Hands on with ColorFabb’s PLA Filament

By on January 12th, 2014 in materials

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We happened to score some ColorFabb filament and gave it a test in our lab. This material, as we’ve written before, is not actually pure PLA plastic. It’s a hybrid mix of PLA and PHA, intended to provide a bit better flex and durability. 
 
We found the filament to have a rather different unboxing experience. Typically filament arrives in a bag, labeled if you’re lucky. But the trim ColorFabb filament comes in a neat shrink-wrapped cardboard box that has a very informative label prominently attached. The label explains everything you need to know about this particular filament, including size tolerances, temperature requirements and even the PANTONE color! A convenient QR code leads you back to their website to order more if you wish. 
 
As you might expect, the plastic is somewhat more malleable and squishy than pure PLA, but it definitely gets the job done. We found the prints to be shiny, like PLA normally appears, but also having a very elegant smooth and almost slippery feel. You’ll likely have to play with your temperature and diameter settings to achieve optimum results, otherwise your stock PLA settings might produce questionable output such as this trivase. We’re going to continue to fiddle with settings to get it right. 
 
Oh, did we mention they offer some terrific colors, too? 
 

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!