color blending 3d printer

[eric christiansen]

pretty cool.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rova4d-full-color-blender-fdm-3d-printer#/

[Ray Scheufler]

I saw it when the campaign was running.  It does look pretty cool. It is from a company that has already delivered printers so it will probably actually exist.

I am intrigued by the future of 3d printing in color.  The mosiac [1] works without any modification to your existing print head.  It splices the colors together before they go into the print head.  There have been a number of people looking into mixing nozzles like the one on the rova.  They take multiple colors into the same nozzle and blend them into a single output.  There is some tricky physics that has to happen to get proper mixing especially if you are aiming for a gradient.  I believe that it also adds some extra back pressure to the extruders which requires that they be build a bit better so they don't just grind out the filament.

[1] https://www.mosaicmanufacturing.com/

Ray Scheufler

On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 9:43 AM, eric christiansen <mail4...@gmail.com> wrote:

pretty cool.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rova4d-full-color-blender-fdm-3d-printer#/

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[Mike Longnecker]

The software for the color mixing on the Rova is proprietary I think. I looked on their site when I first saw this and I couldn’t find head nor tail of what they are using. I have seen some interesting things with the Diamond from RepRap.me, but you need geared extruders and theres a bit of color switching lag/blending errors since its just a straight tube, no agitator like on the Rova. Theres also the Prometheus system that looks pretty promising, but it is only 1 material at a time (still quite useful, since you can use several materials with different melt temperatures for support or other aspects). Its also only configured for 2 materials, though I think that if you were to design a modified Tri-Y you would be able to do 3 materials (as long as your electronics supports it).

Both of these have more options available, and they come standalone so you can put them on whatever you like. Also you’re not limited to which slicer you use. I’ve seen the Diamond used with KISS, S3D, and maybe Slic3r and Cura and I think the Prometheus has mainly been tested on Cura, though any slicer that supports 2 material prints should work fine (as long as you can add the custom extruder switching G-code that is provided)

Personally I’m looking at the Prometheus. The Diamond is quite cool, but I’ve seen some issues with it.

Also from what I’ve heard of the Palette (mosaic manufacturing) hasn’t been the greatest. The team is working hard but they’ve been having issues with tolerances (the filament switches are calculated beforehand and if your steps per mm are off even by .5% after 10,000mm+ prints you can be off by 50mm+ of filament, which can make one color bleed into another)

http://www.reprap.me -Diamond hotend

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/811909269/the-prometheus-system-intuitive-multi-filament-3d  -Prometheus System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMhAkVFpgho -Palette test video from a user (color bleeding at the end, over 3hr mark)

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[Dave Weis]

I'm going to be running some prints on my 3D Systems ProJet 660Pro probably next week if anyone has any small color models they want printed.

dave