After colorFabb, Proto-Pasta, and Kai Parthy have acted as pathfinders and demonstrated that thermopolymeric filaments can be combined with a wide range of other materials, two young Italian companies, Ira 3D and TreeD, are taking the lead in experimenting with new materials. The results are impressive, ranging anywhere from aluminum to wool.
Italians are a strange lot: sometimes they are the first to discover something (see Christopher Columbus, Volta, or Meucci), but either they need to go abroad to find investors or someone comes along and capitalizes on the same intuitions. Other times, they arrive second on new trends but they improve them and make them their own, exporting them globally (pasta being a prime example). This is what has been happening with Making, 3D printing in general, and, now, the development of filaments.
We covered TreeD’s range of exotic filaments in a recent article, but now the company is teasing the market with the first wool-like filament, called Textile Pro. It will be a composite filament destined to a target of experienced FFF 3D printer users. It will replicate the texture of a rough fabric, with a warm feel to it and a surface finish that will create particular chromatic fluctuations, reacting to the light. Textile Pro will require particular slicing and 3D printing parameter settings and will soon be available in black, bronze, and purple, with new colors coming later on.
Ira 3D is the Italian manufacturer of the Poetry2 3D printer, which was developed to be able to print with at least ten different materials. The company is now launching its own range of filaments, which includes a number of innovative products including several metals. Possibly the most original materials are going to be the IRA-Alum and IRA-Steel, made respectively by combining PLA with aluminum and steel powder.
The company is, however, capitalizing on previous experiences by established companies, such as colorFabb, by offering its own range of wooden (IRA-Wood), Copper (IRA-Copper), and Bronze (IRA-Bronze) filaments, as well as inventors like Kai Parthy by introducing its own brick-based (IRA-Brick) filament. Other new products include the IRA-Carbon, a high strength filament based on carbon fibers, and Crystal, which will be a high-transparency product based on PET-G polymers. The offer is completed by less exotic though no less useful products, such as H-Limofy (HIPS), for easy to remove supports, Gummify for flexible objects, and ABS Super, which is a particular type of ABS developed to reduce deformations. Prices for all these materials are generally in line with the market’s current offerings, with most metals ranging between €50 and €60 for 500 grams and carbon fiber going for €120 for 750 grams.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Ira3D’s new filament offer is the price: the exotic metal-based filament range from all in this selection should give hardcore 3D printing adopters quite a bit of 3D printer “fodder” to play around with, not to mention a whole new range of products to prototype or manufacture with their Poetry2 3D printer.
