Because we love to touch fluffy things
Recently we gave you the possibility to add some color to your polyamide designs. We loved the results and saw it was good. Today we bring you something that looks just as great and feels even better. It’s the ability to turn your polyamide designs into colorful fluffy works of art by adding colored fibers onto your model (we call it adding velvet fur). We tried it out, took some pictures and again… we saw it was good. Considering this will be offered as a trial during a period of about two months, we look forward to your feedback to turn our good results into great ones.
An example of velvet fur on iPhone covers by KEES
A detailed shot of all the great fluff
We even got better scores at Angry Birds when feeling the lovely fur in our hands
So, how can you add fluffiness to your polyamide you might ask? By simply selecting it in the finishing tab in the 3D print lab as shown below.
Easy as 1,2,3... just select it as a finish after choosing the polyamide material
Ok… so now that you know how that works, let’s take a look at some of the facts about adding velvet fur at i.materialise:
- The ability to fur up your polyamide designs will be launched as a trial that ends on June 17th
- The minimum bounding box measurements during this trial period are 50x50x10 mm
- The maximum bounding box measurements during this trial period are 150x150x150 mm
- We offer velvet fur in five colors: PINK, YELLOW, BLACK, BLUE & GREEN (note that the pink one is some kind of a fluorescent pink)
- A-Side models are preferred, more info about it after this list
- It’s complicated to add velvet fur to the inside of your models
- Keep in mind that velvet fur and moving parts are not best of friends
- The hair pieces are about 1 mm in length
- It’s pretty resistant against friction
- If you decide to add velvet fur to your designs, expect an additional two days before we’ll be able to ship the finished product
Another very important point to remember when you add this great fluffiness to your designs is that we can only add velvet fur to the A side of your models. By this we mean the side of the model that is facing outwards. See the images below for reference.
Notice how the velvet fur is only attached to the outer side of the surface
When we add the velvet fur, it's done in a similar manner as shown in this picture
Again, as a result you shall see that the inside of the model does not contain any velvet fur
So… now that you know all there is to know about this fluffy business, let’s talk pricing… we’ll it’s actually quite simple… when you decide to add a velvet fur to your design, just add an additional 10 euros on top of your existing price during the trial period. After this period, we will re-evaluate all results and provide you with more concrete pricing and data.
Want to know more? Why not have a look at our polyamide material page where velvet fur is further explained and by the way… did I mention that it feels oh so lovely and furry in your hands?
