In this article we are going to take a closer look at both materials, comparing them in terms of their merits and drawbacks, so that you can make better-informed choices and better quality prints.

ABS

Pros: great availability;cheap;sleek finishing with acetone.

Cons: difficult to work with ;smelly.

Optimal Temp: 235-240°Celsius.

Editor’s comment: Prints made of ABS is resistant to high temperatures and of great durability; but the filament’s high printing temperature and tendency to warp mean it is hard to print with. And you may want to find a well ventilated place whilst printing with the consumable due to the pungent smell it gives off while being heated.

PLA

Pros:renewable;environmentally-friendly;less likely to warp;well affordable;odorless.

Cons: less durable and flexible;not soluble in esters or ketones

Optimal Temp.: 200°Celsius

Specifications: diameter: 1.75mm/2.85mm

Editor’s comment: made from sugar cane and corn starch, PLA is easily the most environmentally friendly and affordable material available on the market. Objects created from PLA is of great strength, medium durability and low flexibility. Same as ABS, it is not soluble in esters or ketones. However, unlike ABS,it renders a heated bed redundant(note: having a heated bed still helps). A case in point would be the Geeetech E180,which is specifically designed for educational settings and comes without a heated bed since it uses PLA. Textured paper is used on the build platform to improve adhesion.  

Conclusion: ABS and PLA are of about the same cost. If you are just getting started in 3D printing, PLA is probablly the material to start with. ABS is the one to go for if you are aiming to create more durable objects on your 3D printer.

Wanna share your printing expertise and creative prints with other DIY professionals, hobbyists ? Join our forum today : http://www.geeetech.com/forum/

IF YOU CURRENTLY own a pair of running shoes, the odds are that the midsole. The shock-absorbing layer between the inner and outer sole. Therefore, it is made from molded ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), which is squishy, resilient foam. Check out what’s better about 3D printed shoes.

As a cushioning material, EVA foam isn’t bad. It’s elastic, affordable, and can be dyed a variety of colors. But an EVA midsole offers the same degree of support throughout the shoe, and what you really want is different levels of support across different parts of the foot. Also, EVA breaks down and compresses with repeated use. So this degradation is the reason many runners replace their shoes every few hundred miles. For these reasons, shoe companies have been actively experimenting with materials to replace EVA.

Two years ago, running shoe giant New Balance teamed up with Somerville, Massachusetts–based 3D-printing company Formlabs to develop a new type of sole. Now the duo are debuting TripleCell, a footbed technology whose components are made of a proprietary photopolymer called Rebound Resin.

For its first shoe in this lineup, New Balance is re-releasing its classic 990 Sport with a TripleCell heel. The $185 runner is lighter, more supportive, and more durable than the EVA version. Two more performance-oriented models with TripleCell components will be arriving within the next year.

Rough and Tough 3D Printed Shoes

3D-printed shoes aren’t precisely a new idea. For example, Adidas has also begun developing similar automated 3D-printing facilities. That might allow customers to order digitally printed, personalized products.

But rather than focusing on the shoe’s appearance, New Balance decided to find ways to improve its performance. The company gave Formlabs a formidable list of properties the new material would be required to have.

“What you don’t think a lot about with footwear is the demand that we put on this midsole material,” says Katherine Petrecca. The general manager of New Balance’s Innovation Design Studio, in a phone interview.

“It has to last for several hundred miles of repeated impacts,” she says. “It has to work for a 110-pound female runner like Jenny Simpson and a 230-pound basketball player like Kawhi Leonard.

These things are going to be outside, it has to be stable for UV and hydrolysis … It has to be able to withstand heat tunnels in the manufacturing process and bond to all these other materials.”

Formlabs chief product officer Dávid Lakatos and his team went through hundreds of iterations with the formula to achieve the final product. Besides printability, two of the most important properties of the material were energy return and elasticity.

“[The design] has to be able to give back energy, to have a good feeling when you’re using them to run and walk,” Lakatos said in a phone interview. “[It] also has a 330 percent elongation before it breaks … We’ve learned more about how the dynamics of human anatomy work when walking on the surfaces than in almost any other industry.”

3D Printed footwear: Made in America

For New Balance, 3D printing has a number of other advantages besides providing highly detailed foot support. In general, footwear is a very inventory-heavy industry—for every style, you might need to make men’s and women’s versions in fifteen different sizes. Therefore, in several different colors, and each with many different tooled components.

Petrecca imagines that the ability to quickly print multiple designs on a single printer. Therefore, that will have a huge impact on New Balance’s ability to continue manufacturing parts of its shoes in the United States and the United Kingdom. The company is currently working with Formlabs to outfit a new manufacturing facility in Methuen, Massachusetts.

Scaling up won’t be easy; currently, the TripleCell 990 Sport is only available in a limited-edition run of 500 pairs. Right now, 3D printing is still a process that’s used mostly by product designers to create prototypes. Formlabs is working on developing a whole new market of reliable 3D printers. That can manufacture products reliably and consistently in greater numbers.

“One of the dirty secrets of 3D printing is that previous 3D-printing platforms have been extremely prone to failure,” says Lakatos. “Imagine if Apple bought a hundred CNC machines for machining the MacBook Pros, and how each one looked depended on which CNC machine was used. That would be completely unacceptable, obviously.”

While TripleCell pieces are currently being manufactured with Formlabs’ older machines. Both companies are currently developing a more powerful and higher-volume printer called the Form 3L. This new machine will leverage existing LFS technology but use a new light processing unit, which promises to offer greater speed and reliability.

 Shoe designs

Formlabs has pioneered the use of pliable, resilient photopolymers in 3D printing, via a process called low force stereolithography (LFS). Once a design is uploaded, the company’s Form printers draw highly intricate patterns in liquid Rebound Resin. Hence, which cures when the light hits it, resulting in a hardened 3D shape.

This process allows Formlabs to create a detailed lattice pattern in the sole. That lattice provides different levels of support to different parts of the foot, rather than using separate tooled components that are then glued together.

In the original 990 Sport’s heel, New Balance combined a polyurethane outer rim with an EVA midsole and thermoplastic polyurethane heel cradle. In the new version, the company has fused these three separate parts into one seamless, springy piece. “One of the things that’s really exciting for us is that it provides a very different experience for the runner,” says Petrecca. “It feels more like a resilient trampoline than foam.”

But that’s all in the future. For New Balance, the hope is that within the next few years, it will be able to sell a high-performance, customizable running shoe made almost entirely by digital manufacturing. “The sheer performance landscape that we’re going to be able to open up with 3D printing is exciting,” Petrecca says.

Source: WIRED

How to prepare for 3D printing fabric?

PLA or ABS filament

PLA is the most frequently used material with a lower printing temperature and excellent printing effect. ABS is premium at its hardness which is a strong thermoplastic material requiring higher printing temperature. Click here to check out the differences between PLA and ABS filaments.

Printing Fabric

Heat-resistant cotton, polyester, blends, or netting and meshes.

3D model

Design your own or download them from sites like Thingiverse.

3D Printing software

Of your choice like EasyPrint 3D App.

Instructions:

You can directly print onto a fabric of your choice OR first print onto material like tulle/mesh. Therefore, then sow it onto another. Follow these easy steps 3D print your designs onto fabric!

1. Choose a design. You can create your own using TinkerCAD or download a cool design from Thingiverse, MyMiniFactory, etc. Geometric shapes are some of the best choices especially ones with spaces in between, in this way, your fabric can still be flexible.

2. 3D printing software. Use it to slice your model and convert it to G-code. Infill of 20-30% should be good enough for most designs.

3. Choose fabric! Materials like cotton are good since they can easily withstand the temperature of PLA. Smoothen your fabric over the print bed making sure that there are no creases or wrinkles. To make sure that your fabric sticks to the print bed, you can use double-sided tape or clothespin clips to hold the fabric down from the edges of the print bed.

4. Check settings. The first layer you print will soak into the fabric and bind directly to it. After you’ve checked all the settings, print as you normally would. Just be sure to occasionally check your print to see that the extruder head isn’t pulling the fabric too much.

5. Remove it. After your print is done, wait for the print to cool and gently remove it from the print bed. And there, you’re all done!

Should you use fabric glue with 3D printing fabric?

Without fabric glue, your print may not be permanently stuck to the fabric below and could peel off if you apply enough force. To ensure fabric glue gets absorbed thoroughly you should use it on both the top and under the top surface.

However, If you’re looking for a step-by-step method, check out Uncle Jessy’sawesome tutorial from which you can fuse a fabric-like mesh of tulle between the layers of your 3D print!

You can download both the Dragon Scales and Hexagon Patterns from Thingiverse! So get printing and share your creations to inspire others. The article is helpful and will inspire you to 3D printing on fabric. Happy Printing!

Need a 3d printer to get started? Check out our Store for some great deals!

3D pen vs 3D printers

But if you are thinking that there is some connection between 3D printers and 3D pens. Because both are used for printing then my friend you are wrong. There’s no relation or connection between 3D printers and 3D pens. They both are designed for different functions. The 3D pen uses plastic to draw an object or a structure; solely you hold the extruder in your hand instead of let motors, and a laptop does the work.

To draw the 3D object using your pen. All you need to do is fill your pen with the plastic filament that comes with the kit. The heating technology utilized in the pen can mechanically heat the plastic. Eventually, the plastic turns from solid to the liquified state and at this stage you’ll just about draw something. That you just need to together with your 3D pen. And you’ll draw on surfaces like walls, furniture, and plastic.

Note: To help you narrow down your options, we’ve listed out the most popular 3D pens that people are using this year.

Scribbler 3D Printing Pen V3 – A Teenager’s Best (Pen) Friend

As we know technology is beyond our imagination and the Scribbler 3D Pen is the perfect example of it. Basically, it is a handy tool that is created especially for teenagers. The 3D drawing pen comes in beautiful colors which include yellow, blue, green, white, red, and purple. This pen is extremely lightweight and easy to use.

As a parent, you would surely want a bright future for your child. For young teenagers, this is an engaging and exciting experience, one that they will cherish and appreciate. You can expose your child to 3D printing from an early age, opening the window to their curiosity for new tools and technologies. So, which will come in a helpful way when they move towards higher education.

Glyby Intelligent 3D Printing Pen – Best Seller Pen

For those who are new to the art of 3D printing, getting a good start is challenging. So you have to start with a good 3D printing pen. You need to work with the best 3D pen that flows without a single hitch. So you can concentrate on the craft. The Glyby Intelligent 3D Printing Pen is the #1 bestseller 3D printing pen. It comes with a feature that automatically switches the device to standby mode after five minutes of inactivity. Every button on the pen functions as it is supposed to do and it is very easy to manage.

3 Doodler 2.0 – A Version that Gives You a New Vision

Launched in 2013, 3Doodler 2.0 has been a favorite choice among many 3D pen lovers. It’s the newest and improved version of 3Doodler, which is the world’s first 3D printing pen.

In terms of looks, the pen looks more stylish than its parent version. It’s sophisticated and more futuristic. The 3Doodler 2.0 is 75% smaller than the original, making it similar in size to a marker pen. It is also lighter at just 50 grams or half the weight of the original and should come with a stronger and better looking anodized aluminum case instead of the plastic one used by the original. These things should make the 3Doodler 2.0 3D printing pen easier and more convenient to use as well as more attractive looking. Talking about extras, this one comes with 50 plastic filaments out of which 25 are PLA plastic filaments and remaining are ABS filaments. But it is not just the look and feels that have been improved; the functionality also promises nice improvements such as lower power usage, optimized and quieter cooling, better speed and performance and more. Above all, if you are someone that is more conscious about the looks, then you’ll love this version.
Investing in the 3D printer may be a very pricey deal and a lot of therefore if you’re obtaining it for brief-term use. Apart from the investment to induce one, alternative expenses like renewal, replacement, and maintenance are reaching to add up to lots of cash going out of your pocket. This is where 3D printer pens can come as a good alternative and help you enjoy the advantages of a really affordable valuation.

Draw Your Future Bright with 3D Printing Pens!!!

If you want it simply confined to one thing like your kids’ college projects, presentation, or an exhibition, the 3D printer pens would be a sensible choice than 3D printers.

Sorry to keep you wait so long, we should have been posted the trailer of  this week discounted products, due to some emergency to delay ，as well as the Dragon Boat Festival holiday,  so we add today. In the future work, we will try to do our best.

1.10 pcs 3D J-Head hotend/E3D extruder Nozzle Drill Cleaner -(2015-6-23)-Tuesday

2.Wood filament for 3D printers-(2015-6-24)-Wednesday

3.Assembled JIETAI GT9S Extruder  -(2015-6-25)-Thursday

4.3D Printer ABS Filament 3mm 1kg/roll Yellow -(2015-6-26)-Friday

5.Acrylic Geeetech I3 pro 3D printer DIY kit-(2015-6-27)-Saturday

That‘s all this week.if you have any  suggest about us or our products,please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Weekend is  coming , what do you have planned? Whether you have not, here we still offer specials for you , if  there is something you like, do not miss it.

1.Acrylic Geeetech I3 pro B 3D Printer kit-(2015-6-6)-Saturday

2.Assembled JIETAI GT9L Extruder-(2015-6-7)-sunday

3.Metal JIETAI Long-distance j-head V2.0 with cable & cooling fan -(2015-6-8)-monday

4.RepRap Rambo 1.2G controller board-(2015-6-9)-Tuesday

5.3D Printer ABS Filament 3mm 1kg/roll Yellow-(2015-6-10)-Wednesday

6.10pcs 100Kohm NTC Thermistors for heated bed -(2015-6-11)-Thursday

7.10 pcs 3D J-Head hotend/E3D extruder Nozzle Drill Cleaner-(2015-6-12)-Friday

8.Unassembled-Geeetech i3 pro C dual extruder 3D printer-(2015-6-13)-Saturday

Wish you have a good weekend.see you next week.