Plastic 3D Printing

Plastic 3D printing

Hardly any other new manufacturing process has complemented traditional processing technologies as well as the various 3D printing processes in recent years. In the past, small quantities in particular were characterized by high tooling costs and long lead times in plastic prototyping. 3D printing now makes it possible to produce small quantities and polymer-made prototypes at lightning speed and at a manageable cost without extensive tooling. But 3D printing has also added a manufacturing process to toolmaking, enabling it to produce low-cost tools, especially for small batches.

The possibilities of colour in 3D printing

Colour pigments undoubtedly play an important role in material development in general and, of course, also in the development of innovative 3D printing materials. However, it is not only the colouration possibilities that are attracting more and more interest. Black iron oxide pigments, for example, can make filaments, plastic materials and resins equipped with them magnetic. The even more special black-brown pigment Bayferrox^® 303T makes the materials detectable in the NIR scanner despite their dark colour and thus, among other things, easier to recycle.

Manufacturers of pigment dispersions for UV-curing resins, as required in the SLA process, can also draw on a whole range of other pigments in addition to cyan, magenta, yellow / yellow, black (CMYK) and white. We are pleased to show an excerpt from them here.