3 minute read
Living Products
LIVING PRODUCTS
DYEMANSION'S COLOR-MATCHING TECHNOLOGY BRINGS 3D PRINTS TO LIFE
Every year since 2000, a group of
experts from across the globe converge on a European capital for a secret meeting; they debate for two days and make a ruling that affects countless decisions the following year. It's not the G20 summit but a meeting of color standards groups. This faction decides on Pantone's Color of the Year. Colors such as Aqua Sky in 2003 or Tangerine Tango in 2012 shaped their respective year's products, fashion, and marketing campaigns worldwide
Now unless that color happens to be Powdery Nylon or Purged Brown, 3D printing's chances of matching the Color of the Year have previously been pretty slim. That was until the German post-processing technology experts, DyeMansion became determined to make color matching a true reality. The cover star of this issue is a selective laser sintered lampshade that has been finished using DyeMansion's unique Print-to-Product technology to create the color PANTONE 16-1546, or as it is more commonly known, Living Coral - 2019's Color of the Year. "The color matching process always starts with a physical color sample," says CTO and co-founder of DyeMansion, Philipp Kramer. "The sample could be plastics, fabrics, paper or even human skin. First it is measured by a spectrophotometer, and then the tone is developed using several iterations directly on the customer’s material and finish. Knowledge of material and finish are essential as they have a significant impact on the product’s final color. The matching process lays the foundation of a location-independent color communication with our customers using worldwide standardized systems like RAL, Pantone, CSI and NCS."
DyeMansion then chooses a selection of appropriate dyes before beginning an iterative process whereby the concentration of the dyes and additives are adjusted until the final tone is matched.
"At DyeMansion we put a great deal of effort in reducing the metamerism," explains Head of Production at DyeMansion, Tibor Näther. "Metamerism is the difference in the appearance of the color under different actions of light, such as natural light or artificial light. That way we ensure the same color of the 3D printed part compared to the color sample under different lights, which is especially essential when using 3D printed parts next to injection molded parts like it is the case with automotive spare parts."
The final acceptance of the color is always done by the customer directly onsite under real circumstances and with a test run free of charge if they already have a DyeMansion DM60 coloring system.
Without the correct coloring, it would be difficult to see 3D printed products ever being developed for end-use purposes. DyeMansion's color matching process has already enabled the likes of Daimler and Under Armour to realize a consistency in their 3D printed products using their corporate colors like Under Armour Glacier Grey or Daimler Evogrey.
Away from those household brand names, color matching is also proving a hit in the medical world too. Gottinger Handelshaus OHG has been at the forefront of orthopedic technology since 1901, and in 2012 it made additive manufacturing a core part of its technological skill set.
One of additive manufacturing's true success stories is in its ability to create
DyeMansion Color Ranges
bespoke, perfectly fitting prosthesis, we’ve seen this at the homemade level in the e-NABLE project through to high-end TCT Award winning prosthetics. Gottinger fit firmly in the higher echelons of orthopedic 3D printing and has even successfully certified its SLS leg prostheses according to the DIN EN ISO 10328: 2007 standard. Here, force, rotations, and resistance are tested. For this standard, 2,000,000 steps were simulated, which the prosthetic foot survived unscathed. Tailoring a fit of a prosthesis is now understood thanks to digital technologies but a request from a customer to match their skintone on a transtibial prosthesis meant Gottinger
Gottingger Transtibial Prosthesis
had to turn to fellow German company, DyeMansion. The process of matching a skin-tone for a prosthetic is remarkably similar to the way in which cosmetics stores have revolutionized the purchasing of makeup using spectrophotometry devices.
DyeMansion's intelligent coloring technology lies in its flexible recipe and process parameters. The chance to trace and monitor every relevant parameter, from the dyeing temperature and pressure down to details of the used dye batch for each cartridge containing the customer-specific mixture is paving the way for additive manufacturing to become a truly capable process for production. With the start of DyeMansion North America Inc. and initial activities in the Asia Pacific region seen at TCT Asia 2019 with local people and partners, the Munich-based company is stepping up its operations to become a worldwide presence.
SLS Lampshade
