Since the dawn of the forums, users have been mixing and matching resins to create new colors and sometimes new formulations altogether. Today, we’re excited to announce Color Kit which allows you to mix your own resin and create uniformly colored prints with the high resolution and surface finish SLA is known for.
Color Kit comes with 5 bottles of pigments; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, and White. To use, choose a color formulation and mix a total of 100mL of the appropriate blend of pigments. Combine the pigment into the cartridge, shake for 4 minutes, and you’re ready to print! We’ve included the ratios for 16 different formulas and a tool that allows you to create your own blends.
We’re looking forward to seeing what you create with Color Kit and ask any questions below!
For now, Color Kit pigments will need to be mixed with the Color Base Resin for optimal results. I have little doubt that the forums will experiment with other materials, but the Color Base Resin has been designed for accurate colors, effective mixing, and reliable printing.
Will it be possible to buy just the resin cartridge? For instance, if I only want to make a batch of pure cyan resin then one of pure magenta, will I be able to buy just the cartridge (since one kit comes with both cyan & magenta)?
The infrastructure for that isn’t set up currently, but it will be in the next week or so. Users will be able to buy individual pigments or just the Color Base.
Is there any suggestion on how to do maybe 250ml of base resin at a time? Open Mode has so many variables… perhaps draining 3/4 of a new Color Base then only doing 25% ratio of pigments and pouring 250ml at a time back into cartridge?
Just me but I want to do so many colors and can’t afford a new liter for each one.
By the way, thank you so much for making my awesome printer even better. It was hard to justify the cost of this printer initially and I am so glad you guys keep confirming I made the right choice. Keep up the good work.
-Russ
I know this is semantics, but when I first read this, I read it as we will be able to use our own resins to create a resin mix of any color, then further down I read that it currently needs the color base resin, so it can’t be mixed with any resin we currently have.
I would say something like" which allows you to create your own color mixes and create uniformly colored prints"
More for the experimental thread but dye will give you transparent prints with clear resin. Pigments won’t be as clear. Think window tint vs. painted window.
Since we need to tell the printer which resin we are using, I assume that the way the laser hits the resin varies because of the resin type…
Would not the color also effect the way the laser strikes the colored resin.
So if we mix colors how would the laser know that??
This is doable as far as the actual material properties go but can be a bit challenging logistically. Dispensing resin could be tricky as the cartridge would need to be thoroughly cleaned between uses to ensure that the color isn’t contaminated. Users would also need to either keep track of the amount of Color Base Resin remaining in the cartridge or measure out the specific amount they need.
This isn’t something we’re recommending to customers currently but is something we’ll continue looking into as to determine the easiest and most reliable workflow.
I’ll answer it in Open Mode then As far as I’m aware, no one here at Formlabs has tried mixing the pigments in Clear Resin and we’re currently only using the Color Base material.
That’s fair. We spent a fair bit of time tuning the wording as communicating that the pigments are designed to be used only with the Color Base material is a bit tricky. I’ll get this updated.
This could be great, I can imagine wanting to create a bone or maybe a deeper red flesh tone to make painting better and use parts off the machine, but I’ll probably wait to get the parts separate! I’m not gonna need all the colours. But this is great that formlabs are still innovating.
