Utility Ship

Here at colorFabb we regularly have interns hard at work in the print lab, creating awesome things. As you may remember, Stephan Schürmann designed and printed a bike during his internship here (and is now about to ship his very own Blackbelt 3D printer!). Earlier this year Niels van Valburg made the FLEX_Link chair. And former current co-worker Jos Deelen worked on the early concepts of the biofoam spool during his internship here. Our current intern is Mike Baetsen and to get him more acquainted with 3D printing and designing he printed the Utility Ship, originally designed by Petersripol:

Original design: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2192118

As you can see, we put it in the lobby of our new building right away! Mike used the Ultimaker 2 and 2+ for this print (or various prints, if you will) with various settings. Several items on the boat he designed himself using SolidWorks.

3D printing has always been a great tool for model work and this once again proofs that the best results can be achieved with a variety of materials.

The materials (all colorFabb’s, of course), where:

  • PLA/PHA Standard White for the hull
  • PETG Economy Red
  • woodFill for the deck
  • PLA Economy Black

Mike mentions that he wanted to use a variety of materials (two kinds of PLA, our PETG and a special filament) to see how well they work on the Ultimaker printers as well and of course for the aesthetical aspect.

As showcased in the lobby, together with the Subaru and Chevy engines, printed by Korneel Bullens.

 

 

About the materials

PLA/PHA Standard White

And what a standard it is! We started with this modified grade of PLA almost 5 years ago and this filament remains one of our biggest hits. The unique blend of PLA with PHA make it a fantastic filament to print with on a wide variety of printers.

PLA Economy

About a year ago we listened to you – our users – and brought a more economic version of PLA to the market. This new grade of PLA, with an added impact modifier, has been in huge demand from the moment of release. We developed this new PLA, separate from our lauded PLA/PHA, as a filament for large volume users. Because it’s made with the same processing technology used for other premium colorFabb products, this PLA Economy filament is just as reliable. PLA Economy is available on 2.2kg spools only, delivering a whopping 740 meters of 1.75mm filament and 270 meters of 2.85mm filament.

PETG Economy

Not long after PLA Economy we released PETG Economy this summer. This is our first PETG and has already found a large group of devoted users. colorFabb’s Economy line is developed for users who need a lot of filament. By adding a specifically sourced PETG to our portfolio we are adding more functionality and diversity to our range of filaments.

woodFill

What can be said about woodFill that has not been said already? woodFill was launched exactly 4 years ago this month during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we discontinued earlier this year) and corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill.

 

Eager to try our filaments? At the time of writing we are in the middle of our Black Friday discount. Click here for the details. Basically: you get a 25% discount on all filaments! Use discount code BLACKFRIDAY when shopping online.

Sale lasts until Monday November 27th.

 

Looking for a new printer? The desktop 3D printers in our portfolio ship with a 10% discount during the Black Friday campaign. No discount code needed – we already lowered the price! Of course you get a free spool of filament with every printer and for selected European countries we offer free shipping!

 

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Can’t choose? Check out our catalogue:

Ancient Greek Helmet

Back in August we came across the Instagram account of Andreas Mielonen and were immediately blown away by the work he had posted there: An ancient Greek helmet, printed with bronzeFill on his Ultimaker 2+:

All images in this blog post by Andreas Mielonen

We contacted Andreas to share a bit more about this fantastic print and he was very gracious in sharing his pictures and the process of printing. Andreas (31) lives in Stockholm, Sweden, and has been interested in 3D graphics since watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Andreas: “I was 3D-modeling as a hobby until five years ago when it became my job. Since then I’ve been involved in making commercials, illustrations for science articles and infomercials. A couple of years ago I started getting interested in 3D-printing and started to go to 3D-printing meetups in Stockholm which spurred my interest even more.”

After attending some workshops he decided to buy an Ultimaker 2+.

About the fantastic print of the Greek helmet he says: “I got the idea for the helmet when I got a roll of colorFabb’s bronzeFill and checked out what other people had done with it and saw how good it looked with the blue/greenish patina. So, instantly I thought of the amazing greek bronze helmets. I  designed the helmet in Maya and sculpted in the details in Mudbox. Before I started to print the helmet in bronzefill I made a test print in standard PLA in 1:4 scale, the scale I wanted for the bronzefill version was 1:3 but knew that if the helmet prints well in 1:4 scale the larger version won’t be a problem.”

The settings Andreas found working best on the Ultimaker 2+ were:

Layer Height: 0.2mm
Speed: 30mm/s
Temperature: 215C
Material Flow: 108%

Andreas used the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. Although not necessary for bronzeFill, he used it nonetheless. Also because the stand was printed with our carbon filled XT-CF20 which requires nozzles that can withstand extra wear due to its abrassive nature. (We wrote about our experiences with the Olsson Ruby Nozzle before).

 

Post-processing

Of course where bronzeFill, and our other metal filled filaments truly shine, is in the post processing of the prints.

Andreas explains the way he worked: “I started the post processing with sanding under water to prevent heat buildup using grit 240 sandpaper and finishing off with grit 600. When I was happy with the sanding I made a mixture of salt and vinegar sprayed the helmet two times a day for a week with the mixture, and kept it in a bucket with a lid to contain the smell and enhance the effect of the salt-vinegar mixture. After one week it had a nice patina and I used black oil paint to make the finishing touches.”

“I like the look of the ColorFabb XT CF20 both when it comes straight off the print bed and when it’s been sanded, so I choose that to print the stand for the helmet.”

We thank Andreas for all his input and the images he so kindly provided to us! Please follow Andreas on Instagram (link here) to see his latest creations. As you can see his love for Lord of the Rings has also translated into a terrific print of a small salt box from the Two Towers, made with woodFill. We will write another post about this soon!

 

bronzeFill was our first truly special filament, launched over 3 years ago and still one of our most popular filaments. The added weight and unique aesthetic properties have made this an extremely popular material. Before this fantastic ancient Greek helmet we have seen other great projects come to life in this year alone made with bronzeFill like the enormous Octolamp and the stellar fountain pen.

If you want to have more information on how to print with bronzeFill, visit our handy tutorial: How to print with bronzeFill

If you are looking for more tips and advice regarding post-processing bronzeFill and our other metal filled filaments, we have a nice collection of articles collected on our site.

Interested in bronzeFill? It is readily available in our webshop as 750 grams and 1500 grams spools.

Fountain pen

Every so often you come across a print that it needs extra attention. We saw Dutch engineer Rein van der Mast’s post on LinkedIn and were immediately triggered by his craftmanship. Using his own design, he printed a fountain pen with colorFabb’s bronzeFill 3D printing filament and the results are simply stunning:

Rein designed the pen himself and used an Ultimaker 2+ Extended with a 0.25mm nozzle to print this true piece of art. He patinated part of the surface to make it green. Rein has 3D printed the world’s first fountain pen nib in titanium – the results of his extensive research. Believe us if we say you have not seen or heard the last from Rein about this fantastic new development!

Rein van der Mast studied Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology (NL). He also immersed himself into machine construction. In the mid 90s he led the design department of a manufacturer of consumer products, where he successfully implemented 3D CAD and 3D printing to rapidly obtain prototypes of consumer products.

You can find more information about Rein’s activities in 3D printing on his SOLide website.

This print was intended as an experiment, but the results exceeded Rein’s expectations and he considers more commercial applications of bronzeFill in the near future. The surface quality is outstanding making it look not 3D printed at all! This is due to the printing resolution combined with the careful post-processing.

bronzeFill was our first truly special filament, launched 3 years ago and still one of our most popular filaments. The added weight and unique aesthetic properties have made this an extremely popular material. Seeing a project like the fountain pen materialize with this filament is fantastic!

If you want to have more information on how to print with bronzeFill, visit our handy tutorial: How to print with bronzeFill

Unprocessed prints

If you are looking for more tips and advice regarding post-processing bronzeFill and our other metal filled filaments, we have a nice collection of articles collected on our site.

Interested in bronzeFill? It is readily available in our webshop as 750 grams and 1500 grams spools.

 

Abrasive filaments

In a world where 3D printing users require more functional and exotic filaments, we try to keep up with the demands. Although we aim to make sure our filaments work on as many printers as possible, we know that not all materials are a good fit for every printer. One of the reasons can be that some filaments wear the standard brass nozzles too much.

This summer our printlab sees a lot of testing with the Olsson Ruby nozzle, a nozzle which works especially fine with our abrasive filaments like XT-CF20 and steelFill.

Full credits for the designs at the end of the post

We printed with the brand new 0.6mm and 0.8mm Olsson Ruby nozzles on the Ultimaker 2.

The Olsson Ruby nozzles we printed with provided to us by its manufacturer and very own distributor for the Nordic Region: 3DVerkstan, based in Stockholm. In the words of Daniel Ljungstig, CEO of 3DVerkstan: “The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. He designed it to be able to print extremely hard materials for scientific research at Uppsala University in Sweden.”

 

During our test printing the mask we have seen quite some benefits over the regular brass nozzles that are the current industry standard: The ruby nozzle retains the excellent heat conducting properties of brass, while being extremely resistant to wear. This means that you can print your standard materials as usual, but also very abrasive materials such as XT-CF20 and steelFill. Daniel Ljungstig adds: “In addition to this, many of our test users have reported an improved surface quality compared to standard nozzles.” 

The Olsson Ruby is a high-tech nozzle with a carefully designed ruby tip, which makes it have unique properties. The ruby nozzle is designed by Anders Olsson, inventor of the popular Olsson Block that is also part of the Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printers. You can visit the website here.

 

About the filaments…

XT-CF20

XT-CF20 is our first Amphora based special filament, launched nearly two years ago, made with colorFabb_XT and 20% carbon fibres. More information can be found here. XT-CF20 has received some really good reviews on our website. It may not be the easiest filament to print with, but the results can be stunning. The functionality, stiffness and the matte finish are true selling points of this material.

colorFabb’s XT-CF20 is available in both 750 grams and 2.2kg spools. Click here to see the availabilty.

steelFill

With steelFill we are added a fourth metal based filament to our portfolio after succesfully releasing 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.

You can find the full tutorial on how to print with steelFill here.

Iron Man Bust by Geoff.W (not printed with the Ruby nozzle, by the way) – http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:571321

As with XT-CF20, steelFill is available in our webshop and through our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

 

The designs

3D printed bike dropout right by colorFabb: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:892442
OpenRC F1 250% Front Upper BOM by colorFabb: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1834126
Misumi Aluminium Extrusion 2020 profile (scaled) by Beverageexpert: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:280318
SteelFill anvil by Steve Cox (original post)
Mother’s Day Sculpture by MakePrintable: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1541512

The nozzles were generously supplied to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor and partner in the Nordic region and manufacturer of the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. For more information about the nozzle, contact 3DVerkstan: info@3dverkstan.se or visit the Olsson Ruby website.

Final Fantasy VII Globe

Sometimes it is just fun to print game based gadgets. A request came from one of our colleagues in logistics to print the Final Fantasy VII Globe (or comet, as he says), which he wants to paint afterwards. For this print, which needed a lot of detail, we used nGen, our all-round 3D printing filament made with Eastman Amphora™ AM3300 3D polymer.

Design by Qwyksylver: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1084401

We printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with nGen Dark Gray and a 0.4mm nozzle. The print took 10 hours and we printed with 40mm/s and a 0.06mm to get the most details out of this print.

Released in 1997, Final Fantasy VII is one of the most iconic games to be released. Popularity never slowed down and this year, during its 20th anniversary there will be a lot of attention for this classic again.

Material of choice is our trusted nGen filament. nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over 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. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly. In a recent survey we have seen it is regarded as one of the most popular materials in our portfolio. This is not without reason. For instance, nGen Black has nothing but solid 5 star reviews and is on sale right now! (Sale occurs at the moment of publishing and only for a limited time).

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide.

nGen is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer AM3300. It is part of our range of Amphora based filaments. Other grades are: engineering grade colorFabb_XT, high temperature resistant colorFabb_HT and semi-flexible nGen_FLEX. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient, and attractive.

You can find more about what co-polyesters are by clicking here or check the table below how the rigid filaments compare to ABS and PLA:

Once our colleague has the painted globe (or comet), we will show you an update of course.

Print+ headphone

After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2015, the Print+ headphones have finally started shipping! At colorFabb we saw the potential of these DIY headphones immediately and backed the campaign by buying 25 of these headphone kits. We even made one of the headphone a featured print during the launch of our nGen filament:

From our nGen landing page. Print+ headphone printed with nGen Purple

We were also among the first to showcase the Print+ headphones during the 2015 TCT Show in Birmingham:

Source: colorFabb Vine account

Last week we received Print+ DIY Headphone kits. The kit contains all the necessary components such as speakers, cables and a remote. The remaining parts, to customize your headphone and make it truly yours, can be printed after downloading the files from their site. The Kickstarter campaign ended many moons ago, but the kit is available from their site now.

The variety in our colorFabb portfolio allows for some really cool combinations & unique headsets to be printed. Make it yours!

We have printed and assembled two of these headphones. One has been made in woodFill and our brand new PETG Economy Black filament:

Print+ headphone printed with woodFill and PETG Economy

We chose woodFill for the visual quality of the material and PETG Economy since it is strong enough, which is necessary for the headphone frame. The woodFill was printed on the Lulzbot Mini with standard woodFill profile settings (provided by Lulzbot) at 0.2mm layer height and a standard nozzle.

Another headphone was printed with nGen Dark Gray:

And for the other headphone nGen was chosen because of the visual quality and the layer on layer adhesion of the material. Aside from functionality, the nGen portfolio contains the brightest and some unique colors to really stand out.

This nGen print was made Ultimaker 2+ with a 0.4mm nozzle and printed at a 0.2mm layer height.

The Print+ project is not only a very cool idea, it is also a sustainable one. You don’t need to buy new headphones if one part breaks. You print one or two new parts right away! You can read the Print+ vision here or contact them directly if you have any further questions: https://www.print.plus/contact/

 

About the materials

woodFill

woodFill was launched in November 2013 during the London 3D Print Show and was our first special filament. Other natural filled special filaments have followed, like bambooFill (which we recently discontinued) and more recently corkFill. Our woodFill has been a hit from day one due to easy processing and its fantastic looks. Added bonus is that your print room smells like a wood shop when printing with woodFill. Check it out online: it has received nothing but 5 star reviews on our site!

PETG Economy

Earlier this month we released PETG Economy, a high quality filament for functional prototyping. It is available exclusively on 2.2kg spools and in three colors: black, white and red. We currently ship from stock and the PETG Economy range is also available as a value pack.

nGen

nGen has proven itself to be a very versatile material that can be used for a lot of applications, visual prototyping being one of them! It has become our default, all-round filament for printing all sorts of prototypes and prints just have to look damn good!

nGen is an all-round filament which has many advantages over 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. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Ever since launching in november 2015 (and later in a big way during the CES Show early 2016), nGen has been a bestseller and a material that has been adopted by users worldwide very rapidly.

nGen is available through our webshop and our network of distributors and resellers worldwide as well as our partner Lulzbot.

Speaking of the Lulzbot Mini printer… Did you know we have it available on our website and ship from stock? Better even: we ship for free in Europe and send out two free spools of nGen with the printer!

The LulzBot Mini was built to work out of the box, with no complicated assembly process getting in the way of you creating. Operating the Mini is the same- straightforward software, easy to read documentation and an army of LulzBot enthusiasts eager to help out people getting started. This printer is not only easy. you will still find flexible, industrial strength capacity from this machine.

Read Make Magazine’s review of the Lulzbot Mini here.

The Lulzbot Mini is now available in our webshop at € 1.573 including VAT / € 1.300 excluding VAT.

FLEX_Link by Niels van Valburg

Updated: Now with promotional video (skip to the end)

Our intern Niels van Valburg has completed his chair design project and named it… FLEX_Link. The FLEX_Link is a chair that anyone can make at home! Two weeks ago we already tweeted the assembled chair and Niels now officially present the finished project.

Earlier this year Niels started with us as an intern and for his bachelor thesis he was to design and print a seating object. The most recent blog regarding his updates can be found here. Now the project has finished, let’s give the stage to Niels himself:

 

Hey there!

So this is the final result of my chair design project with nGen_FLEX!

 

Design by Niels van Valburg. Files on Thingiverse and Youmagine

 

“For the past 5 months I have been working on this project. And in case you are wondering, you can sit on it!

To make this I have used an Ultimaker 2+ equipped with a 0.8 millimeter nozzle and a fresh set of LokBuild on the glass plate for proper adhesion.”

“As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, the decision has been made to design and make a chair that is available to the public. That means using materials that are readliy available for everyone, in this case 18 millimeter thick plywood, and combining them with a couple of spools of filament to make an acual product ready for use.”

Niels himself

The connectors are designed with the possiblities of both the material and 3D printing in mind. The flexible material is also used as a way of ensuring that the connections are strong enough, by letting them flex around the wood.

One of the key aspects of this chair is that since it is easy to make, people can customize the design to their own needs. They can make it bigger, or more ergonomic depending on their demands. Also various types of material can be used in combination with the printed parts.

The chair itself has been designed to support a maximum of 150 kilogram using SolidWorks and FEM methods.

Enjoy!

Niels

The idea behind the design of the chair is that anyone should be able to print and assemble it. Niels has uploaded all the necessary files on Thingiverse and Youmagine:

Take particular note of the instruction manual to assemble the chair. It can be downloaded as a PDF and has been done in true IKEA form! Really impressive work, Niels!

 

 

About nGen_FLEX

nGen_FLEX was released in September 2016 at the TCT Show and is our first semi-flexible material. With a Shore A hardness of 95 it is a material that is ideally suited for functional parts. It is not soft and squishy like other flexible materials in the market, but allows for fast printing and printing on 3D printers using a Bowden tube. nGen_FLEX is a material for users looking for an engineering grade flexible filament with a high temperature resistance (over 120 degrees C) and good chemical resistance.

You can read the initial reception of nGen_FLEX here.

nGen_FLEX is made with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymers, a range of co-polyesters developed with Eastman Chemical Company for 3D printing. Amphora co-polyesters are low-odor, styrene-free choices that are uniquely suited for 3D printing applications. With Amphora, items can be created that are more functional, more durable, more efficient and attractive. You can find more information about co-polyesters in the article we published last summer: What we talk about when we talk about co-polyesters.

Update 7-7-2017:

Here is the promotional video:

Camera housing

Today’s featured print serves two goals. First of all, we’re always looking to use our filaments to make the best use of it. In this case we have used PLA Economy to make a prototype of a security camera housing. The second purpose was to make our new intern Pierre known with the Ultimaker 2 and Cura slicer software. We can safely say both goals were met.

 

Designed by Toby Lankford: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:993974

Working from a design by Toby Lankford, Pierre made this model in 3 days. It was a perfect model for Pierre to get the printer and slicer known and to print multiple parts.

We used this case to welcome our new intern Pierre. This was a perfect project to get to know the Ultimaker 2 and Cura slicer software. Pierre also used a Raspberry Pi to show how the internal parts should be mounted.

Printed on the UM2 with PLA Economy Silver. Everything is printed at 0.2mm layerheight, 210/125C and 60C bed temperature.

We used PLA Economy as it’s perfect for making a first visual model of a new product. For outdoor use we would not advice using PLA Economy if durability is important, but it has proven to be an excellent filament for indoor use and visual prototyping.

PLA Economy is a fantastic PLA grade which we launched in November last year. 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.

Here are some print settings to get started:

Adviced 3d printing temperature: 195C-220C

Adviced 3d print speed: 40 – 100 mm/s

Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not strictly necessary): 50-60C

Cooling fan: 100% fan cooling for best aesthetics, this gives best performance on overhangs and small details. For best mechanical performance try printing with the least amount of cooling needed, for optimal layer adhesion.

Or: 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.

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.

Laundry dryer part

Last week we posted about a real-life problem (although not a problem on a global scale). It is an annoyance that every household encounters: a part of, say, a laundry dryer breaks. And that is exactly what happened.

Normally what happens next: you call the service guy (or girl), they take their good time to come over, try to fix the problem, have to order in a spare part, etc. etc. But we prefer not to be stuck in the 20th century mechanics of everyday life. Let’s get disruptive. Let’s design the part ourselves, print it and replace it.

Original broken part on the left, newly printed part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray on the right.

First, of course, we needed to model it in Solidworks and then we set out to print it.

Printed on the Ultimaker 2 we made this part with colorFabb_HT Dark Gray (printing at 260 degrees and the heated bed at 100 degrees at a 0.1mm layer height).

3D printing has allowed for the creation of gadgets, cosplay and other fun stuff, but materials like colorFabb_HT, enabled by Eastman Tritan™ co-polyester technology, allow for truly disruptive uses in day to day life.

colorFabb_HT is made with Eastman Amphora™ HT5300 and is a low-odor and styrene-free material uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particularly those who need their models to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and high temperature resistance with a Tg of over 100⁰C. colorFabb_HT empowers professional users to create more durable and useful items, making prototyping truly functional. This opens up new areas in which 3D printed applications can be successfully applied.

colorFabb_HT is uniquely suited for advanced 3D printing users, particular those who need their creations to exhibit excellent durability, toughness and temperature resistance. You can find more information on our dedicated landing page.

Aside from its functionality in practical prints, colorFabb_HT Clear also allows to print near transparent prints. Another feature, as a recent post shows, is the ability to print with extreme detail.

colorFabb_HT is available in our webshop.