I've watched 3D printing technology with interest.

3D Printing
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I’ve watched 3D printing technology with interest. As an artist, I’d like to 3D print some of my artwork so I could sell a print along with a little sculpture of the same object.

Color is a BIG part of my design process and from what I’ve seen, 3D printing is very rudimentary in that realm. I’m wondering if the technology will arrive to have inkjet print head technology mounted on the nozzle so you could print with a single color filament, and paint the external surfaces with all of the colors available in traditional inkjet printing.

What do you think? Is this a possibility - now or in the foreseeable future?

Here’s a sample of my 3D modeling:

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Two different technologies come to mind after reading your post. One is the paper 3d printer. It prints with inkjet on paper then slices the paper in the desired shape. After spreading glue on the paper, another sheet is laid in place and the process is repeated until the project is completed.

The other technology is not quite as you describe. I think it’s called Palette or something like that. It fuses different colors of filament into a single strand, allowing non-stop printing with a calibrated printer for such use.

The combination you suggest would require some form of filament or plastic that would absorb quick drying ink, but the results would certainly be impressive.

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Thanks @Fred_U . I’m sure that before all is said and done, some manner of technology will rise up to meet this need. There are too many creative minds working on it for that not to happen…

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Another thought popped into my alleged mind. The detail of your work is similar to the resolution of resin printers. I’ve read of a recent development in resin printers that don’t use a basin of resin, rather they use inkjet type tech to dispense the UV curing resin. It isn’t much of a stretch to envision a multi-color resin dispensing head that could generate something closer to your concept than anything else currently on the market. It’s a fun mental exercise, too.

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I’d say your mind is firing on all cylinders ;). That sounds like a promising technology.

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Check out pallete - Can mod any 3d printe to do 4 colors.

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That’s beautiful Mark!

I would love to see your art 3D printed with a bright, enameled, CMYK colour on the exterior surface.

What I think you are asking is possible, but there tricky part is (of course) the application of the colour to the exterior surface.

To make the concept work, the colour has to be applied as the 3D printed layers are applied as a surface pigment.

The only way that I have seen working well is printing using plaster instead of plastic. I think HP have a machine that prints plaster objects and then uses an inkjet-style system to squirt coloured dots as the object is created.

There are two drawbacks to that system:

Firstly, plaster is very fragile. If you are happy to be very careful with your finished piece, and protect it from any bumps or knocks, then maybe you will be happy with that.

Secondly, the pigments look fairly dilute, and the resulting colours look a little pastel me, rather than a bright, glossy enamel coating that I was dreaming about.

Here is an example:

Printing bright, glossy, enamel CMYK colour onto a 3D plastic object is harder, and there aren’t any examples of that I know of.

The problem is that plastic does not accept pigment very easily, unlike plaster which is water soluble, and allows the pigment to mix into the object’s surface and stay there.

Of course there is a great deal of interest in this concept, and when something does become available, we will all surely find out very quickly!

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Thanks @Glenn_West & @Paul_Gross , it’s good to see there is progress being made and it sounds like we may be close to really great solutions. This may be as much a ‘materials’ research project as an engineering solution.

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Using the right print parameters and PetG u may get really close to a translucent look. Two palletes on a dual head printer could get you pretty close to exactly above look.

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If u build your own printer u could use a e3d quad hotend and be able to do 4 materials today
It’s been out for a year. Just need to make sure your controller can handle the right number of steppers. I’m working on that problem myself as I’m building a controller that can go up to 16 steppers.

I’m even simplify the wiring to make it easy to do

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http://studioycreations.com why not a robotic arm and make a much larger model :wink:

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Thanks @Glenn_West - in the world of 3D printers, I’m just a spectator (to date). I’d have a huge learning curve to get to the point where I could take advantage of the solutions you’re working with. -Mark

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@JC_Ouellet - I appreciate your ideas. People seem to like my artistic designs but I haven’t been able to make a dime on selling prints. Your idea of expanding my circle of potential use for the technology is very interesting. -Mark

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@Mark_W_Ballard this is all so fascinating to me! I would love to be able to do the same things with my work! Best wishes to you!

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@Glenn_West wow. This is the first time I have seen things like this being done. Amazing!