Color 3D printing is no longer a mystery.
Over the past two years, four-color printing with FDM 3D printers has gradually become mainstream. In fact, multicolor printing is not the same as true color printing. To obtain true color printing, certain technical difficulties remain. Now, with the emergence of PolyDye, there appears to be new hope. This is an affordable DIY solution that achieves near-color printing based on existing 3D printers.
In December 2024, an open source project called PolyDye was released on Github and quickly caught our attention. This project offers users a new way to build low-cost color 3D printers by combining inkjet printer cartridges with FDM 3D printing technology.
The whole process requires several steps, including preparing the 3D model in the appropriate software, adjusting the print settings, and setting up the inkjet printing instructions on the SD card. During the actual printing process, the object is generated layer by layer like traditional FDM printing, and each layer is precisely covered with ink, finally presenting a realistic color printing effect.
It is understood that PolyDye’s hardware includes motherboards, daughter boards, ink cartridge interface cards, printing components (such as ink cartridge holders), etc. The system is currently compatible with most 3D printers based on Marlin firmware, which require USB ports supporting FT23x or CH34X series chipsets.
In terms of software, users must use their own web-based PolyPrint software, as current general-purpose 3D printing slicing software does not yet support full-color printing.
In general, PolyDye is a 3D printing module based on ESP32, which uses 2D printer inkjet cartridges to add color coatings between each layer of white filaments to achieve 3D printing models in color. In the demonstration video, PolyDye successfully verified that it can be used on Chuangxiang 3D’s CR6-SE 3D printer. The filament used is eSUN white filament.
It is worth mentioning that the project is open source and the corresponding code can be downloaded and viewed for free on GitHub. Additionally, PolyDye’s beta testing kit is also officially on sale, priced around $199 USD. Looking at the existing color 3D printers in the past, it is not difficult to find that da Vinci Color released by XYZprinting, Color Maker and PolyDye released by Seven Technology use the same technical solution.
According to our understanding, although this kind of color printing solution can work normally, the color of the printing effect seems a little weak. This is because the color ink layer is very thin when extruded and covers the surface of the polymer, resulting in incomplete color penetration and lack of vividness in the print. Additionally, this printing solution is somewhat cumbersome to set up, and the entire printing process takes a relatively long time.
At present, the well-known commercial version of color 3D printing mainly focuses on UV light curing inkjet 3D printers. Representative products of this type of equipment include Senna 3D domestic J402Plus, color space J4540PLUS and Stratasys J850 and Mimaki 3DUJ-553. Flashforge Technology also plans to launch its first CJ270 desktop color 3D printer this year, and the price is only tens of thousands of yuan.
In 2025, if a color 3D printer accessory with good compatibility comes out, I believe it will be a big boon for the consumer 3D printer field. With the continued advancement of related open source projects, this vision should be realized.
