Also reveals some new rigid ones during its latest announcement

Jun 10, 2014 07:32 GMT  ·  By

True-color 3D printing may still be, mostly, impossible, but there are some multi-nozzle, multi-material printers that can pull it off, even if not quite perfectly. Stratasys has just released a new range of materials for them.

In truth, the new range of printing materials from Stratasys is intended for all FDM printers in its portfolio (fused deposition modeling). It's just that multi-material models will make better use of them.

There are two types of materials in the new set. One is the regular sort, rigid. Meant to be used in small, plastic things, like toys, parts of a larger construction, gears, replicas of other things, etc.

The other kind is new. You see, Stratasys has succeeded in creating flexible materials, meaning that printers like the Objet500 Connex3 color multi-material 3D printer can be used to make flexible, squishy things.

There are six new flexible material palettes, adding over 200 extra colors to Stratasys' lineup. Add to that 135 colors of rigid gray and 45 colors of hue gray (four new rigid gray and color palettes), and there's a lot to work with, no matter the project you're on.

You can even produce reflective, sheen-like objects from the rigid black-white clear palettes, good for consumer electronics parts and car product housings, medical devices, etc.