Just an idea I’m rolling around in my head… after seeing some progress in the continuously variable dual filament mixing, I was thinking that by using white and transparent filaments in the mixer, and then adding a dye sublimator to the hot end, it would be possible to do full CMYK printing in both opaque and transparent (and any cloudiness in between )
This wouldn’t work for ABS or PLA because they can’t withstand the temps, but it would work for PET, nylon, PBT, acetal and anything else that can withstand the 280-375F temperatures needed for dye sublimation.
Since the dying would occur at the hot end, it would color the material right on it’s way out onto the bed, meaning little to no waste material or color offset would occur. Of course, it would require a specialized hotend that could handle both the extruding and the dye simultaneously.
Even with a single filament extruder this would be a huge advance for extruder type printers.
Unfortunately, I have no idea how to even go about prototyping this type of specialized hot end. I don’t have a shop or any way to mill the parts, and I don’t have the engineering background to model it for someone else to mill
So, I’m sharing this idea out there for anyone who wants to give it a shot themselves
I’m not familiar with the coloring, but I think the hotend temperature for abs can range from 200-250C (390F-480F). According to your description, abs should be able to withstand the temperature required for dye sublimation (280-375F). So maybe we can try to color the abs?
Possibly, ABS may have trouble accepting the dye compared to other substrates too. Someone would definitely need to do testing, and who knows maybe new dyes could be designed to work with a wider variety of substrates and temperatures.
First thing’s first; stop using F for temperatures, we don’t do that here in the 3D printing world.
Second, did you see Joshua Rowley and Sanjay’s sneak preview of their mixer nozzle? It’s likely that CMYKWA printing might be here sooner than you expect. (CMYK+white+alpha)
the dye sub info was in F, so that’s what I used, their own temps
Mixing a ton of filaments I don’t think is a practical way to go in the long run, it’s going to have a lot of issues with precision and waste compared to coloring the filament on its way out of the nozzle.
And no, haven’t seen it and not able to find it doing a search.
Thing is, there’s going to be some “stuff” involved. A file format shift (STL sucks for colored stuff), a slicer shift, etc.
For example, for your comment about “fast enough for precision colored models?” - well, with enough trickery, something like doing 1 color, and while the transition is happening doing a little bit of infill then resuming the new color on the visible edge. I’m sure it can be done. But it’s a lot of software work.
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