Engineers Developed Color 3D Printing That Works Like Chameleon Skin
Engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology have developed a 3D printing method to create colorful objects using just ink. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, the “ink” polymers change color during the printing process.
Typically, the color of polymers used in 3D trianters is set using synthetic dyes – they turn out to be a source of contamination both during production and during printing. In addition, with rare exceptions, the polymer thread on one spool usually has one color. This means that if you need to print a multi-colored object, you will have to change the spools. Finally, dyes do not allow you to achieve particularly bright colors, for example, as on the wings of butterflies – on their surface there are nanostructures that scatter light in such a way that it is perceived as bright red, blue or green.
Researchers can create structural colors in the visible wavelength spectrum from deep blue to orange. Although an artist can use many different inks to achieve this color gradient, engineers use one ink and change it during the printing process to create different shades.
