It Must be Fall: ColorFabb Rolls Out New 3D Printing Filament–corkFill

As October approaches, the weather turns crisper and cooler and we all feel a little better as the sweat and humidity of summer falls away. Many of us begin shopping for pumpkins, dreaming up costumes, and are even already forced to think even about Christmas trees, thanks to retailers with an increasingly earlier agenda. But nothing is more pleasant than watching the leaves begin to change, with the smell of fresh air, autumn, and many of us beginning to light fires in the evenings.

This is also a pleasant time of year over at ColorFabb, where normally the smell of wood filament might be filling their headquarters as they roll out a new product every year at this time–this fall, however, they are surprising us with a new material: cork.

Encouraging everyone to pop the champagne, ColorFabb, headquartered in the Netherlands, is enjoying switching things up this year, and the team feels sure that this will be a big hit as a follow-up act to their 2013 release of woodFill and their 2014 release of bambooFill.

Meant for the hobbyist engaged in making innovative and fun 3D prints like figurines, household items, and as far as the imagination can reach, corkFill is a natural and lightweight material that offers great flexibility in creating. It also boasts a deep and rich brown color that ColorFabb states will complement both woodFill and bambooFill.

The new 3D printing filament is sourced by ColorFabb and compounded with their unique PLA/PHA by FKuR in Germany, also responsible for assisting in the making of woodFill and bambooFill.

Settings used so far in the test lab for corkFill:

• Advised 3D printing temperature: 210-230° C
• Advised 3D print speed: 40-60 mm/s
• Advised Heated bed (if you have one, not absolutely necessary) – 50-60° C

For stronger prints and better reliability, the ColorFabb team recommends that you increase flow rate at about 4 -10%. They’ve released several of their tests on Thingiverse, to include:

The Rook – made on a Makerbot Replicator 2 at 225° C / 0.2mm layerheight / 50 mm/s

The Twisted Flower Pot – made on an Ultimaker 2 at 230° C / 0.2mm layerheight / 50mm/s

Small Hinged Treasure Chest – made on the Dremel at 220° C / 0.2mm layerheight / 50mm/s

ColorFabb will be showing off their new cork filament at the TCT show in Birmingham, UK September 30^th and October 1^st. They invite you to stop by and check out a sample, as well as seeing it in action on the 3D printer. corkFill is already available for pre-ordering, at €39.95 per spool, and ColorFabb will be ready to start shipping it out to their customers before the end of next week.

Let us know if you’ve tested out this filament.  Discuss in the CorkFill forum thread on 3DPB.com.