Ever since colorFabb signed its high profile partnership with Eastman Plastics, a giant that produces dozens of high-level polymers, especially copolyesters, the number of new, materials that the company is able to launch is limited only by the time necessary to test and produce them.
Now, the time has come for nGen, a filament based on Eastman’s Amphora AM3300 3D polymer, part of the Eastman Amphora range of copolyesters, developed specifically with 3D printing in mind. It is a low-odor, styrene-free material specifically targeted at new generation 3D printing enthusiasts, particularly those who need the flexibility to print within a wide processing temperature range.
With a glass temperature of over 85ºC, nGen it has over double the heat resistance of PLA and, thus, offers superior mechanical properties without sacrificing exterior appearance or printability. In fact, colorFabb assures that the filament will have good flow properties through the printer nozzle, even at lower temperatures than some other polymers require.
One of nGen’s most interesting features is its melt stability, meaning that, from pellet to filament to 3D Printed part, the mechanical properties of the material will hardly be affected, providing a great deal of printing stability and highly optimized repeatability.
ColorFabb will initially release 17 varieties (including 16 colors and one clear filament) in both 1.75 and 2.85 diameters. Colors range from “whiter than white” to metallic silver and include light blue and royal purple.
The R&D team at colorFabb has been extensively testing its nGen on a wide range of popular 3D printers, including the LulzBot Mini (see video below), Ultimaker Original, Ultimaker 2, Mass Portal Pharaoh ED, Stacker, Makerbot Replicator 2, Deltatower, Prusa i3 Hephestos, and Leapfrog HS.
ColorFabb has gathered that nGen proved to be an excellent material during testing for a wide range of applications, including home appliances, consumer electronics, toys, visual and functional prototyping, modelling and character design, lighting and medical prosthetics.
It might very well open up a new era of adoption for desktop 3D printing and that is no surprise. ColorFabb knew from the beginning that the key to 3D printing is advanced materials availability.
The chart shows the printing temp range for ABS as 250C-260C. I’ve never seen ABS need any thing more then 230C. Colorfabb has always made great filament. However, it is not inexpensive.
I’m a big fan of colorFabb filament. After using a half dozen other filaments over the years, I’ve found that colorFabb feeds better in my printers than any of the others. The shape is consistently round (no oval sections) and it varies very little from the specified diameter over the course of the spool. It’s great to see them introducing new and improved filaments with such regularity. Definitely worth the extra money versus off brand filaments. (BTW, I’m not affiliated with colorFabb in any way. When something saves me time and headaches, I simply like to tell people about it.)
I’m just asking, not putting anything you said in question: i use BQ PLA filament, 20€/Kg, i get impeccable results from my custom built 3D printer (the point here is that it’s not a 2, 3, 4, 5000$ Type-A printer). From your experience, is it worth paying 45/50€/Kg for a colorFab PLA filament? (or other more expensive brand)
I’m a materials science engineer so you can get “techy” on me 😛
Tks. Cheers
If you have found a filament brand which works well for your printer and the objects you print, I’d seriously stick with that filament. I was mainly relating my experience with my own finicky printers. First, I should mention that I use PLA for the vast majority of my printing. Before I started using colorFabb, I wasted a lot of filament on failed and/or poor quality prints. With the cheaper filaments I tried, I generally had inconsistent feed rates, due to wide variations in the diameter or shape of the filament. These showed up as random thicker lines and or small “blobs” on the vertical surfaces of my prints. In other cases, the filament would suddenly get so narrow (or oval) that the pinch wheel
couldn’t get enough traction to push it through the bowden tube, causing under-extrusion. I suspect non-bowden printers would handle these variations better. At any rate, since I started using colorFabb PLA, I no longer have those issues. So in my own case, paying the extra for colorFabb filament is actually saving me money by allowing me to use more of the filament successfully. When I need something other than PLA (nylon, for example,) the specialized Taulman filaments seem to work well for me, too. But, as I said before, if you have found a filament that gives you great results, I’d stick with it. Keep your printer happy and it will keep you happy.