News

Desktop 3D printers are mainly consumer or entry-level enterprise machines. They are usually made for prototyping and deskside use. Industrial 3D printers (Additive Manufacturing Machines) are used for manufacturing, usually in industrial settings. In Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM, also called FFF) a new category of high-temperature 3D printers is emerging which is fusing these formerly disparate groups of systems. These are high-temperature 3D Printers which are capable of manufacturing in high-performance engineering plastics such as PEEK and PEI.   What is a high-temperature 3D printer?  This category of machines is very new. There are many more people saying that they have a...

Facilan™ C8 is a new kind of 3D printing material. Developed to be a functional 3D printing material for manufacturing, C8 has been optimized for high throughput, high-reliability applications in 3D printing. Designed and developed for manufacturing applications Facilan™ C8 is the first of a family of Facilan™ materials that will cater to enterprise, engineering and industrial users of 3D printing. Facilan™ C8: has higher impact strength than ABS. has higher tensile strength than ABS. is tougher than PLA. is compostable at home. has a luxuriously soft touch feel. has the best layer adhesion properties of any FDM material.  ...

Prins Staal is a Haarlem based steel processing and trading company. The Dutch company trades in carbon and stainless steel as well as manufactures parts out of steel. Short lead times coupled with unique parts for high-value applications is where the companies focus lies. Prins Staal employs over 75 people at its Haarlem site and has a wide array of steel processing machinery at its disposal. The company uses flame, plasma and laser cutting for steel and also have a plethora of other equipment to shear, sand, straighten, anneal, drill or saw steel. The company makes industrial steel parts, parts for...

Kees Kamper has been working on designing and developing 3D printed lamps for three years now. His blog details his findings and journey on his blog and Instagram. He developed a line of lamps by himself initially. Now he collaborates with lamp designer Gerard Schoone for his current line.  Kees uses Slic3r for his files and 3D4Makers PETG filament for his lamps. He choose out PETG because the material is stronger and tougher than PLA and more flexible. This flexibility lets his lamp parts fit better and they are also less likely to break. He also likes the layer adhesion and...

Desktop FDM 3D printers are usually able to extrude material up to temperatures of around 280 C. At these temperatures prolonged use will degrade parts such as PTFE nozzle inserts or plastic parts in the build volume. At even higher temperatures stepper motors will fail, as will electronics. Build platform temperatures are also limited to around 100 C. Current generation desktop machines were conceived with filaments such as PLA and ABS in mind. Therefore it is completely sensible that they have been made to operate at the temperatures required for those materials.  A Lulzbot Taz repurposed as a PEEK and...