ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | COLOUR PRINTING
CINO LILVOINGUR
Yariv Sade, Director of Applications Engineering at
Stratasys, takes a look at the potential of full colour 3D
printing to overcome barriers of traditional design tools.
Over the past decades,
the way businesses and
consumers look at design
has changed. While a
product’s engineering has historically
taken centre stage when it comes to
bringing it to market, the 21st century
takes engineering excellence and
product performance for granted.
Today, if something is to stand any
chance of enjoying the all-important
successful launch and subsequent
positive recep-tion among target
audiences, then it is product design
that’s king.
In a recent McKinsey study looking
at the correlation of product design
to business success, it was found that
design-led companies have 32%
more revenue and 56% total returns
of shareholders than companies
that place less focus on design. The
results clearly demonstrate that
companies that monitor consumer
behaviour and understand a
product’s look and feel – from colour
choice to surface finish – are ahead of
the competition.
This holds true for nearly every
industry, from automotive to
consumer goods, and from
healthcare and medical devices to
consumer electronics.
The designers behind product
concepts are therefore under more
pressure to deliver the winning
design; the next bestseller. The
processes and tools at their disposal
are numerous. However, there are
still several barriers for designers to
easily create realistic representations
of their ideas during the design
process, and accurately convey
them to potential stakeholders and
decision makers. A crucial
challenge for designers is
the CMF (Colour, Material,
Finishing) process.
In design, CMF refers to
the process in which colour,
material and finishing is
determined and selected
for a product. Colour can
refer to hues, saturation,
shading and colour
combinations within the
design; materials reflect the
feel and character; while finishing is
the texture and surface appearance
– pattern, matte, smooth, shiny etc.
These elements create the finished
‘look’ of a product.
The challenge many designers
often face is that CMF is not integrated
enough into the product development
process – it is often only reflected
perfectly in the finished product’s
look. This is largely because – if they
are using it at all – design facilities in
enterprises, design studios or SMEs
often rely on, or are restricted to,
single-colour 3D printing to create
physical representations of their
digital designs.
These prototypes are built to
reflect the geometry and functionality
of the design, yet they cannot
rep-resent more than one colour,
nor reflect textures or finishes.
The absence of an easy, fast and
affordable solution to create full
colour concept models or high-fidelity
prototypes to test and present a
product’s geometry, functionality, and
look and feel is an inherent issue
Design concepts are therefore split
18 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JULY 2020
/WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK