Trends in 3D printer filament colours seem to be shifting.
Earlier this year, Polymaker announced their new line of HT-PLA filaments. One of the interesting features was new colour selections based on “power tools”. They described these as “a curated range optimized for power tool components and accessories.” In other words, their colours aligned those of popular power tool products.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about Polar Filaments’ “retro” colour product. It’s a filament that matches the beige colour of the original Mac computer.
At the time, I speculated that there might be a market for similar product-matching colours, such as “British Racing Green”, “Pac-Man Yellow”, “IBM Beige”, etc.
Now I see that 3D-Fuel has also entered this game with the release of some new PCTG colours. Previously, they had released “Toolbox Red” and the response from their customers was described as “overwhelming”.
They’ve taken that cue and developed a new set of PCTG colours: they are based on product branding colours for Makita, Ryobi, DeWalt, Ridgid, and Dremel.
They explain:
“After a painstaking colour-matching process that involved matching the injection-molded tool, not just a logo on a screen, we’re releasing these into the wild with the initial production run of the five colours shipping today.”
It seems that Polymaker, Polar Filaments, and now 3D-Fuel have all discovered a new approach for 3D printer filament colours: match colours that are already well-understood and recognized by the public.
While successful, I am wondering if at some point the associated brands might be concerned that their colour branding is being used in this way, but you can’t patent a colour, can you?
Via LinkedIn
