The Palette: 3D Printing Evolved -- Will it work?

[valley_nomad]

It is a very interesting idea that basically emulates the printing process which is just a very short constant time (or length of filament) ahead of the actual printing. It also adds an extra "bridge" or "buffer" block for more precise color switching....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mosaic3d/the-palette-3d-printing-evolved

[Mechatrommer]

It is a very interesting idea that basically emulates the printing process which is just a very short constant time

there is no mentioning of that there. it only for mixing filament colors. its an interesting idea lets see how its synchronize. one pass per layer constant time 3d printer already exist, but in very large scale manufacturing and using those "metal dust build up below it" method.

[Sigmoid]

I've been following them from quite long ago... The product seems legit, and the team has the right idea about KS - they have a product, and are only kickstarting for scaling up production. Also, they don't have stretch goals which is a huge plus.

Let's see how they deliver.

[mikeselectricstuff]

interesting idea but I think probably not as flexible as the make out, as there is the issue of syncing the colour transitions to extrusion rate.
Fine of you want each layer  different colour but I can't see it being able to do different colours within a layer with much accuracy, and performance is likely to differ significantly between 3D printers.

There may also be issues of the different filaments having slightly different physical properties, leading to differences in extrusion rates.

[Fsck]

seems like a really expensive addon for something you would probably only use for prototypes. given how they need to join different filaments together, I don't see (though they may have sorted it out) how accurately they'll have the color transitions as mike said.

at the very least, they're not putting some ridiculously low price on it and they have viable prototypes.

I wonder what the comparable cost (printer+palette vs wholly integrated) would be if they had just designed it directly into a printer instead of making it an attachment.

[valley_nomad]

The key here is how to keep a constant known length of the mixed filament between the real nozzle and the virtual nozzle at which those filaments are joined or spliced in the Palette box. This can be done because both the printer and the box use the same (modified) g-code and a passive roller is used between them to give the filament position feedback to the box. The application of the Palatte can also add one or more extra "butter" or "sync" blocks for more precise color splicing, as shown in this video: