, of course, the full video of the robotic arm in action:

 

We had a blast during the show and hope to welcome you again next year. For everybody who couldn’t make it, we will keep the 10% discount on all our spools of filament for the remainder of this weekend (Sunday night midnight CET). Go to http://colorfabb.com/ and use coupon code RAPIDPRO2017 when checking out, or simply click here.

RapidPro

This week, starting today,  you can find us at the RapidPro Trade show and conference in Veldhoven on March 7, 8 and 9. It was four years ago that colorFabb debuted at this very show and we are attending again for the fifth consecutive year.

For the first time, we will be at the Industrial part of the show floor. You can find us at stand 16.


Stacker S2

This year the Stacker S2 3D printer will makes it debut at the colorFabb stand. The S2 was launched on Kickstarter last week and reached its goal within 4 hours after the campaign kick-off. The S2 is a two head industrial grade printer specifically built for education, manufacturing and design pro markets.

colorFabb is proud partner of Stacker and is the official distributor for the EMEA region. At colorFabb we have been extensively testing with both the S2 and S4 in our print lab with our entire range of filaments.

Read our previous blog on our experience with the Stacker S2.
The S2 shares most of the same design and engineering of its bigger sibling, the model S4. The larger model S4 has been shipped to customers since August of 2016 and has proven itself as a reliable industrial grade 3D printer.

For Stacker the term “industrial grade” is not a hollow marketing term. It means the S2 was designed for extra long service life, extremely low maintenance and that the printer will maintain its positional accuracy throughout its life cycle. The way “industrial grade” is achieved begins with superior engineering and high-quality components, and ends with an Stacker’s innovative new assembly method.

Come and see for yourself at the RapidPro in the next few days at stand 16. A full product description of the Stacker printers can be found here.

At the show we will be printing on both the Stacker S2 and S4. Materials of choice are the range of co-polyesters we released in the past few years. Co-polyesters are made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer, materials which provide for low-odor and styrene-free options that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

A featured print at the organizer’s booth is the Moveo Robot Arm by BCN3D, entirely printed with co-polyester filaments. Printed with colorFabb_XT Yellow and nGen Dark Gray. For the timing belts, we used nGen_FLEX Black. Printed by our own 3D print engineer Jos Deelen.

We have teased about this project before (here and here), but you can now and we are proud to finally show the results at the RapidPro!

Design: https://www.bcn3dtechnologies.com/en/bcn3d-moveo-the-future-of-learning/

Find out more about Amphora in this blog we posted last year. colorFabb_XT was our first co-polyester based filament, released in 2014. Our portfolio of co-polyester based filaments, made with Eastman Amphora polymers, has since extended with the all-round nGen, the high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT (enabled by Eastman Tritan™ copolyester technology).and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX.

Our range of co-polyester based filaments are available online.

During the entire week you can get a 10% discount on all our spools of filaments (samples and printers excluded) by using the discount code RAPIDPRO2017 in our webshop. (Use this link to immediately get your 10% discount!)

 

We hope to see you in the next few days in Veldhoven and if you can’t make it, keep an eye out on our social media accounts for the latest updates!

Stacker S2

In the past 4 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 (as detailed here and here). One company on top of this trend is Stacker from Minneapolis, MN. A couple of years ago they succesfully launched their first 3D printer on Kickstarter. This printer was all about functionality: printing small series or big prototypes – an industrial grade printer for the workspace.

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. The way “industrial grade” is achieved begins with superior engineering and high-quality components, and ends with an Stacker’s innovative new assembly method.

Before the launch of Stacker’s first printer we at colorFabb were already in touch with the Stacker team and we both had the same vision for 3D printing in that it was all about functionality. Our range of filaments, especially the co-polyester range made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer, are a perfect match with Stacker’s range of printers.

Yes, a range of printers. As from yesterday, Stacker’s latest offering is available on Kickstarter. The S2 launched yesterday and was already completely funded within 4 hours after launching. Unlike other 3D printers that were not able to make the cut during the process of fulfilling their Kickstarter obligations, Stacker has already proven itself to bring a reliable printer to the market.

You can see the Kickstarter video here:

https://vimeo.com/205107978

Although the Kickstarter pledges will be delivered in May / June of this year, you can already pre-order the S2 through us, as the official Stacker distributor in the EMEA region, or Stacker itself. Delivery of the pre-order printers will be in April. Get your quote now!

We received our first S2 recently and have been printing non-stop since. One of the projects we have been working on are these prototypes for leg prosthetics:

Design: https://grabcad.com/library/prosthetic-leg

We printed these parts with nGen on the brand new Stacker S2. (And yes, these are the same prints we printed before).

colorFabb is proud partner of Stacker and official distributor for the EMEA region. At colorFabb we have been extensively testing with both the S2 and S4 in our print lab with our entire range of filaments. What makes this printer so different from the rest? First of all, it is based on the technology that has made the Stacker S4 such a success.

You can also expect the following:

  • Copy mode for printing two objects at once for 2X print speeds
  • Dual print heads can be offset to prevent the idle head from dripping on the print when not in use to achieve super clean dual material prints
  • Large build volume: 395mm (X) axis, 325mm (Y) axis, 525mm (Z) Axis
  • Built-in mobile base, essential for EDU and work groups
  • Superior print quality
  • STACKER designed and manufactured hot ends and filament drives produce a superior finish, and work with all filaments, including flexible and metal filled
  • Uses 1.75mm filament for high-speed printing.
  • Quick change nozzles in a range of sizes from .25mm to 1mm
  • Comes with a single license of Simplify3D slicing software
  • Includes a sheet of BuildTak print bed surface but will accept glass

 

As said, we test all our filaments, but we are always looking for more functionality. One of our favorite filaments for this is nGen.

This all-round filament was released a little over a year ago. It is 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. Visual prototyping has never been better than with nGen.

nGen is available in our webshop, through Stacker and our distributor network worldwide.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here.