3D Printing Forum

I was hoping that by now ColorFabb were offering the N-Gen filaments on their samples page, they did origionally say it would be in the new year but I'm still waiting

You mean like these ones?

Colorfabb timelapse contest participant ?

Amedee wrote:You mean like these ones?

nGen.jpg

And how it? Good filament, or some tricky?

These samples are still untouched, but my daughter used 2 spools of nGen grey in her "Gasometer" project.


(There are also some pictures on Flicker)

The 2 RAL greys are nGen (the big gasometer structure, the internal staircase and bottom houses)

The choice of nGen was initially driven by the color requirement, as these greys are only available in nGen and XT, not in PLA/PHA.
Faberdashery would have been an alternative, but ColorFabb ships much faster and cheaper to Belgium (and the Euro is weak these days )

So to come back to nGen...

• It prints very nicely at 230°C, good layer bonding, looks nice.
• Easy to print: aside the fact that you need to print at higher temperature it is as easy as PLA, but the glass transition temperature is much higher.
• In term of Tg we are in the same range as with XT, but in my view much easier to print (XT is 75°C, nGen is 85°C)
• Bridges well (see e.g. staircases in the video)
• It is also definitely less brittle than PLA (more flexible).
• In term of strength, no idea, I have not tested.
• Price tag is the same as their PLA/PHA

The only downside is stringing: even at lower temperature it easily makes strings. ColorFabb recommends more retraction, but I have not found the perfect setup for that yet.

If you need something which is more temperature resistant than PLA, don't hesitate go for it!

(For this particular project, I wish we had a direct extruder -- bowden is a pain for small vertical pillars...)

I had to mute the music, I was falling into a trance!

I see what you mean about stringing but it looks like that material prints very nicely

Hi Amedee, I've just looked at ColorFabbs site, and I cannot find nGen under the samples page, where did you find it to order them from?

We got them for free as participants in their timelapse contest

I much prefer ABS over all other materials so far, but that nGen certainly sounds interesting!
While ABS has layer bonding issues that has to be overcome and is a bit smelly, I really like the lack of sticking, stringing, heat-related grinding, that you generally don't have to use fans and that ABS is not brittle.
But I will certainly put up nGen on my already very long "to test"-list.

I was just designing a carbon filter thing to try to reduce the ABS smell problems by the way. Although I kind of got used to the smell by now I realize it is probably not good to inhale it in the long run
That reminds me I should check whether one can extract 5V from the USB-port on the back of the printer to power a fan..

A carbon filter is not enough to properly deal with ABS emissions. ABS also emits nanoparticles for which you need a HEPA filter or an electrostatic precipitator.

nGen on the other hand is a very nice material... I'm printing with it now for some weeks and I must say....

Anders Olsson wrote: I was just designing a carbon filter thing to try to reduce the ABS smell problems by the way. Although I kind of got used to the smell by now I realize it is probably not good to inhale it in the long run

Would you like that quote engraved on your tombstone?

Dim3nsioneer wrote:A carbon filter is not enough to properly deal with ABS emissions. ABS also emits nanoparticles for which you need a HEPA filter or an electrostatic precipitator.

HEPA-filter, good idea, should look at adding one of those too

LePaul wrote:Would you like that quote engraved on your tombstone?

Considering how much time I spend handling chemicals in unsafe ways, burning all sorts of stuff that possibly should not have be burnt and so on in my younger years, I haven't been that worried so far. Still got a perfect test result on every health check.
To give an example, imagine what kind of things could have found their way into the mouth of this beauty through the years (Yes, the silvery thing on the right side on the ground is aluminum that is solidifying )

Now, lately I have grown up a bit and tried to move away from that kind of activities, which is probably for the better.
But still I think there are more dangerous things than ABS fumes, like smoking for example, or living in a town with dense smog.

Anders Olsson wrote:living in a town with dense smog

Is that a wink into my direction?

http://www.stuttgartcitizen.com/announc ... stuttgart/

you cannot be to careful with these things, a lot of symptoms can show years later, like metal particles building up. I know... after working for 25 years as a jeweler...

reibuehl wrote:

Anders Olsson wrote:living in a town with dense smog

Is that a wink into my direction?

http://www.stuttgartcitizen.com/announc ... stuttgart/

No, wasn't aware of the situation in Stuttgart, I was thinking of Chinese towns.

PeggyB wrote:you cannot be to careful with these things, a lot of symptoms can show years later, like metal particles building up. I know... after working for 25 years as a jeweler...

It would be interesting to hear your story.
I am more concerned with fine dust that nanoparticles actually (from personal experience). I would not grind/polish jewels at home, more than for prototyping, for example.

ABS fumes is a tricky one. One one hand there are scientific articles on this suggesting lots of nanoparticles.
On the other hand, burning a candlelight indoors generates loads of nanoparticles too.

The chemists at work on one hand says one should be careful.
On the other hand they would reply "that is just some butadiene you are smelling, nothing to worry about" if they step into the room when I am printing.
Next thing that happens is that the chemist would be completely terrified to find a wash bottle of acetone next to the soldering iron, something that does not seem to bother physicists at all