An Investigation of Selective Coloring with 3-D Laser Printing

This paper reports on preliminary results involving an experimental rapid prototyping process known as 3-D laser printing. The system builds parts by repeatedly laser printing thermoplastic cross-sectional “slice” images of a part one on top of the next. With each new layer, the total build thickness increases until the part is complete. An interesting extension to this system involves the use of a color print engine to produce selectively colored parts. Conventional rapid prototyping processes generally do not allow this sort of selective coloring. Initial results indicate that the system has considerable potential and warrants continued investigation.