Formlabs has broken the color barrier with their new Color Resin V5.
The process of printing objects in specific colours with the resin process has been quite challenging for years. Resins have been marketed with colours selected by the manufacturer, which may not be the precise colour required by 3D printer operators.
In many commercial scenarios, matching a specific colour is an absolute requirement for marketing purposes. Logos, branding, and other elements will specify specific colours, and those must be maintained. Consumer products are often designed with specific colours as well.
Up to now, that has been nearly impossible to achieve on resin 3D printers. There have been only a few approaches:
- If you’re extremely lucky, a resin provider happens to sell the exact colour required. This almost never happens.
- You acquire clear or white resin and dye the resin, but this requires very precise use of materials.
- You use the RGB resin colour kit from Carima and mix it yourself. This works, but requires precise measurements and tends to be wasteful.
Failing a method to print in the desired colour, you then must simply paint the print. That’s an extra step and can be expensive. Paint can also wear off, so it’s always better to print in the colour itself.
The solution has arrived from Formlabs. Their new Color Resin V5 is available in ANY colour you require.
How does that work? It’s actually quite straightforward: when ordering the resin, you specify an RGB hex value to identify the colour. The RGB hex numbering system is commonly used in web/graphics design to identify a specific colour.
Formlabs will then custom manufacture the resin for you, and it takes about a week to do so.
The benefit here is not only that you can get the exact color required, but also can do so consistently. Formlabs should produce identical colours on each batch, assuming you order with the same RGB hex code.
This is quite a breakthrough, as it is now possible for companies to order large amounts of “their” colour for production use. It may be that Formlabs saw an opportunity here: perhaps some companies decided not to use 3D printing for their parts because they could not be made in a specific colour. Now that barrier is broken.
One more thing: many colour-specific scenarios use the Pantone colour system, rather than RGB. While they both can identify colours, they do so in an utterly different manner. The RGB system defines light emissions, whereas Pantone describes light reflection. It is sometimes possible to map between the two, but not always.
Stratasys is able to produce Pantone colors on their PolyJet systems, which certainly opens more applications to their equipment. I’m wondering if Formlabs would consider adding Pantone as a future requesting option.
In addition to the incredible colour resin announcement, Formlabs also announced “True Cast Resin”, designed for the production of moulds for “medium to heavy jewellery”. The wax-filled resin is easily burned out in casting material, allowing for clean metal pours. Formlabs suggests it is ideal for parts between 3-5mm thick, but can be used only on their latest Form 4 platforms.
Via Formlabs
