Wood seems to be the sexiest material in 3D printing lately. After Materialise’s announcement regarding its new laser sinterable wood materials, the large Netherlands based filament retailer, Formfutura, is launching two new kinds of wood filament: Olive and Ebony, going on sale today on its ecommerce website.
The two new types of filament – available both in 1.75 mm and 2.85 mm sizes – add to Formfutura’s EasyWood filament range, which already included the EasyWood Coconut, a dark brown wooden filament. The EasyWood Olive is a greenish brown wood filament, which gives the wooden 3D printed objects a nature moss-covered appearance.
EasyWood Ebony, like the name entails, is a colonial dark brown wood filament which gives the 3D printed objects a very deep and classy brownish black appearance. It is probably the darkest wood filament currently on the market. All three EasyWood types look, feel, and smell like real wood, a characteristic of wood-based PLA blends that users have come to appreciate as much as its ease of use (especially in 1.75 mm filament size).
Because of its low shrinkage factor, EasyWood is nearly warp-free and therefore will not deform after cooling. Due to its low tendency to warp, EasyWood can be printed without a heated print bed, just like regular PLA, and can, thus, be used in just about every desktop 3D printer on the market.
The advantages of using wood-based filaments also include easy post-processing with fine grit sandpaper, which enables lighter colour shaded wood-nerve structures. Who would have thought, just a couple of years ago, that users would have had all these materials to play with? The rate of innovation is not slowing down either; more wood, metals and other material blends are on the way and the good news is that we are probably just beginning to scratch the surface of all that is possible.
