A research report indicates tremendous growth in the 3D printer filament market in coming years.
filament
3D Printing with Carbon Fiber: Tracing the Lifecycle Thread
3D-printing carbon fiber is now a mainstay of the additive manufacturing (AM) industry.
The Curious IVI 3D Printer
I’m looking at some details on an upcoming 3D printer that seems too good to believe.
The Spül Tracker Is Coming
There seems to be a very interesting 3D printing accessory in the works, the “Spül Tracker”.
Rigid.ink Launches 3D Printing Educational Program
Rigid.ink has launched “The Institute of 3D Printing” to help those new to 3D printing become more successful.
Keene Village Plastics Acquires MakeShaper
3D print filament manufacturer Keene Village Plastics announced it has acquired MakeShaper.
Markforged’s New Materials
It looks like Markforged will be releasing some new metal materials soon.
How Expensive Is That Diamond Filament?
A company is marketing a “diamond” 3D printer filament.
How Do You Learn Filament Extrusion?
So you’ve decided to make your own 3D printing filament. Great. …How?
Troubles At Maker Geeks
There’s a bit of controversy surrounding US-based filament producer Maker Geeks.
Question of the Week: Metal 3D Pen?
This week’s question is one we’ve seen a couple of times and deserves an answer.
CoLiDo’s Metal 3D Printer Now Available
After a couple of years of development, Hong Kong-based CoLiDo has released their new metal 3D printer.
A New 3D Printer Startup: 3DConstructions
We ran into a brand new 3D printer startup: 3DConstructions.
Book of the Week: 3D Printing Failures 2019 Edition
This week’s selection is “3D Printing Failures: 2019 Edition: How to Diagnose and Repair ALL Desktop 3D Printing” by Sean Aranda and David Feeney.
Question of the Week: Basic 3D Printer Filament Calculations
This week’s question deals with arithmetic.
Characteristics of Successful Filament Extruders
Over the years there have been several desktop 3D printer filament extruders, and almost all have failed.
Many Thoughts on MakerBot’s New Method
MakerBot finally announced a new 3D printer and I have some thoughts.
Has Essentium Reinvented 3D Printing?
Call us impressed. Essentium’s new HSE 180•S seems like a 3D printer utterly different from its competitors.
Dynamical Tools’ Interesting Product Line
Spain-based Advanced Production Tools S.A produces a line of powerful industrial 3D printers under the name Dynamical Tools.
Ambitious Ocean Plastics Recycling Project
I’m looking at a new Kickstarter project that hopes to manufacture 3D printer filament from stray plastic in the Caribbean.
colorFabb Introduces Color On Demand Filaments
Dutch 3D printer material mastermind colorFabb has introduced something quite revolutionary: color on demand.
A New Glass-Like 3D Print Material
Verbatim announced a very interesting glass-like 3D printer filament product.
colorFabb Drops Brass Filament
3D printer filament leader colorFabb abruptly dropped their brassFill product.
Meet 3devo’s New Filament Makers
3devo has introduced the Precision and Composer Series of filament makers.
A New HIPS 3D Printer Filament with a Difference
Refil announced a new recycled HIPS 3D printer filament, but its source is of interest.
Fraunhofer Institute Develops “Hard” Metal 3D Printing Filament
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) have found a way to make much harder 3D prints in metal.
How Do You Open Source 3D Printer Filament?
It seems there is another open source filament available for 3D printing, but how exactly is this done?
Prusa Introduces Filament Line with Powerful Process
Prusa Research has done something few, if any, 3D printer manufacturers have done: develop their own in-house produced filament.
TRUE Food Safe PLA
Filaments.ca is introducing a new food-safe line of 3D printing filament.
New LCP Concept Could Provide Ultra-Strong Filament
I’m reading a paper describing a new way to 3D print with molecularly oriented liquid- crystal polymers.
Royal DSM’s New “Low” Carbon Fiber Filament Raises Questions
Royal DSM announced a new 3D printer filament that has an unusual statistic: lower carbon fiber.
The Selectra Multi-Material 3D Printer Add-On
A new Kickstarter project offers a means of 3D printing in multiple colors.
The 3mm Filament Problem
I’ve hit this problem twice now this week: is 3mm filament really 3.00mm?
Which 3D Printing Material is Right for Your Next Project?
Manufacturing is embracing 3D printing, due to the vast number of choices for materials.
Something Interesting Happening With Flexible Filaments
I saw an announcement of a set of new flexible filaments from Keene Village Plastics and had a thought.
Mosaic Manufacturing’s Integratable Palette 2
Mosaic Manufacturing announced their latest 3D printing product, the Palette 2.
Hands on with PLAS3D Filament
We finally managed to test a sample of PLAS3D’s filament, and boy, we are impressed!
Have You Tried RollingUp Spool Manager?
The developer of Printoid has produced another useful application: RollingUp.
The Most Incredible 3D Print Sale
I received notice from LulzBot today of a most incredible sale.
The Need For A Standard Spool Label
Here’s the situation: a print is running at the lab, and the filament is running short.
What Filament Should I Use?
With the dramatic increase of 3D print material availability, the choice of filament becomes far more difficult.
A New Storage Mechanism for 3D Printer Filament
3D printer filament is often very high quality these days, at least from some manufacturers.
High Temperature PLA 3D Printer Filament?
A new 3D printer filament proposes a much higher deformation temperature.
Armor 3D No More: A Lesson for 3D Print Startups?
The company formerly known as “Armor 3D” is now known as “Kimya”.
BigRep Explores Large-Scale Flexible Prints
BigRep has taken an interesting step by introducing a flexible material.
What’s Up With 3D Printer Filaments?
An interesting survey was conducted by Filaments.Directory that reveals some interesting behavior by 3D printer operators.
Maybe We Are Moving To Reusable Spools After All?
Keene Village Plastics, an Ohio-based 3D printer filament manufacturer, announced a reusable spool system they call “The Filament Koil”
Why Is It So Hard To Buy 3D Printer Filament?
Sometimes it is just too difficult to buy 3D printer filament from some companies.
The MasterSpool Concept: A Great Idea, But Does It Have Legs?
We’re watching a video proposal from RichRap on how 3D printer filament should be spooled.
CoLiDo’s 3D Metal Printer
At CES we saw CoLiDo’s new industrial 3D metal printer.
Do You Have Enough Filament?
One of the most aggravating questions in desktop 3D printing is: Do you have sufficient filament left to complete the print?
BASF: Something for Everyone in 3D Printing
At FormNext we had occasion to visit BASF and came out very impressed.
Recyclable BioPlastics Are Not Necessarily Energy Efficient
A research report puts doubt on the notion of “eco friendly” 3D printing.
Why Would You Ever Want to Make Your Own 3D Printer Filament?
There has never been a better time to buy 3D printer filament. Why would you make your own?
A Look Inside 3DEVO’s 3D Printer Filament Making System
We finally got a close look at 3DEVO’s desktop filament maker.
3D Printer Filament Quality Keeps Going Up
A new material for 3D printers was announced today tells us something about the direction the filament industry is heading.
What’s Right and Wrong with 3D Printer Filaments?
There’s a long discussion of the opportunities and challenges in the 3D printer filament business.
Design of the Week: Spool Holder
This week’s selection is the fabulously designed Spool Holder for Prusa i3 MK2 by Martin Majewski.
Update on Mass Portal’s 3D Printer Filament Dryer Technology
We obtained some additional information about the very interesting and brand new 3D printer filament drying system from Mass Portal.
The Resurrection of Village Plastics
Village Plastics, a long time manufacturer of 3D printer filament, has reappeared – but there’s a story to be told.
Coloring Your Own 3D Printer Filament
There aren’t very many people making their own 3D printer filament, but if you do, you might want to carefully select the color.
The Curse of the Wrong-Sized Spool
There’s a very common problem encountered with desktop 3D printers: spool size mis-match.
3D Printer Filament Specifications: Who Can You Believe?
I’m reading an interesting story from Prusa Printers that reveals a rather shocking fact about 3D printer filament.
Does Every 3D Print Filament Maker Need a Chemical Giant Partner?
There are literally dozens of 3D printer filament manufacturers these days, but there may be a powerful way for them to take a step up.
Hands on with Four Fiberlogy Filaments
Fiberlogy is a Polish company producing high quality 3D printer filaments, and we had the chance to test not one, but four of their materials.
Mosaic Manufacturing Announces the Palette+ 3D Print Multimaterial Accessory
Canada-based Mosaic Manufacturing announced a new version of their Palette multimaterial accessory, the Palette+.
Using Third Party Materials for Stratasys 3D Printers?
I’m looking at the new material offerings from Triton 3D, who claim to produce Stratasys-compatible filament spools.
3D Platform Leading New Filament Standards Project
3D Platform has a problem they’d like to solve, but they really need the cooperation of others in the 3D printing industry.
Sourcing 3D Printer Filament From Questionable Suppliers
With the rise of desktop 3D printing has come a demand for 3D printing filament to run through them. But who should you buy from?
3D Platform’s Filament Warmer: A Good Idea
3D Platform seems to have a number of announcements lately, and one of them is for a unique “filament warmer”.
3D Print Community: Reflow
This month’s community support selection is Reflow, a project to assist third world countries through 3D printing.
Hatchbox’s Diligent Filament Development Approach
We spoke with representatives from Hatchbox to find out more about how they develop their 3D printer filament.
Toner Plastics Developing 5mm 3D Printer Filament
There hasn’t been much change in the standard diameter of 3D printer filament for years now, but perhaps that’s going to change.
New 3D Print Materials Now Possible: 3D4Makers Develops Air-Cooled Filament Production System
Netherlands-based 3D4Makers seems to have broken through a major barrier to producing unusual 3D print filaments in engineering materials with a new production system.
Explosion: A Lesson in 3D Printer Filament Storage
The image you see here is of a real situation where a spool of aging PLA filament literally exploded.
Making Your Own PEEK Filament
I’m looking at the results of an experiment done by 3devo to extrude PEEK plastic into usable 3D printer filament.
The Filament Roller: A Flexible Solution to Dastardly 3D Printing Problems
Today I’m looking at something called, “The Filament Roller” that just launched on Kickstarter.
Something Very Interesting is Going On at Something 3D
The curiously-named Something 3D company has figured out a way to actually 3D print color objects with a filament extruder.
Monoprice to Launch The Kickstarter Killer, and Other Things
Monoprice has become very well known for their low-cost 3D printer options, but things are about to change significantly.
EVO-tech Can 3D Print Real Metal Objects with Filament!
Hidden in the back of EVO-tech’s booth at FormNext was a very significant spool of material.
Attacking the Main Problem of Polymer 3D Printing
Finally, someone is doing something about a problem faced by virtually all polymer-based 3D printing: predictability.
Recycled 3D Printer Plastics: Possible, But Many Challenges Remain
I’m looking at a new startup focused on use of recycled plastics for the production of 3D printer filaments and have some thoughts.
MakeShaper Addresses The Replicator+
A filament producer now offers filament specifically for the new MakerBot equipment.
Vendors Meeting the Need for New Plastic Filaments
In the past few weeks I’ve repeatedly seen desktop 3D printers of many brands attempting to print with unusual materials. Now it’s up to the filament vendors to meet that need.
Dyze’s 3D Printer Filament Sensor Add-On
A Montreal-based company has launched a 3D printing accessory that detects out-of-filament conditions.
3D Platform’s Powerful New Extruders
You might be familiar with 3D Platform, a company dedicated to making large-format 3D printers. Now it seems they’re working on ways to make large prints much faster.
Who Knew? Nylon PLA!
Is it nylon 3D printer filament or PLA. Actually, this product is both!
Magnetic 3D Prints Opens Up New Possibilities
Researchers at TU Wien in Austria have developed a method of 3D printing strong magnetic objects in arbitrary shapes using 3D printing.
Could the 3devo Filament Extruder Be The One That Works?
A new desktop-sized filament extruder was announced by 3devo of Netherlands.
Zip Up That Filament!
In a world with increasingly powerful desktop 3D printers, your filament probably deserves a lot more attention.
Can Small 3D Printer Filament Companies Survive?
Every week I receive multiple notices from small 3D printer filament companies looking for a way to promote their products.
BigRep Releases Long-Awaited Large-Format Plastic
BigRep has solved a major barrier to large-format 3D printing in a very ingenious way.
Lyndsey Lewis – “3d Printing Will Be Able to Mature in Places Where Production Infrastructure Is Broken”
Lyndsey is the co-founder of Reflow, which converts recyclable plastic into 3D print filaments using open source technology.
Two 3D Printer Companies Offer New Innovative Materials Products
There’s much competition in the world of 3D print materials, given the vast number of devices loose in the world. Innovation is key and two companies announced new products along that line.
Is Carbon Fiber Filament a Marketing Gimmick?
Running a small product design and 3D printing business, shookideas.com, I receive questions about carbon fiber filament almost every week.