Thursday, November 19, 2015
Diamond Hotend Opens the Color Gamut for 3D Printing
Hackaday: It’s safe to say we’ve hit a bit of a plateau with hobby based 3D printers using FDM technology. Print quality is pretty high, they’re about as fast as they’re going to get, and compared to commercial machines they’re a pretty good bang for your buck. So what’s next? What about printing in color?
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After having had several discussions about 3-d printing with Ben Carter, and wondering if and when it would be possible to be able to use multiple colors when printing. It seems like now it is possible to do so. Of course the limitations are the amount of colors you would want to use, unless as time progressed, you would be able to essentially have more than just three that would be able to quick change. Similar to the style of how the embroidery machine works upstairs; if a system like that could be developed, 3d printing would definitely be in a much more advanced situation than it was before. By developing a model that allows for three colors, you are able to add a little more creativity to your projects. The difference being the time it would take. I know it shouldn’t add too much extra time, but does it have to do a little restart every time it needs to adjust for a color change or is it a seamless transition.
I have to say, I haven't seen much in the way of new news for 3D printing in a while. The idea of printing in color from one nozzle is really interesting because I would think that the colors would get muddy, but they have figured out a way to do vibrant colors from one nozzle by making the mixing chamber as small as possible. Usually you would have to change out the spool every time, kind of like you would do with a commercial embroidery machine rather than the ten spool one the costume shop has, for instance. Except with the 3D printer to change the spool you would have to recalibrate which is really easy to get wrong. Except the embroidery machine knows where the sewing tip is in relation to the fabric and the heads slide right or left to change the color. I wonder if people designing 3D printers have looked to embroidery machines for inspiration because as a person who doesn't know that much about how either machine is made besides what I can get from looking at how it workds, thinks that is a good idea if it can be transferred to the printers.
There are so many cool things 3D printing can do and we only hear about the good new things it can do without the struggles that happened during the way to discovery in these kinds of articles. Is there a documentary on 3D printing? That would be interesting.
3d printing in color is actually not that exciting for me. Most of the printing applications that come up in my life require a paint treatment beyond the original plastic anyway. So why does this tech matter to me? Well its because it points us in the direction of more flexible 3d printers. While the colors of products might not matter to me the materials certainly do. Plastic 3d printers are currently the cheapest solution to 3d printing however sometimes a glossy metal finish could make something look a hundred times better. I think when we get a printer that is able to print the inside of an object of plastic with a metal cover we will be able to make products that are much more durable and practical to use outside the world of trinkets. Of course this technology is probably years down the line but it is always good to see the incremental improvement of a new technology such as 3d printers and to wait expectantly for the future.
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