A research team at Western University in Canada has found a new way to recycle coloured 3D printing filament by blending different coloured scraps to create new colours.
Eight coloured 3D printing samples were created and tested against a colour target, with the most similar colour then blended in a filament extruder to create a 3D printing filament of the same colour.
The premise relies on a colour mixing theory that calculates the difference between human-perceived colours, and while the team’s software is currently only accurate with the use of a spectrometer, they suggest that filament manufacturers publishing the optical properties of their products could enable at-home colour mixing in the future.
The findings were published in the open-access journal Materials and were funded in part by the non-profit organisation, The Sustainable Print Project.
