DEVELOP3D’s guide to colour 3D printers

A go to to Mimaki has rekindled Stephen Holmes’ appreciation of color in 3D-printed prototypes. However, as he reviews, latest developments make color value contemplating for engineering fashions in addition to for CMF workflows

Few places showcase an abundance of color like town of Amsterdam throughout its annual Delight Weekend.

As soon as via Schiphol airport, full of Dutch orange soccer shirts heading off on trip, and a riot of rainbow flags arriving in time for the get together, we headed to printer producer Mimaki’s European headquarters, the place we discovered the Japanese firm placing on an equally vibrant show.

Mimaki-s UV-cured inkjet printing is an evolution of the model’s 2D giant format printers, which fill many of the demo house at its European base. On present are the corporate’s most inventive improvements for printing designs instantly onto supplies such cotton materials, clear polymers for window shows, and even 3D objects resembling pens and water bottles. Mimaki’s 2.5D know-how is constructed to function in excessive turnover manufacturing environments and shares a lot of the identical mechanical design DNA as its 3D printing brethren.

Mimaki’s two 3D printers, the 3DUJ-553 and smaller 3DUJ-2207, occupy their very own section of the constructing, surrounded by an array of fantastical 3D fashions, from medical guides to magical statues, and from pairs of sneakers to architectural fashions. The corporate gives no ‘useful’ supplies for stronger or elasticated components. As an alternative, the main focus is on reproducing over 10 million colors in excessive element.

What you are able to do with these colors is spectacular however comes with some limitations. Whereas quick post-processing of Mimaki components makes them extra sturdy than you would possibly count on, they’re not designed to face as much as excessive temperatures, for instance, and parts resembling hinges will present indicators of damage after time. Nonetheless, the place this know-how excels is in placing throughout an thought, promoting an idea or explaining a course of as a tangible half.

Overcoming obstacles

Color 3D printing has been round for over a decade, but uptake has been restricted by two components. First, there’s the faff concerned in digitally colouring a CAD mannequin and getting that to work. Second, there’s the standard of what comes off the printer.

There have been important enhancements in each respects. Output from right this moment’s machines is much extra practical. The provision of colors, the flexibility to create pure hues and the introduction of clear supplies all symbolize important steps ahead from the washed-out, powdery finishes of older technology Z-Corp machines. Software program workflows have improved, too. Early efforts sometimes concerned huge file sizes and loads of guide involvement.

In pursuit of a extra seamless Color Materials End (CMF) prototyping workflow, for instance, Stratasys has labored alongside visualisation knowledgeable Luxion to develop a easy, full-colour export from Keyshot renders for its J-Sequence 3D printers. This print information comes packaged in a 3MF file format, superior to STL information and able to containing the color and texture information for practical prints. For the reason that Stratasys-Keyshot launch, extra workflow choices making use of the 3MF file format have change into obtainable, resembling through Autodesk’s Netfabb.

Utilizing this course of, Autodesk’s Boston know-how centre has been experimenting with color prototypes, utilizing fashions designed in Fusion 360 and utilizing Netfabb to use and export color information to its in-house Mimaki 3D printer to supply the ultimate fashions.

Scale fashions are nonetheless precious instruments for explaining designs and getting buy-in from stakeholders, and for components with advanced lattice infills or digital layouts, or for displaying the outcomes of stream simulations, a color 3D printer actually brings a proposal to life.

In any case, duties resembling explaining the consequences of a mould stream simulation or the efficiencies of an inner lattice cooling construction are so much simpler when a mannequin that illustrates the benefits in full color will be laid on a desk, handed round and inspected. On a much less advanced stage, color will be actually helpful for labelling a mannequin or distinguishing completely different parts in a prototype.

On this manner, a journey into color will also be a greater technique to lay out the details in black and white, so that everybody can see and perceive what’s happening. Straightforward on the attention and straightforward on the mind.

Stratasys J850 Prime

The flagship of Stratasys’ Polyjet UV-cured resin 3D printers, the J850 Prime comes with Pantonevalidated colors and multi-material skills that give flexibility for prototyping a variety of merchandise.

With excessive accuracy, textures will be added to components to boost the realism, or just add advantageous textual content or element to a print – like digital shows, woodgrain or stitching – bringing much more choices, along with the halfmillion colors it may well output.

A large materials choice gives impressively translucent and rubber-like choices, whereas a variety of biocompatible supplies and digital ABS for highimpact power and warmth resistance provide useful prototyping capacity.

If it’s color that you just’re seeking to deliver in-house, Stratasys says it may well produce full-colour fashions straight out of your Keyshot render in 20% of the time it takes to supply a conventional painted mannequin. When you refill the 490 x 390 x 200 mm construct platform with choices, then this new capacity for design evaluation solely takes on extra promise.
www.stratasys.com

HP MJF 580

Killed off after solely 4 years in manufacturing, HP’s color 3D printer can nonetheless be discovered exhausting at work in some service bureaux, and with good cause. The components it produces, when post-processed, are harder than the competitors and the method is comparatively quick. This permits for customised, useful end-use components (resembling prosthetics) to be constructed and to enrich or stylise a product to the person person’s tastes.

Elements are excessive density and low porosity PA 12 Nylon, which itself is fairly sturdy, however is additional enhanced by post-processing. The power to work with color on the voxel stage means clean gradients and 1,200 dpi crisp particulars proper throughout the 332 x 190 x 248 mm construct space.

A variety of post-processing strategies will be utilized to get essentially the most from the components, most of which will be automated, from major blast cleansing via to vapour smoothing that enhances colors and will increase mechanical properties.
www.hp.com

Stratasys J55 Prime

On the different finish of Stratasys’ J-Sequence product line is the J55, a scaled-down, design studio-friendly model of the J850, designed to pop off color fashions at will.

Its rotating, round construct platform manages to squeeze in additional than anticipated for a printer of this footprint, whereas the J55 has been developed to take a seat alongside designers with minimal noise and odour, and gives easy water-soluble helps.

The vast color vary remains to be right here, as are digital supplies resembling VeroUltraClearS, which might simulate glass and plastic in a variety of color tints, and Stratasys’ Elastico versatile photopolymer, which in clear or black variations has excessive elongation to provide it breakand tear-resistance.

The one factor that may sluggish you down if utilizing this machine at full capability is often altering the only litre materials cartridges, in comparison with the 16-litre items discovered on the J850.
www.stratasys.com

MimakiI 3DUJ-553

The title and look of the 3D printer might sound industrial, however that’s squarely the purpose once you see the 3DUJ function alongside different merchandise from the Japanese model.

What the unit forgoes in memorable titles and comfortable angles, it makes up for in eye-popping 10 million color output, which due to Mimaki’s industrial printing heritage, makes use of ICC color profiling for constant and repeatable outcomes.

The 2D printing heritage exhibits in clean color gradations, because the printer seems to be to minimise granularity throughout its 508 x 508 x 305 mm construct quantity, whereas Mimaki has additionally developed a transparent resin, permitting full transparency and semi-transparent color to be realised.

Capable of print in 19, 32 or 42μm layers, super-fine textual content element and clean surfaces will be achieved, whereas water-soluble helps protect edges and delicate parts.
www.mimaki.com

3D Techniques ProJet CJP 660Pro

The grand outdated dame of color 3D printing, the ProJet CJP is displaying its age. It’s a ZCorp 3D printer with a facelift and a few gentle upgrades alongside the best way for the reason that firm was acquired by 3D Techniques over a decade in the past.

However as ever, age is simply one other manner of measuring expertise, and whereas no one can be fooled into considering components produced through 4-channel CMYK output that maxes out at 100μm layers is the actual factor, it may well print full-colour fashions at a velocity of an inch an hour, making it each the quickest and least expensive 3D printer on this listing. This frugality additionally applies to supplies, with the bottom powder comparatively low cost in comparison with resin. What’s extra, unused powder will be reused.

With a construct space of 254 x 381 x 203mm and no helps crucial, you may see why these machines proceed to run in workshops the place ‘fast and soiled’ prototypes from easy OBJ information are wanted.
www.3dsystems.com

Dyemansion Dyed SLS, SAF and MJF components

White Nylon components, constructed through SLS or HP’s MJF course of, will be post-processed to tackle block colors.

A rudimentary color tub can do the job, however for scale and color accuracy, you’re greatest an automatic resolution like Dyemansion’s DM60 collection, which additionally matches as a part of a full post-processing cleanup and ending set-up with cloud monitoring.

Clear components go in, and 150 minutes later, color components come out. Easy.
www.dyemansion.com

Carbon all M- and L-series

If single-colour, end-use elastomer components are what you’re about, then Carbon’s lately introduced EPU 46 materials, which helps direct resin colourisation, ought to definitely be in your radar.

Customers can combine their colors with opaque and clear variants, creating daring colors in a rainbow of various shades.

With a shore-hardness between 55 and 78, customers may finetune the fabric stiffness of the elastomer.
www.carbon3d.com