Icelandscape

A couple of months ago we already showed you how 3D printing can be used to make amazing 3D maps, like we did with the Everest region. Since then we have upped the scale a bit and printed a another 3D map. But a lot bigger. We received a request from a customer who wanted Iceland’s northern coast partially printed. We call the project “Icelandscape”*:

A total of 12 printed parts

The region in question is Ólafsfjörður and the request was to print most of the peninsula as a showcase model to plan and organize hikes and ski trips in the mountains. The elevated coastal region (which is stunning is real life) is a perfect example of how one can print 3D maps. Due to the size we had to cut up the model and print it in 12 parts, which can easily be glued together.

We created the file by using Terrain2STL – a great online application to make your own custom 3D maps. We printed on the Stacker S4 at 0.2mm layer height, using a 0.8mm nozzle and with 7% infill.

The total printing time of Icelandscape was 400+ hours and we used over 18kg of PLA Economy White. The total map measures 190cm x 80cm x 10cm. This is easily the biggest print we have ever done.

For this print we used our trusted PLA Economy, a highly popular filament used for bulk projects by many of our users… and ourselves.

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November of 2016. Initially we released four colors: white, red, black and silver. Recently added the always popular Dark Blue, which is similar to our very own Ultra Marine Blue that we offer in our portfolio of PLA/PHA filaments.

PLA Economy offers a great value for your money. One spool consists of 2.2kg of filament for a dirt cheap price of a little over € 35 (ex VAT and shipping). It is a different grade than our range of PLA/PHA, but we guarantee the same colorFabb quality. Our filaments are readily available from our webshop. You can use the standard PLA settings if your printer has these pre-defined and these should work fine.

You can also opt for the PLA Economy Value Pack: order four spools as a value pack and receive an immediate 10% discount!

Buy PLA Economy                                      Buy PLA Economy Value Pack

PLA Economy is very well suited for the maker who needs quality at an affordable price. It is a perfect filament for large volume and small series production, made with the guaranteed colorFabb quality that we are known for.

 

About Stacker

Both the Stacker S2 and its larger sibling Stacker S4 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 S2 in the middle

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 5 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!

 

 

* We like puns…

Mifa: Or how 3D printing helps in production

There are many ways 3D printing can be used: prototyping, final products, gadgets, investment casting, art, etc. But companies, especially the ones where physical products are being made, are increasingly  looking at 3D printing for something else: tools, fixtures and parts in production. Like Mifa does. Mifa is a nearby company specialized in aluminium profiles.

 

Mifa is a leading company in the extrusion of magnesium profiles and aluminium profiles. They produce fully-finished precision products with dimensional tolerances from ± 0.02 mm. This level of aluminium extrusion precision means unprecedented possibilities. It gives designers enormous freedom in design, without the restrictions of standard specifications. As a result of this it is possible to achieve the optimum product.

About a year ago Mifa made the decision to purchase a Stacker S4 printer. Because internally there was not enough capacity in house to have tooling made the conventional way, they started with their first Ultimaker at the end of 2015. We talked with Daan Broeksteeg, project engineer, why they use 3D printing and the Stacker in combination with colorFabb filaments in particular.

Testing 3d printed clamping parts at Mifa

“The primary goal was to print clamping devices for our CNC machines. However, we found that 3D printing has many advantages and is being used in almost all departments of our company one way or another,” says Daan. “For instance, molds to bundle packages in or verification molds.” The Ultimaker printers were a great start for Mifa to get to learn to process of 3D printing and get people familiar with the process, but the need arose for a more industrial printer. With colorFabb as Stacker’s distributor in the vicinity the contacts were easily made.

Daan says: “Stacker has added value because of the tight tolerances that are very important in CNC milling. Because Stacker produces four parts at the same time, the dimensional deviation between the prints is minimal. This is definitely the main advantage of the Stacker.” As from the beginning Mifa uses colorFabb_XT for its parts. colorFabb_XT is made with Amphora AM1800 3D polymer is a low-odor, styrene-free choice that is uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. Daan explains why:

“We have done extensive research for the best material we should use. We found that colorFabb_XT has minimal moisture absorption (<1%) which is a benefit in a CNC environment with coolant nearby.”

It is clear that the Stacker 3D printer in combination with the right materials has advantages for Mifa’s CNC department. And it doesn’t stop there. Daan explains that as 3D printing is used in multiple departments, the printers are moving around a bit. It is the goal to have a dedicated print lab in the near future.

We thank Daan Broeksteeg for his contribution to this blog.

 

After our blog about Optima Staaltechniek Mifa is another great example of how 3D printing brings added value to a company that needs reliability and quality delivered to its customers. The match of the Stacker printer with our range of functional co-polyesters, is a perfect all-in-one solution.

The Stacker S2 and S4 are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. 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.

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 5 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!

Stacker at Optima

Stacker 3D printers are industrial grade. It has been said many times before and one can see by the way they are built these machines were made with professional use in mind. colorFabb is the distributor of Stacker in the EMEA region for quite a while now and in today’s blog we highlight the use of the Stacker at one of our customers: Optima Staaltechniek, a Dutch company specialized in CAD drawing, steel renovation and project management. It has now branched out to 3D printing as well.

O3D Printing | Logo

Optima is a company that was founded in 1997 and has been known for its reliability and knowledge at all aspects of its business. Optima 3D, the printing arm of the company, stems from a small but specialized machineshop where constructions were and are fabricated for trucking, bagage handling and various smart constructions for the building industry. Optima currently has a Stacker S4 running in their shop to produce prototypes and small series of products for their customers. We talked to Rob Beemster, owner and founder, about the choices he made regarding 3D printing.

 

Why 3D printing?

Rob: “In the search for a higher level of technology and building a better environment the decision was made to start developing a way of building machine – and other parts through added manufacturing”

Why choose Stacker?

“The Stacker machine was selected, amongst others, because of size, multiple printer heads and utilization of materials that we deem necessary for our product range.”

What is it that you produce on the Stacker?

“Optima 3D manufactures a range of half products for the marine, agriculture and machine industry.”

What are the current experiences with the Stacker printer?

“Added to our various other machines Stacker is utilized for the somewhat bigger-, multiple – and parts where supports need printing.”

What materials are you using and why?

“In general we print with colorFabb’s range of co-polyester filaments and with XT-CF20 in particular. Its surface finish, stiffness and accuracy are the main avantages. For the big prints we use PETG. Strong prints that need to be heat resistant are usually printer with colorFabb_HT.”

Visit Optima’s website (Dutch)

 

 

 

Optima Staaltechniek is a a perfect example of how 3D printing brings added value to a company that needs reliability and quality delivered to its customers. The match of the Stacker printer with our range of functional co-polyester is a perfect all-in-one solution.

The Stacker S2 and S4 are industrial grade FFF 3D printers. 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.

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 5 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!

Use of 3D Printing in Investment Casting

Last year we learned that 3D printing was used to drastically shorten time and costs in investment casting. Dutch company CIREX B.V. is an expert in investment casting and is exploring the added value 3D printing can bring to their process together with colorFabb.

We partnered with CIREX to better understand how PLA/PHA performs as a material for patterns. We have written exensively about this filament before. Traditionally investment casting uses wax patterns. These patterns are made using metal molds, making the tooling is an expensive process and can take several weeks.

For small series, or one off products creating a mold is not a cost effective solution for foundry companies. 3D printing on the other hand presents several advantages enabling foundries to make single parts or even small series.

Instead of investing in tooling, foundry companies can choose to 3D print their patterns in a material suited for investment casting. ColorFabb PLA/PHA Natural is a material uniquily suited for investment casting. It’s an easy printing material capable of creating complex shapes with great smooth surface finish and will work with most desktop and industrial type FFF 3D printing machines.

The material decomposes at 600C and ensures a clean burnout leaving behind a clean mold ready for casting.

Almost a year ago we highlighted US based Spectra3D’s work in investment casting, using the Stacker S4 and our signature PLA/PHA. Jerry LePore, CEO of Spectra3D explains why he chose PLA/PHA: “We chose Colorafab natural PLA because it contains no color pigments, prints great and burns out really clean from the mold.” You can read the full blog here.

Cut down on development time

Skipping the tooling development step saves a huge amount of time. Typically this could shorten the time to a first metal casted part by 3-4 weeks. Not being dependent on a third party mold supplier also reduces risk in time sensitive projects.

A wax tree with the printed models

3D printing also allows for faster design iterations, a first printed pattern could already be made in several hours depending on the size of the part. This makes it possible to iterate on the design multiple times even within a single day.

The material cost of printed patterns is around €30,- p/kg. Parts are generally printed with the least amount of material needed, which saves print time and material.

Checking out the burnout of PLA/PHA Natural, breaking the mold to inspect pattern for residue. Patterns printed on the Stacker S4, 0.2mm layer height at 20% infill.

 

3D Printer & Material combination

The Stacker 3D printer was used for this test case. It prints incredibly reliable with PLA/PHA and is able to print parts accurate and consistent. Printing with multiple nozzles cuts down on series production time, 2x faster for the Stacker S2 and 4x faster for the Stacker S4 compared to a single nozzle FFF 3D printer.

The Stacker S2 and S4 can be set-up for small series production, or single large part printing. Mounting up to 4 toolheads on the x-carriage gives the user higher output, but reduces the build volume. The alternative is to mount only a single toolhead and take advantage of the entire buildvolume of the S2 or S4.

Products larger then the build volume of the Stacker can be split into multple parts and assembled after printing. Using pins align the parts is a good method to ensure the assembled model is accurate.

The Stacker S2 and its larger sibling the Stacker S4 is an industrial grade FFF 3D printer. Multiple print heads and a large build volume make it a versatile printer. 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.

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.

 

About CIREX

The history of the current CIREX starts in 1947. In the physics laboratory of Philips in Eindhoven, an experimental wax model foundry was set up. From these beginnings CIREX has developed as a development partner and producer of high-quality precision castings in steel, produced according to the “lost wax” process. CIREX has built up a good reputation and recognition among international customers.

You can find more information about CIREX’ rich history on their website.

 

colorFabb Case Studies

This blog is a first in a new series of how colorFabb filaments are used in different industries – some old, some new. We will collect these case studies as downloadable PDFs on our website: Click here.

 

TCT 2017

Back in Birmingham!! This week we are at the TCT Show again for the fourth consecutive year! If you are at the show or plan to visit, you can find us at stand H39 and we have some exciting new developments to show you!

A cool feature of our stand is that you look directly into our factory where your favorite filaments are made. This backdrop gives you a good look at colorFabb’s new production facility.

Of course there is nGen_LUX. This is our brand new filament we announced last week and will release in November. With nGen_LUX we put years of experience in development, 3D printing, R&D and production into a single 3D printing filament that will bridge the gap to production with unmatched surface quality.

nGen_LUX uniquely features diffuse reflection, which means that the light that shines on the print scatters to many directions and allows for a perfect surface quality that looks like nothing you have ever seen before.

You can now see nGen_LUX today exclusively at the TCT Show before being released later this year. Tomorrow nGen_LUX will also be featured at the Dutch Kunststoffenbeurs in Veldhoven at the stand of our sister company Helian Polymers.

You can read all further information in last week’s blog!

Furthermore we will have four printers continuously running in our stand. We have the Stacker S2 printing with colorFabb’s signature PLA/PHA, making parts for investment casting (more on that soon!) Next to it the Lulzbot TAZ 6 prints with our all-round filament nGen. nGen is a terrific material for every day use and it works flawlessly on the Lulzbot range of printers.

On the other end of the stand you find the brand new Robo R2 and the Prusa i3 mk 2 – both of printing with the aforementioned nGen_LUX.

Both printers have some stellar examples displayed in front of them made with this great new material. Pictures can hardly do justice to the optical quality of nGen_LUX. Seeing is believing!

Aside from the Prusa, all printers in our stand are readily available in our webshop. We ship from stock and with free filaments! Free shipping in the EU to selected countries. Click here to go to our webshop or on the image below:

All printers have been extensively tested by the colorFabb team with our filaments!

During the TCT we offer a 10% discount on all our filaments in our webshop! To get this immediate discount, which lasts all week, use the coupon code TCT2017 when checking out or simply click here!

Overwhelmed with all the choice we have these days? Check out our latest catalogue with all our filaments categorized, the entire color range neatly presented, some beautiful examples of prints plus settings and tips & tricks per filament! You can also find out more about the printers we offer!

COLORFABB.COM                              CATALOGUE

Helian logo

Ever since moving into the new building we have been working to decorate the interior in a uniform way. One thing (of many) is to print the names of the companies: we have already printed the Stacker logo, which is hanging nicely in our print lab and last week we posted about the colorFabb logo proudly hanging on our wall.

This week we have printed the logo for Helian Polymers:

Helian is, of course, the company where it all started for colorFabb. colorFabb started as a project of Helian Polymers. Helian Polymers BV is a young and dynamic company which was founded by Ruud Rouleaux at the end of 2011. In September 2015 the old company Peter Holland BV, that was founded in 1974, was incorporated into Helian Polymers, to combine all masterbatch activity into one company. In 2013 colorFabb started as part of Helian Polymers and became its own legal entity, colorFabb BV, in September 2015.

Helian Polymers is your partner for masterbatches, compounding and also the driving force behind bioplastics.online where small lots of bioplastics can be ordered. You can find the Helian website here and the biolplastics.online website here.

The logo is now on the wall in their office in our mutual building.

For this print job we used two printers: The Stacker S4 and the Ultimaker 2. The material of choice was PLA Economy Silver, similar to the logos we printed for colorFabb and Stacker. It took 3 days to print all the letters and pieces of the logo, with a total use of 1.2kg of filament.

Top-Tip: using some leftover PLA/PHA we printed some spacers for the “leaves of the logo” to ensure the spacing and orientation was right.
This is easily done in most CAD systems by simply sketching with a small offset to the logo and closing the sketch loops with some straight lines.
These spacers can of course be printed with the lowest possible settings and some left-over material and will make your job a lot easier on the more difficult shapes.

We launched PLA Economy in November last year and has been a best seller ever since. We offer 2.2kg filament on a big spool for a little over € 35 (excluding VAT and shipping) at the best colorFabb quality you are used to. We have extensively tested this PLA grade in our print lab. Since this week we offer a fifth color to our portfolio: Dark Blue, which ships now from stock.

Visit our webshop now.

Micrometer holder

In our production and in our print lab we need to be accurate.  We use our micrometer quite a lot, but we are only human and have only two hands. A custom designed (by our own print team) micrometer holder was a great solution, printed with colorFabb_XT.

Micrometer holder by colorFabb: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2258819

We printed the micrometer on the Stacker S4 with colorFabb_XT Light Gray.

For clamping down the micrometer without damaging it we designed two bendable sections. Using M6 screws that come in from the bottom the two sections can be bend outwards to hold the micrometer in place.

colorFabb_XT is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM1800. Launched in September 2014, it is a fantastic functional engineering material. With colorFabb_XT we achieved to produce a filament that provides good strength and toughness, as well as certain FDA food contact compliances. It has found a wide audience amongst users looking for extra functionality. With a temperature resistance of 75+ degrees, this filament offers (aside from its high strength and very high toughness) odor neutral processing, a styrene free formulation, FDA food contact compliance and BPA (Bisphenol A ) free formulation.

colorFabb_XT is available in 14 colors (including clear) and we ship from stock. Order yours now!

 

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.

So far we have launched four grades, starting with colorFabb_XT in 2014. Late 2015 we follow this up with nGen, our next Generation general purpose filament and a drop in replacement for PLA. A wide processing window and perfect reliability make this filament a very popular one in our portfolio.

A little over a year ago we followed that up with colorFabb_HT, a high-temperature resistant filament that allows for functional engineering projects that need lasting parts. At last year’s TCT Show in Birmingham we introduced nGen_FLEX to the market, a flexible filament with a Shora A hardness of 95 allowing for functional and flexible parts to be printed.

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

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!