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!

TCT Show 2016 recap

Hi all,

We wrapped up the TCT Show 2016. Packed our goods, stacked them on the pallets and everything is heading back to colorFabb HQ again soon. We’re about to board our plane and leave Birmingham once more. It has been a great two days in Birmingham, meeting old friends and making new ones. We were there with our partners Stacker and Eastman Chemical Company, answering all your questions, showing the prints and the printers and giving away a lot of free samples of our co-polyesters.


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Two true artists dropped by: Steve Cox and Tony Short. They brought us their finest prints to showcase at our booth. Steve brought a statue, printed with bronzeFill and manually polished:

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Also, Tony Short dropped by and gave us a fantastic present: a gift box based on the colorFabb logo. You can see it for yourself. This gift is much appreciated and will get a special place at the office.

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As we said, true artists who not only know how to print, but how to post-process to achieve the highest quality possible.

Of course we had a big announcement at the beginning of the show. We launched nGen_FLEX this week and the initial reactions at show were extremely positive. Our new flexible filament has a Tg of over 125 degrees and is extremely well suited for engineering parts and prosthetics. Based on a co-polyester from Eastman, you can be assured of the high quality of the material. We have created a dedicated landing page for nGen_FLEX, which you can reach by clicking here.

We recently sent a few people spools to test nGen_FLEX and we saw an overwhelming support for our latest filament. Here are a few mentions of our beta testers:

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Layer adhesion is great and you can use this semi-flexible material with a Bowden tube, which we showed while printing on an Ultimaker 2+ with nGen_FLEX continuously during the show.

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nGen_FLEX is now available in black and dark gray.

The one feature print everybody talked about was the OpenRC F1 Car, designed by Daniel Norée, we published about last week. If you missed it, you can catch up here. We printed the entire car (a full 107cm long) with co-polyester based filaments: nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and of course our latest nGen_FLEX which we used for the tires.

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The F1 car was mostly printed on the Stacker S4 during the summer. We had the Stacker on site during the TCT, printing technical parts – 4 at the same time! The Stacker S4 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/

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A final honorable mention goes out to the team of Creat3D, our UK distributor. They built a big colorFabb tower at their stand!

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We want to thank everybody who visited us or followed the TCT Show through social media. Special thanks to Ludovic and Richard from Eastman, as well as Norston from Stacker to man the stand with us during these two busy days. It was great meeting everybody again and are too many to mention.

We hope to see you again next year!

(Oh, and don’t forget: the 10% discount code in our webshop will be valid the entire weekend. Use TCT2016 as the coupon code for a 10% discount on all spools of filament!)

TCT Show 2016

 

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For the third time in a row we will be attending the TCT Show in Birmingham this year. On September 28th and 29th (yes, this is within two weeks and yes, time is indeed flying) we are at stand B36 in the NEC in Birmingham. In 2014, our first time in Birmingham, we showcased our then brand new colorFabb_XT there.

Looking back one year, in 2015, we featured the Stacker on our stand and showcased the then new XT-CF20, as well as the launch of corkFill. And now, in 2016, we are back again to join the other exhibitors at the TCT to show the latest and greatest in the world of 3D printing. You can find us at stand B36.

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Events like the TCT Show are great since they draw a great crowd and we love meeting the people there. That’s why we are coming back to the TCT Show for the third time and you can find us at stand B36, having varous printers running our best and newest materials. One of the printers will be the Stacker S4, the go-to printer for small series and large volume printing. You can find more information about the Stacker here: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/  Shipping of the Stacker S4 will start mid-October.

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Keen to know what we are up to next? It is almost a tradition that we announce something at the shows we attend and the TCT Show in no exception. What the announcement is, we’re not telling yet, but we cannot wait to reveal it.

So, we hope to see you soon in Birmingham. Drop by for a chat at stand B36, get some free samples and discuss 3D printing with us! We look forward to a great time at the TCT once again. While you’re at the TCT Show, drop by at Creat3D, our UK distributor, at stand B20 and Aleph Objects, makers of the Lulzbot Mini and the recently launched TAZ 6 printers at stand D36.

In the meantime, check out the teaser of one of the main prints we will be showcasing during the show:

Have a great weekend!

Team colorFabb

 

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