Recently we challenged our followers to design a functional part and send it to us. You can read the initial announcement right here. The designs are to be printed with our PA-CF Low Warp filament, an engineering grade nylon based filament which can be printed with virtual no warping – even on a non-heated bed.
We received quite a few responses. All entries were judged by three experienced designers and 3D printers:
- Steve Cox, UK – 3D printing expert when it comes to our metal filled filaments & much more!
- Brent Wright, US – founder of LifeNabled and changing lifes by using 3D printing. See some of his amazing work here.
- Gijs Houdijk, NL – technical development manager at colorFabb, knows 3D printing and our filaments better than you know yourself.
They have taken the month of June to judge the designs and chosen five which will be printed by colorFabb. The winners, mentioned below, will receive the print when ready, 2 spools of PA-CF Low Warp and 15% discount for life in our webshop! Thanks to the jury for taking their time!
Here are the winning designs, in no particular order:
Brent Heylen / part for the Shell Eco marathon, a school project
Pol Guixe / filter box for a Fiat Panda
Peter Roodenburg / Prusa fan shroud
Oscar Kogenhop / personal shoe stretcher
Jaromir Efler / bashguard for a trail bike
The parts will be printed over the coming weeks and we will keep you updated on the progress! This blog will be updated with the final results once ready, of course.
About PA-CF Low Warp
We launched PA-CF Low Warp late last year. It is a one of a kind polyamide formulation with the ability to print nearly warp free on non heated buildplatforms. Low infill prints come out perfectly flat on cold bed for higher infill prints 40/50C temperature is enough to obtain flat prints. The formulation has been modified to reduce the uptake of moisture by half compared to PA6 and it also takes about 4 times longer to reach the saturation point. This makes PA-CF Low Warp less sensitive to moisture than most other nylon filaments available in the market.
This tailormade formulation of polyamide features the mechanical properties of a PA6. Tensile strength was measured at 77,99 MPa and impact strength (notched) was measured at 5,44KJ/m2, test specimens both printed on Ultimaker 2+, 260C 0.1mm layerheight with 100% infill.
PA-CF Low Warp allows continues use at 120°C while retaining sufficient properties for the intended application. For those looking to print with nylon, moisture is a serious topic. PA-CF low warp has been modified to lower the uptake of moisture and slow down the time it takes to fully saturate by 4 times. In practice this means the filament is quite forgiving and user should be able to print with the material without noticing extreme influences of moisture uptake.
Users can now print high strength material without the need of heated chambers. The materials shows very good results for 3D printed parts compared to injection molded data, with only minimal loss in performance. This is a result of the excellent printability of the material, enabling users to acquire optimal performance on desktop FFF 3d printers.