xt-cf20 Archives - Learn ColorFabb

Motorcycle suspension part

As we add more materials to our portfolio we see more possibilities. With our proven XT-CF20 and the recently added Igus Iglidur I150 for instance. We printed a motorcycle suspension linkage prototype:

Design by colorFabb

Both materials were printed on the Ultimaker 2+ with the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. Both components were press fitted together with a tight tolerance. This model was made as a fitting prototype and was not part of a working motorbike. We used the following print settings:

XT-CF20
Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm
Layerheight: 0.2mm
Printing speed: 40mm/s
Nozzle temperature: 255C
Bed temperature: 80C
Infill: 90%

Igus Iglidur I150
Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm
Layerheight: 0.2mm
Printing speed: 40mm/s
Nozzle temperature: 255C
Bed temperature: 90C
Infill: 60%

About the filaments

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.

A special point of attention is the abrasive nature of the carbon fibers. In general these fibers will accelerate the nozzle-wear of brass nozzles, much faster than unfilled filaments. Therefore we recommend to use hardened steel nozzles. XT-CF20 is available online

igus filaments are all about functionality. The iglide® range of filaments are 3D printing materials for maximum service in moving applications. You can create custom parts with significantly higher wear resistance than standard filament. The iglide materials benefits include:

High degree of wear resistance, similar to that of injection molded iglide® components
Igus has more than 30 years of experience in the development of high-performance plastics for moving applications
Tested in Igus’ own laboratory

Components made of igus® Tribo-Filament are up to 50 times more wear-resistant than standard materials for 3D printing and therefore have an extremely long service life. Due to their excellent tribological properties, they are suited for 3D printing of replacement parts, for example bearings, drive nuts, gears and other wear parts. The igus® Tribo-Filaments can be processed on 3D printers that are based on the fused-deposition-modelling method (FDM/FFF) and that allow the nozzle temperature to be set as required.

Valve

Eearlier this week we printed a head storage for the Stacker 3D printer with XT-CF20. Aside from its stiffness due to 20% of added carbon fibres, the matte finishing of the print is one of the reasons why customers choose this product. It is a terrific filament for visual prototyping as well, if the print needs a tough and industrial look. Like today’s solenoid valve for water and gas:

Design: https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/123/472/=172c6i1

This print was made for visual prototyping only, but it shows what can be done with 3D printing to showcase a model. This print is based on CAD files from McMaster-Carr Supply Company part 2660K12.

It was printed on the Ultimaker 2+ in our very own printlab in 3 seperate parts and glued together for a HQ visual representation. Due to the abrasive nature of XT-CF20, we printed with the brand new Olsson Ruby nozzle, provided to us by its manufacturer and very own distributor for the Nordic Region: 3DVerkstan.

The print was made with a 0,1mm layer height. For the nozzle we chose the Olsson Ruby nozzle 2,85mm version. 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 XT-CF20, but also our steelFill.

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.

This nozzle was generously supplied to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor and partner in the Nordic regiona and manufacturer of the Olsson Ruby Nozzle. For more information about the nozzle, contact 3DVerkstan: info@3dverkstan.se

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.

XT-CF20 is available online.

3d printing colorfabb olsson ruby nozzle ultimaker valve xt-cf20

VTOL Drone

From time to time we feature prints that have not originated from our own print lab, but were printed with our filaments. We love to see user cases like the one that follows which show the potential of 3D printing. In this case, our carbon re-inforced filament XT-CF20 was used to bring a prototype for a VTOL drone to a customer in the shortest time possible.

The company responsible for this is nSize, located in Rotterdam. They produced the VTOL drone prototype for Aerovinci in Delft. In their own words:

“AeroVinci is a company based in Delft, whose mission it is to build a fully autonomous network of drones, able to deliver data and services without human interaction. On their delegation to Israel with the Dutch Embassy they showcased their VTOL drone that should work with their drone-in-a-box concept.”

“BerkelaarMRT teamed up with nSize to build this prototype. With a wingspan of exactly one meter, flight case restrictions and a short deadline this was not an easy task. We chose to print this on our Ultimakers in carbon filled filament. This material is strong, creates consistent prints and is easy to sand. We’ve managed to complete this project in just over two weeks.”

“First task was to make the prototype fit in a standard Pelicase flight case, without having to charge for extra oversize luggage. So we had to split the model, which needed to be assembled and disassembled on site without any tools. We opted for some strong magnets and metal pins, carefully aligned. We have had some good results in the past with pausing prints, inserting magnets with our project for Boskalis.”

“With our first split lines in place, we set out to further divide the wing in more parts so that they fit our printers. Respecting of course the print direction so there was minimal overhang. We carefully crafted some extra splits and insert parts to keep all the surfaces as clean as possible. We ended up dividing the total wing into 27 pieces.”

“In less than one week we had printed all the parts with the colorfabb XT-CF20 filament, with only one misprint due to power outage. Next step was to glue the components together and fill up the remaining gaps with some black filler. The real reason we chose this filament was down to the last step; it was easy to sand and gives a killer look! With some days left in our process we’ve added some extra details as wiring and presented the wing to AeroVinci.”

You can find more information about nSize on their company page.

XT-CF20 was introduced early 2015 by colorFabb and is based on colorFabb_XT with 20% carbon fibres. This filament is perfect for parts which need high stiffness. XT-CF20 has a beautiful matte surface finish when printed.

XT-CF20 is available in our webshop and through our network of worldwide resellers.

3d printing aerovinci colorfabb drone nsize prototype vtol xt-cf20

Mirror holder

Sometimes you need a practical item for in and around the house. Like when you need a holder to hold the mirror. Luckily there is 3D printing. With a custom design we printed two mirror holders with XT-CF20.

We introducted XT-CF20 early 2015, containing 20% carbon fibres with colorFabb_XT.

Due to the abrasive nature of XT-CF20 we always used hardened steel nozzles to print this filament. In recent weeks, however, we have been extensively testing with the Olsson Ruby nozzle, provided to us by 3DVerkstan, our distributor in the Nordic region and producer of these new nozzles. You can find the Death Gun mask here and Robot Action figure here for examples printed with this new nozzle that will be released later in November. For further information, you can contact 3DVerkstan.

During our test printing the mirror holders 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.

As you can see we have had fantastic results with this new nozzle which, combined with the stiffness of the material, offer great functionality in everyday use. We printed the mirror holders on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.2mm layer height.

XT-CF20 is available now in our webshop (and take advantage of the colorfabb4you discount code to celebrate our fourth anniversary!)

3d printing colorfabb mirror holder nozzle The Olsson Ruby ultimaker xt-cf20

Cycle Bottle Cage in XT-CF20

Stereotyping is not our thing, but we admit to one thing: the Dutch cycle a lot! Combined with all the 3D printing activity here in the low lands it is only a matter of time when cycling and 3D printing meet up. We have printed bike parts before (click here) and have found more designs to print. For today’s print we have found the Cycle Bottle Cage by francfalco which we printed with XT-CF20.

Design by francfalco: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:439490

We all have Eastman Tritan drinking bottles here and found it only apt that we should be able to bring them along when we are cycling. Eastman Chemical Company is of course our partner for our Amphora 3D Polymer based co-polyesters: nGen, nGen_FLEX, colorFabb_XT and colorFabb_HT.

We printed the bottle cage on a Massportal Pharaoh ED with a 0.2mm layer height.

colorFabb’s XT-CF20 is available in our webshop.

3d printing bike colorfabb cycle bottle cage cycling eastman massportal water bottle xt-cf20

Dodecahedron with XT-CF20

A few weeks ago we printed a Rhombic Dodecahedron Derived Figure with nGen Light Blue. You can find the original post here. We use this model, made by Fred Bartels, a lot lately to test our filaments with. The print we want to share today is the same dodecahedron, but printed with XT-CF20.

Design by Fred Bartels: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:539489

We introducted XT-CF20 early 2015, containing 20% carbon fibres with colorFabb_XT.

As you can see we have had fantastic results with this new nozzle.

We printed the dodecahedron on an Ultimaker 2 at 0.1mm layer height.

XT-CF20 is available now in our webshop.

3d printing colorfabb design dodecahedron fred bartels nozzle olsson ultimaker xt-cf20

Death Gun (Desu Gan) masks with XT-CF20

It was time for a comparison print. With Halloween coming up we chose the Death Gun (Desu Gan) mask from ferreusveritas. The material we used is our XT-CF20, colorFabb_XT with 20% carbon fibre added.

The big mask was printed on the Ultimaker 2 and the small mask on the Hephestos 2. Both masks were printed on a 0.1mm layer height. We roughened up the small mask with sandpaper afterwards.

Original design: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:525610

Originally released early 2015, XT-CF20 has been a hit since day one. We have found a lot of practical uses for this stiff material, like printing parts for a bike, an RC Truggy car and even parts of our recently released F1 scale model. However, one feature that has been commented on before is the beautiful matte finish that XT-CF20 brings. In short, XT-CF20 is a functional material with stunning looks.

XT-CF20 is an abrasive material wearing out a brass nozzle quite fast. For the print made with the Ultimaker 2 we used the new Olsson Ruby nozzle, generously provided by 3DVerkstan, our distributor in the Nordic region and manufacturer of the nozzle. In the words of Daniel Ljungstig, CEO of 3DVerkstan: “After more then 10 months of testing, we are happy to target a November release of this exciting upgrade for desktop 3D Printing. 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 will be available in November 2016.

The small mask was printed on the Hephestos 2 with the regular brass nozzle provided with the printer.

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

3d printing colorfabb death gun desu gan hephestos 2 mask olsson ruby nozzle ultimaker xt-cf20

OpenRC F1 project release

Earlier this year we came across the new design Daniel Norée made: an F1 car, his follow-up to the OpenRC Truggy design we had printed previously. “After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion that a Formula 1 car would probably a perfect follow up project to the Truggy!” says Daniel Norée. Hence, the OpenRC Formula 1 car was born.

As he stepped up his game we felt we had to step up ours as well. First of all we set our print engineer Jos Deelen at work with scaling up the design to 250%. When it came to a choice of materials we didn’t have to think for very long: co-polyesters. Which one? All of them. We found that different parts had different requirements and with nGen, colorFabb_XT, colorFabb_HT, XT-CF20 and our brand new nGen_FLEX. we almost had all our bases covered. If you want to know more about co-polyesters, click here for a blog we posted this summer explaining these great materials we developed with Eastman Chemical Company.

The tyres were made with our new nGen_FLEX filament, released during the TCT Show om September 28th 2016. You can read all about our new semi-flexible filament here: https://learn.colorfabb.com/ngen_flex/

We have published the 250% scaled files on Thingiverse: Thing:1834126. On Thingiverse you can find all the files as well as a more detailed description about how to build your own 1m long OpenRC Formula 1 car. The helmet used in the driver seat is Thing:170222.

We are very proud of the result:

“I learned alot from the OpenRC Truggy and i wanted to use what i had learned in the new project,” Daniel told us. His aim was to design a car with a simpler design and without the hard-to-source parts. According to Daniel, another important part was the material: “While many failed on the Truggy due to the need of hard to print materials like Polycarbonate and it´s likes this time materials like PLA or Co-Polyesters should do the job.”

He spent a couple of intense weeks in Fusion 360 CAD designing the F1 and the result was introduced at a trade fair in Sweden together with Autodesk.

Although Daniel aimed to make a simpler design, the sheer size of the F1 car was a great challenge to get it right. And we did get it right. Due to the size of several parts we used the Stacker S4 printer for the bulk of the print work with great results. It measures a full 107cm from the front to the end. Using all the functional materials (old, new and upcoming…) we had at our disposal we completed the job and recently we took the car out for a test drive.

You can see the results below:

The F1 car will be on display at the TCT Show next week where you can find us at stand B36, running the co-polyester filaments on the Stacker S4.

You can find more about our co-polyesters on our dedicated landing pages for nGen and colorFabb_HT. Our colorFabb_XT, nGen, colorFabb_HT and XT-CF20 are available online.

Follow Daniel Norée’s work and especially his Open RC project here: http://danielnoree.com/?cat=6

Get a quote for the Stacker S4! For the USA, click here. For Europe, click here.

3d printing amphora co-polyesters colorfabb colorfabb_ht colorfabb_xt daniel noree f1 ngen OpenRC stacker xt-cf20

Hovalin violin

The Hovalin violin entirely 3D printed with #corkFill on the Ultimaker 2 & XT-CF20 on the Stacker S4 printer.

Project site: http://www.hovalin.com/

http://colorfabb.com/corkfill
http://colorfabb.com/xt-cf20

For more information on the Stacker S4 printer: http://stacker.colorfabb.com/

From prototyping to production, the S4 has your back. Fast 4x print speeds? Huge build volume. Industrial components. Custom 32bit electronics. Hi-Temp hot ends. Precision linear rails. 1 Year Warranty. All colorFabb filaments work very well with the Stacker S4.

Physical dimensions: 726x800x1029mm

Print size: 355x525x655mm

Sales EU: sales@colorfabb.com

Sales US: www.stacker3d.com

3d printing colorfabb corkfill featured hovalin instrument music stacker violin xt-cf20