Being able to 3D print FDM objects in more than one color is a feature that is rapidly rising in popularity, assisted by various multi-filament systems that allow the printer to swap between differently colored filaments on the fly. Naturally, this has the disadvantage of being limited in the number of colors, as well as wasting a lot of filament with a wipe tower and filament ‘poop’. What if you could print color on the object instead? That’s basically what the community-made PolyDye project does, which adds an inkjet cartridge to an existing FDM printer.
In the [Teaching Tech] video the PolyDye technology is demonstrated, which currently involves quite a few steps to get the colored 3D model from the 3D modelling program into both OrcaSlicer (with custom profile) and the inkjet printing instructions on the PolyDye SD card. After this the 3D object will be printed pretty much as normal, just with each layer getting a bit of an ink shower.
Although it could theoretically work with any FDM printer, currently it’s limited to Marlin-based firmware due to some prerequisites. The PolyDye hardware consists of a main board, daughter board, printed parts (including inkjet cartridge holder) and some wiring. A Beta Test unit is available for sale for $199, but you should be able to DIY it with the files that will be added to the GitHub project.
Even for a work-in-progress, the results are quite impressive, considering that it only uses off-the-shelf translucent filament and inkjet cartridges as consumables. With optimizations, it could give multi-filament printing a run for its money.
We discussed using the Inkshield [1] to do this exact thing many years ago. Glad to see someone is making attempts again.
Some people discussed (were using?) sharpies to do similar.
[1]https://reprap.org/wiki/Inkshield https://github.com/NicholasCLewis/InkShield
I still have one of these laying around that I played with a bit. Pretty fun
In injection molding we melt colored pellets in with uncolored pellets to get the various colors. Color changing on the fly is still an issue but the colors are pretty much unlimited.
Two questions on the ink jet idea.
Does it negative affect layer adhesion?
Doesn’t this mean whatever plastic you use must be hydrophilic to accept the dye?
It depends on the dye solvent.
A quick search shows that plenty of inkjet dye is in a non-aqueous solvent.
This seems like it would work well with a compatible material.
Alternatively, there are uv cure inkjet dyes.
This sounds awesome!
Just a few days ago I was wondering if something like this existed, and here it is!
Either great minds think alike, or these guys are psychic 🤣.
You can buy this commercially from DaVinci. I remember reading all the attempts to do it DIY before the DaVinci came out. The uses for DIY versions beyond color printing are huge though as you can mix in all sorts of things for bioprinting applications etc.
Unfortunately, XYZprinting (the makers of DaVinci) seems to have gone out of the 3D printer business this year. Kind of a pity, since their printers were pretty innovative. However, they never got to the level of quality that Bambu Labs has in order to be really successful.
Because the cartridges were about £300 and it used RFID tags so you had to hack them to use your own filament. We binned one last year which had been donated to our hackspace.
Does the ink soak in and permanently color the part or will it wear off with use?
I’m sure bambu will steal it and release a closed-source version soon so none hobbiests can continue downloading designs and selling them without credit to anyone.
I assume “dye” means the former.
About effin time! (not tryin to be rude or to devalue the work done btw!)
Commercial 3d printers were using inkjet cartridges for color prints decades ago, honestly surprised it took this long to reach “home 3d printing”, glad to see its here now!
lawsuit from HP in 3…2…1…
bambu labs tries to patent it in 3…2…1…
seriously though i’ve been watching this progress and it really is awesome to see it gain some attention I just hope my previous joke does not come true
Stratasys is the 3d printing patent troll, not Bambu Labs. Try to keep up.
I’ve been curious for a little while if we could solve multicolor 3D printing by either using CMYK fillament (mixing issues) or going further back and using raw pellets.
I could see a double extrusion model sort of like the Pallete add-on but taken to the extreme. Raw plastic pellets are extruded like when it is made and a system precisely mixes in pigments CMYK style on the fly. Ideally any color change that isn’t super sharp could be made without a purge tower.
Don’t the new Prusas use the purge as infil?
Check out some software called Hueforge, it’s pretty awesome, not quite what you’re after but for what it is, it’s fantastic, the print quality from it is superb and seems to be making a good name for itself.
I wonder how long before they get it to work with klipper.