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From design to powder to product — how color 3D printing really works July 21
printing with a Zcorp 3D printer
As many of the masses were introduced to 3D printing recently in a National Geographic video highlight featuring David Kaplan (and many questions were raised prompting this response video), I thought I’d share some info from this spec-rich outline of color 3D printing from 3Dprinters.biz.
It uses a colorful robot design as the model and gets into things like how many layers it takes to build, how thick the layers are, how long it takes to print, and even the amounts of ink and binder.
A summary of the process plus some specification numbers are after the jump. (Shout out to Joseph Flaherty at Replicator for the link.)
So here’s your colorful robot design (designed by Spaceclaim):
And here’s the robot being printed in the bed of powder, layer by layer. 910 layers to be exact, and each layer is .004″ thick. The 3D printer uses cyan, magenta, and yellow ink just like an inkjet printer.
After approximately 1.5ml of ink and 93ml of binder extruded over 5 hours and 22 minutes, you’ve got your colorful robot. But he’s all covered in powder and needs to be cleaned up.
The last step is to dip this guy into the infiltrant, a chemical agent that brightens and strengthens the printed object.
And there ya have it. One 3D design file + one ZPrinter® 450 + 910 layers of (powder + ink + binder) + 322 minutes = a colorful, 3D printed robot.
via 3Dprinters.biz
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P.S. Ponoko uses ZCorp printers for 3D printing your designs in rainbow ceramic, so this is exactly how it’s done. And now that you know how it all works, try getting your own design 3D printed in color.
Just sign up for your Personal Factory (it’s free), upload a file, pick a material, and hit the Make It button. Ponoko will send your file to a ZCorp 3D printer and then send your printed design, all infiltrated and everything, right to your door.
July 21st, 2011 at 12:38 pm
Colossally Kewl!
July 21st, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Is it just me, or does it look like the colourful finished robot has made a little “accident” on the table!?!
Maybe he has stagefright…
July 22nd, 2011 at 8:40 am
Where can i get the Design, i want one!
July 22nd, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Hi Nils, the design is by Spaceclaim: http://www.spaceclaim.com/en/ It’s a long-shot, but no harm in asking if they could share the file?
July 25th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
[...] Ponoko Blog: From Design to Powder to Product . How Color 3d Printing Really Works – “It uses a colorful robot design as the model and gets into things like how many layers it takes to build, how thick the layers are, how long it takes to print, and even the amounts of ink and binder.“ [...]
July 27th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
[...] 3D printing to the masses. Ponoko who has sponsored one of our contests in the past is offering color 3D printing with some impressive results. They have featured an interesting video that was done for National [...]
July 27th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
And approximately how much would it cost to make such a cool little figurine at Ponoko?
910 layers * 0.004 inches/layer = 3.64 inches deep (printed on its back)
July 27th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
The volume is 230cc and the rainbow ceramic is less than $1/cc so should come in just under $230.
July 28th, 2011 at 3:06 am
[...] 3D printing to the masses. Ponoko who has sponsored one of our contests in the past is offering color 3D printing with some impressive results. They have featured an interesting video that was done for National [...]