Blend per il grande formato
Da anni DfC lavora al tema della costomizzazione tramite la produzione digitale additiva, anche lavorando sul tema dell’ibridazione dei materiali. Oggi, grazie alle stampanti di grande formato della famiglia Delta di Wasp, è possibile usare pellet termoplastici e accedere così ad una vasta gamma di possibilità di personalizzazione tramite blend con altri materiali, sia naturali (come la fibra di canapa) che minerali.
L’utilizzo di pellet anziché dei filamenti permette, inoltre, di gestire volumi di stampa importanti poiché l’estrusore lavora con flussi maggiori: questo significa maggior velocità nella realizzazione dei pezzi e maggiore resistenza meccanica. Riteniamo che questa sia una frontiera interessante per tutto il settore della digital manufacturing sia orientata alla prototipazione ma, sopratutto, alla produzione.
Mycelia
The demand for materials and production processes widely biocompatible grows and is a stable trend in the way of industrial production. Design for Craft works on the technology transfer related to the world of digital manufacturing and beyond. One of our latest experiences is the production of objects (prototypes and models) derived from cultured mycelia, in other words the growth apparatus of mushrooms. Their cultivation, under controlled conditions, can lead to the growth of reticular biological structures.
The result is a material with interesting performances, also for industrial uses and totally biological in the production and disposal phase. We launched a series of tests to evaluate the applicability and the results of this process using 3D printing as a way to make molds for the tests.
Re-thinking PLA
In the last months, we showed you the PLA HS (High Strenght). Today we return to talk about it because we have made a lot of prints and further test; the results are truly remarkable, even beyond our expectations.
The FAbLab Pack
In the past months we held many workshops and presentations in many FabLab all over Italy, we met lots of new wonderful friends and makers. Lots of them are asking us to try Stick Filament; they’re really excited about the new materials that we can provide in this format. We actually try to support open source research and, according with our resources, we thought to mix up some Stick Filaments just for them. If you are a Fab Lab now you can request our FabLab Pack; write us (please, use an email with your FabLab’s own domain) and you’ll get it for testing our innovations at a very special price.
PLA High Strenght
The PLA is the most widely used material for 3D printing FFF all over the world. Its greatest value is, in our opinion, the ease with which it allows to get good printing results. However, it’s not definitely considered one of the best plastic materials to create objects and products … For this reason we believe it is important to provide it with better performance, without sacrificing the quality of its printing at all; so here’s the PLA HS (High Strength). This new Stick Filament, composed of PLA and mineral fillers, allows to have a considerable resistance to thermal stress and superior resistance to bending and torsion. In WWW.STICKFILAMENT.COM site you’ll find the technical specifications but now we want to tell you about a couple of tests with which we have been able to verify the exceptional qualities of this material.
TEST 1: The new Super PLA, developed with Keytech, shows its benefits: in the “proof of the washing machine” -exposure to high temperature- the usual PLA is clearly beated by the newcomer! It’s Heat Deflection Temperature is almost double of standard PLA and has the same value of a good quality of ABS.
TEST 2: In the second test, due to its superior thermal and mechanical resistance, we used it to 3d print a real injection mold, perfectly working, as you can see… We moulded with casting wax, casting polyurethane and also injecting polymers like Polypropylene and ABS. We injected this thermoplastics polymer with a standard injection machine!
The new PLA HS will be available soon on WWW.STICKFILAMENT.COM
Marble!
Our research on new materials for 3d printing is on the go. So here’s a new material called Marble. It’s awesome for crafts and all the objects that has to be finished because you can smooth it and paint easy, it just like plaster! Our Marble material contains marble powder and could be printed at 200°C without any problem (with heated bed at a low temperature). It comes in the Stick Filament format, now in 3.0 mm and soon in 1.75 mm
The Saffo’s statue as it’s been printed, smoothed and, finally, painted
As you can see in the video below, Marble is ideal for hobbyists and for craft works because you can work its “chalky” surface with various tools. It will be available for purchasing in www.stickfilament.com very soon.
WAX
We are printing with wax. Yes, sir!
As we say often, the Stick Filament’s system allows to print with 3d printers using new materials, that are not possible to find with extruded filaments (spools). Infact this is a brand new filament (wax based) for FFF 3d printing and here we show you one of our first prints.
We are still in beta testing but just a few words about the printing process: it requires low temperature (about 120/130°C), low speed and works well with a medium size of the noozle.
We are sure you can understand the importance of such a thing and, maybe, you’re thinking the same stuff we have in our own mind: lost wax production. After the first prints we have to try to cast objects with this production process. Then we’ll be ready for release this new Stick Filament.
We’ll let you know. In the meanwhile you can support us with one of the perks with Stick Filaments in the Indiegogo campaign 🙂
Data sheets
We receive lots of questions about the Stick Filament’s technology and characteristics. Here we provide the technical specifications of this materials for FFF 3d printing.
Ultra!
Usually we prefer to develop new materials not yet common in the market of 3D printing but there is still room for innovation even the most used materials, such as PLA and ABS. So we have some new Stick Filament in beta testing; we are talking about transparency and brilliance. Here are two photos of our PLA Ultrabright and ABS Ultraclear, both offer very good results. With ABS Ultraclear you’ll have an outstanding transparency and PLA Ultrabright prints better providing a strong cooling during the printing.
Please note that we don’t use frequently ABS, intact primary gas-phase products of ABS thermal decomposition at very high temperatures have been shown to include carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, as well as a variety of volatile organics. Exposure to thermal decomposition products from ABS has also been shown to have toxic effects. ABS provide a superior print quality but we recommend you to use a good air aspiration over your printer.
Below some details:
PLA Ultrabright (detail)
ABS Ultraclear (detail)
Filaments for food
We took advantage of the Christmas holidays for dabbling in the kitchen and, of course, having fun with our 3D printer. We made a stencil in HIPS for food with Stick Filament and we prepared an excellent mixture of ginger.
At the end of our biscuits are good and beautiful! 😉
