How do you color something in 3D printing?

Coloring is a vital part of the 3D printing process. We can use the following method for coloring according to our requirements.

Hand–coloring

Hand-coloring is the easiest to learn and handle method. If we want to have a good color effect on the surface, we have to add a light color – light grey or white – as a base before painting the other colors to prevent the uneven or inverse color phenomenon. In addition, it needs to paint in the crisscross method. Before the first layer of paint completely dries, we need to add the second layer of fresh paint. The brush direction of the second layer and the first layer are perpendicular to the right angle.

Because most of the paints are oil-based dyes, it is a little better than dip dyeing and a bit lower than spray painting, electroplating, and nano-spraying for the color gloss. As it is easy to operate, the cost of hand-coloring is less than the other four coloring methods.

The color of the finished product is up to various factors, such as manual proficiency and the degree of secondary coloring. Usually, we cannot get the best effect for the hand-coloring.

Spray painting

It is the mainstream painting method for 3D printing at present. Because of the high adhesion of paints, they are widely used in different products. The gloss of the spray-painting color is affected by the products’ surface. It has an effect just lower than electroplating and nano-spraying. But it is relatively single in color. Because of the spraying technology and paint dryness, it is difficult for multi-color spray painting. After spraying, the products need to dry and details modified. The process of spray painting is about 3-4 hours.

Spray painting has a comprehensive application and is medium-cost among the five coloring methods. It needs mature technology for the worker to know how to get the best second layer painting and spray point connection. If the surface is smooth, it will have the best effect.

Dipping

As one of the 3D printing coloring processes, dipping is only applicable for nylon material. The pure color dipping usually has a dark effect and is mainly for a single color. It has the lowest gloss. Limited by the material and color, it has a general view effect on the finished product. But it has a short process with only about 30min to complete the process leading to a higher cost than hand-coloring and spray paint.

Electroplating

Electroplating is a process to plate a thin layer of other metals or alloys on the metal surface. It improves wear resistance, electric conductivity, reflectivity, corrosion resistance, and aesthetics of the products. The colors are only available in chrome, nickel, and gold and can only apply to metal and ABS plastic.

The effects are affected by the size and shape, but it has a high gloss that is incomparable to the hand-coloring, spraying, and dipping. It has the highest cost but the best appearance effect.

Nano spray plating

As the most advanced high-tech spray plating, Nano-spray plating requires professional devices and materials in chemical principles for directly spraying to coat the surface with gold, silver, chrome, or a different color to get the effect of the specular highlight.

There are various colors color for selection and are available for different materials. Also, it has no limitation on shape and size and uses multi-color for spraying with a natural transition. And it is a similar effect to electroplating for gloss color.

For the coloring 3D printing, before products molding, we can use the material with colors such as PLA, ABS, and plastic for colorful products molding. But if we want to have a more personalized color, we need the five-coloring methods for getting the last effect.

WKproto is a professional rapid prototyping and low-volume production manufacture specializing in 3D printing, CNC machining, and Vacuum Casting. Our factory and parter factories enable rapid prototyping of designs from our customers and low volume production for market verification.

We have three factories. 3D printing factory meets the demands of most 3D printing services with 100 SLA machines, 10 SLS machines, 10 MJF machines, 10 SLM machines, and 20 FDM machines. CNC machining factories for processing metals, plastic and more materials with more than 200 machines for CNC milling/CNC lathes/EDM / Wire EDM and the Vacuum Casting factory is for low volume production for ABS、PC、PP、PE、PA、POM、PMMA、PVC.