Mosaic Manufacturing's New Single Extruder/Multiple Color 3D Printing Technique

[Brian_Krassenstein]

3D printers seeking to use multiple colors of filament have, until now, had to rely on purchasing multiple extruders or using multi-colored filament, neither of which was really an ideal solution. Canada-based Mosaic Manufacturing has risen to this challenge with a novel response to the desire for multiple colors used in the same 3D printed objects. Their sole-extruder method uses a brand new device, a box featuring motors, a cutter, and a connector, that uses an algorithm to change the filament color in use based on the G-code. Users can change color as regularly as every 35mm of a print job. The box can be used with virtually any 3D printer, not requiring any reconfiguration or modifications. See more about this novel approach: http://3dprint.com/24581/mosaic-manufacturing-color-3d/


Below are some examples of multi-colored objects created via Mosaic Manufacturing's method:

[Geoff]

Finally, something clever. This is a great way to multi colour prints, but the fact the demo pieces there are only 2 colour leads me to believe they are still ironing the kinks out in printing in several colours in one print.

[Feign]

I may have actually just thrown money at my screen while watching the video on their site.

I would love to see how well this handles with say, soluble support material as the second color, or combining flexible and rigid materials. Both are situations where a "color blending hot end" would be useless, but this might be able to shine. It seems like using colors/materials with too different a melting temperature would be asking for trouble.

[repkid]

Let's hope they go open source.

[mcw]

Well, if they can do it for two colours then it must be straightforward to do it for more. So straightforward that they would be wise to stick with two for now -- keep it as simple as possible until they're much closer to production.

[Mjolinor]

Clever but OMG that is one can full of potential problems for actually using it.

There must be a filament splicer in there. I am thinking that it must take your SD card and use the USB to send to the printer in order to keep track of when to change the colour and your filament had better be pretty damned accurately made..

[Brian_Krassenstein]

With two innovative startups coming together with technology, Mosaic Manufacturing just produced a 3D printed flashlight by using Functionalize’s F-Electric filament, which is a thousand times more conductive than other filament, and opens up a whole new world to 3D printing enthusiasts who are interested in 3D printing with electronics. With F-Electric, Mosaic Manufacturing used their SEEM technology with a single extruder to 3D print the initial circuit part for the flashlight, and then added a battery and lighting source. Check out more details: http://3dprint.com/28858/mosaic-3d-prints-flashlight/ ‎

[Feign]

Well... Okay, wow, so that's actually really cool. And demonstrates that it can definitely do multiple different materials.

I'm interested to see how much this costs compared to the difference between say a single-extruder delta and multi-extruder Cartesian. Even if this is a little more than the difference, I could see it selling very well thanks to it having some perks over a dual-extrusion setup. (not to mention watching a Delta mysteriously printing in multiple colors would be much more interesting than the usual boxy printer.)

Also, it looks like it would be right at home next to a MOD-t.

[Feign]

Well! It looks like Mosaic Manufacturing just had an update.
To sum up their blog post:
- They've more or less honed in on making the machine a consumer product (whatever exactly that means).
- They are testing the thing with a whole lot of different printers (though no specific list yet).
- Testing with soluble support/conductive/etc to see what works with what, again no specifics.
- Next update in mid-February, probably about beta testing.
- Crowdfunding campaign probably in March.

I kind of like the fact that they're not spending too much of their time blogging, but man, I was starting to forget they existed for a little bit. Depending on their price (and their crowdfunding site choice*) I'll probably be throwing handfuls of my money at them.

*Totally off topic, but I have utterly lost faith in Indiegogo. There are a few good campaigns there, and I have high hopes for the projects I've contributed to in the past. However, IGG itself has burned me now by being dodgy with my money and that loses my future business.

[soofle616]

I signed up for those updates as well. It's definitely a clever solution though i do have to wonder just how adjustable the thing is going to end up being. Given the HUGE array of printers out there there is simply no way they will be able to calibrate this thing to work with every possible machine. In order to not limit their market then, they will need to allow for adjustments to whatever parameters determine when to cut and fuse the different pieces. Documentation and support are going to be key here to make sure that people don't end up with an expensive piece of equipment that they can't get to work properly.