Use of Colour in 3D printing

Dr. Kamlesh KothariFounder – Clone me

Maxillofacial surgeon

Cultural Capital of India

Holy Grail

What does Colour add ?

4 th dimension to 3D

Colour 3D printers available today• technical challenges,• only a handful of manufacturers • expensive, industrial-grade machines• mostly used for the production of 3D figurines / prototyping • Full potential noit exploited

What is a multi -colour printer ?

Current technology • Full colour binder jetting ( Projet 660) - Sandstone• Mcor full colour - Paper• Polyjet printing in Objet by stratasys• FDM based multi material

• To launch • HPs powder bed fusion technology with full colour printing 2017

3DS Sandstone – Binder Jetting (Colour jet)

Projet 4500 x660

MCor - IRIS and ARKe – SDL Paper

IRIS ARKe

Stratasys - Polyjet

Connex 3 J750

Hewlett Packard – HP -

4200 / 3200

Palette- Mosaic Manufacturing – FDM

video

Palette

Skytech - 3D Pandoras - Sandstone

Adwii – X1 – microjet - sandstone

DyeMansion – SLS colour

Spectrom 3D

WhiteClouds - world largest 3d colour bureau

Apple -??

Surface finish enhancers • wax , spray , sandpaper• cyanoacrylate , wax• Buffing• Touch up paints

3DP in Colour – Exploring Frontiers• Primarily for engineering and Rapid Prototyping• Widely available and more affordable• Now newer explorations• Art , creative and coinsumer• New dimension to industrial fro prototyping• Architechtural• Geo-mapping

Cuttle Fish – Software •

Cuttlefish is a unique 3D printing pipeline allowing high-fidelity reproduction of an object’s color, texture, gloss and translucency in addition to its shape. It has a web-based graphical user interface and can be easily adjusted to various 3D printing technologies. Particularly, it supports high-resolution multi-material printers.

• Developed at Fraunhofer IGD – pioneers in colour 3DP

Challenges -1 • Ease of Content creation – High skill sets needed

• Software not cheap

• Awareness

• NEEDED –Killer app

Challenge 2• What do I print? Hype vs sales

• Consumers still do not feel 3D printing is relevant to them, despite increasing interest in the technology (Juniper Research).

• Needs to make “sense” to consumer

• NEEDED – applications , functional materials ,easily available designs

Challenge 3 • Reliability of machines / sensitve / small size products

• Need machines as reliable and simplistic like a regular printer with good service back up

• NEEDED – PLUG and PLAY devices

(currently only 10 percent devices are P&P end 2016)

Challenge 4 IP and legal loopholes

Unsolved debate

NEEDED – Clarity / consensus

Challenge 5• Global push needed

• Electronic giants – like HP (ecosystem needed)

• Difficult to build an apple here standalone

• NEEDED – consumer market leaders to buy in

Threats• Non 3DP techniques – serving same purpose

• Computational hydroprinting• Computational thermoforming

Challenges• Combination of high fidfelity colour with physical strength and

functional prototyping is missing – Though HP claims to solve this –

• Creation tools for 3D models with an easy interface to define colour and texture is a major gap

• Consumer awareness and education is the first step towards expectation maangement – Currently 3DP colour matches unfavourable with traditional finished colour products

Mechanical Design - prototyping

Healthcare - Planning and Prosthesis

Anatomical models

Silicone 3DP – medical planning and education

Architectural

Interior Decoration

Tourism Promotion

Education– school projects

Education - teaching concepts

Fashion

Home decor

Style statements- Living your personality

Entertainment

Oscar winning work

Geospatial

Art

Museums

TOYS

Consumer segment - Large

Corporate Gifting – 3D Selife

Best friends forever – 3D selfies

Family bond – 3D selfie

Funky avatar – 3D selfie

Childood dream – 3D selfie

Vanity

3D selfie – Theme parties

Decade wise

1980s - Computers1990s - Music revolution2000 - Mobile phones2010 - Social media2020- Colour 3D Printing (consumer driven )

At this minute - Consumer is ready – technology isn’t

THANK YOU• The colur 3DP market is still a

small pond, but if we keep digging, we will find an ocean to explore.