Colorfabb LW-PLA

[Xalara 6]

Has anyone used Colorfabb's LW-PLA? If so what kind of settings are you using?

 

I'm interested in trying out the material. It seems to get similar results to Ultimaker PLA you want around 230-235C for the nozzle, and flow to 40%?

[dxp 23]

If you are able to read german, check this out: Toller Schaumschläger: Colorfabb LW-PLA

[Xalara 6]

On 10/15/2019 at 11:11 PM, dxp said:

If you are able to read german, check this out: Toller Schaumschläger: Colorfabb LW-PLA

 

I cannot read German, but luckily Google Translate does 🙂 Thank you for the link.

 

For those finding this thread in the future: I also reached out to ColorFabb themselves and a material profile should be out on the Ultimaker Marketplace soon.

[Xalara 6]

Update: I spent the last week tuning the Generic PLA profile on my Ultimaker 3 to work with ColorFabb's LW-PLA and managed to get it to reliably print at a 50% weight reduction. I've attached an image highlighting the settings I used to get there if others want to try printing with it. I highly recommend reading their article on how to print with it first: https://learn.colorfabb.com/print-lw-pla/

 

I'd like to get it to a 60%-65% weight reduction, but so far I haven't been able to figure out how to get it to expand further and am happy with just a 50% for what I am printing.

 

Some explanations:

- No retraction: Due to the foaming nature of the filament, retraction can actually cause clogs. While this does result in stringing, they're easy to sand off and remove. Most of the things I print end up being sanded/painted so stringing isn't an issue for me.

- No cooling: Again, you want this to foam which requires heat. So you don't really want to cool it. If your part requires bridging, you can play with this setting.

- Acceleration/jerk: To keep the parts dimensionally accurate, especially on sharp corners, you do want to have fairly high acceleration compared to the generic PLA profile to avoid over extrusion. This does result in some ringing, but it's not a concern for what I was shooting for.

- Build plate temperature: I have to set to 30 degrees because for whatever reason PLA prints deform on my UM3 when set to the defaults. I also almost never print without Ultimaker adhesive sheets. You will want to tweak this if you use a straight glass bed.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Xalara
Added some context to the settings.

[Iceywolf 0]

I tried this on my S3 firmware 5.8.2, changed the heated bed to 60c always (not just during initial layer) since I don't use any adhesive sheets, and it's coming out perfect at roughly 50% weight reduction. Thanks for the settings! Hope they make a profile for this on the marketplace.

[Xalara 6]

Edit: I spoke too soon, despite the calibration tests being successful, I've been having my issues with prints that have required me to go back to basics of sorts. I'll be posting updated settings once I've locked things in.

 

It's been a few years, but I figure I'd update this post because ColorFabb has a new LW-PLA-HT material. For LW-PLA-HT, outside of the flow rate, the settings above still work well on my Ultimaker 3. For the flow rate, I had to lower it from 50% to 44%. Which is good, since it means LW-PLA-HT is foaming better and I get more weight reduction!

 

These settings should also get you close enough on newer Ultimaker printers since they all still use the same print cores.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Xalara

[dxp 23]

Sounds interesting! Colorfabb provided a real life test with a black model airplane: https://colorfabb.com/lw-pla-ht-black

[Torgeir 242]

Hi Folks,

 

This is most interesting,

a wing can be printed in many ways, you can draw it in a special way, as Tom Stranton did, so the model can be made completely in spiralized -or layer by layer as most model like this is made.

In here, you'll find a some interesting things about LW-PLA and the selection of color for RC models made by thermoplastics. (Haven't been trying LW-PLA-HT).

 

Heat from sun is "best" reflected by the white color (high gloss polished aluminium is the best reflector). Further, dull black is the lowest reflecting color.

 

Most thermoplastic's have a heat capacity "quite" equal, but the different colors make the cooling effect (heat transfer) on your object much depending of the color!
The easiest to print with is black -and the most difficult is plain white(need more cooling)!

Here is the way Tom Stranton did it:

 

His interesting way of using gyroscopic control his two engine VTOL model.

This is "kind of" the aviation's answer to "SegWay"..

 

https://hackaday.com/2022/08/22/optimising-a-rc-tilt-rotor-vtol/

 

 

This is his way of drawing a wing that's easier for the slicer to spiralize.

 

Happy printing and flying!

 

Thanks
Torgeir

 

[Xalara 6]

I agree, black is a weird colour for them to advertise but the good news is they do also sell white and natural versions. I also edited my update to say that I've run into a ton of issues with LW-PLA-HT so I've had to go back to basics and rebuild the entire profile. I'll post an update once I've got it going.

 

If y'all have profiles that work for you I'd love to see them too since I'd like to see what settings are causing issues despite things working great for the old LW-PLA.