A Canadian start-up called Mosaic Manufacturing has developed a device to allow for multi-coloured 3D printing from a single extruder on FDM machines.
The device to be released to the market shortly consists of motors to drive the filament, a cutter and a connector. By applying pressure and energy combined with an algorithm developed by the company, the box creates a multi-colour filament to be sent to the printer.
“Basically our tech takes multiple single colour filaments and combines them together to create a single filament made up of multiple colours,” explained Chris Labelle, Co-Founder of Mosaic Manufacturing.
The G-Code sent to the printer contains the information for the system when to change the colour. The filament is then cut and fused to the next strand of filament. This can be done every 35 mm if desired.
Mosaic Manufacturing hasn’t decided yet if they are going to patent their product or to make it Open Source. “We’re still finalizing things so we don’t have an exact price. It will cost less per colour than a multi extruder upgrade.”
Check out the video below to get a brief insight into this technology:
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