Aug.25, 2012
RichRap has been played around with multi-colour/material 3D printing with his RepRap machine. Dual extrusion as in Makerbot Replicator can print two colors well but it has alignment and oozing of the inactive hot-end.
What RichRap really wanted is to develop a single hot-end with multiple driven feeds. He came up with an innovative designs: a color blending extruder, which is a three way quick-fit extruder and mixer all connected individually and could force filaments into a single hot-end combining nozzle. The nozzle could mix and blend colored filament plastic or even different materials to make colorful prints.
This is pretty awesome. Watch here some of the nice 3D prints RichRap has made. If you like to test on your own RepRap, you can find the files for this project on Thingiverse here. This can certainly be a "Saturday Killer" project.
(Images credit: RichRap)
Watch the videos below RichRap introduces the extruder, and shows you how the objects are made.
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
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Terrific. Obviously a big step for 3D printing, and I hope it is the next one. The ability to provide shades/hues, as well as changes withing an object will really take 3D up a number of levels.
roger francis wrote at 5/17/2013 2:49:20 PM:
it's just so amazing , but can you control the color printed . i mean if i want to print a model with multiple defined colors , will i have a gr8 color accuracy ? what if i print the same object 3 times ? will i have the same colors ?
Yvo Waldmeier wrote at 11/23/2012 9:49:02 PM:
absolutely amazing prints! i love the toothpastelike style. just thinking about the CMYK version of this ingenious contraption... but maybe needs a hot mixing chamber.