Hacking 3D Printers To Add Full Color Capabilities

3D Printing & Imaging
Hacking 3D Printers To Add Full Color Capabilities

This very interesting approach to adding capabilities to a cheap 3d printer came into our inbox this week.

YouTube player

Aad Van Der Geest has been experimenting with a dual extruder setup that could bring full color printing to cheap filament based printers. His system utilizes 2 i3 style 3d printers merged into one. One extruder is a modified inkjet printer head.

As each layer is completed on the normal extruder, it then moves over and has a pass under the inkjet head, laying down the colors in CMYK for that layer. As you can see, this prototype is functional, but has a long way to go for the kinds of results people might expect.

Van Der Geest acknowledged that the current colors are lacking contrast, but points out that the proof of concept is functional. Now all that is left is refining the materials and process to get some really good results!

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

I get ridiculously excited seeing people make things. I just want to revel in the creativity I see in makers. My favorite thing in the world is sharing a maker's story. find me at CalebKraft.com

View more articles by Caleb Kraft

ADVERTISEMENT

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 16th iteration!

Prices Increase in....

Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
FEEDBACK