iMaterialise Working on Dual Material models?
A reporter from People.com.cn recently got a tour behind the scenes at the Brussels factory of Materialise, the parent company of iMaterialise. Among the slideshow showcasing many beautiful 3d prints were two glimpses at a print done with mixed transulucent and opaque material, showing a clear hand with visible skeleton inside.
This comes after Makerbot announced recently the Replicator 2X would have dualstrusion capabilities, letting it print two different materials at once. The Dual version of the Replicator, aptly named the Replicator Dual, supported two print heads as well. A model like the one shown can be made with one of these dual head 3d printers by loading one extruder with transparent filament and the other with a standard white filament.
It’s possible iMaterialize will support mixed transparent and opaque materials for all customers through their website. We contacted iMaterialise, and they’re not supporting dualstrusion or multiple materials yet. But the prototype department at Materialise can. If you’re interested, you might be able to get a custom quote now for a mixed transparency item by emailing prototype @ materialise . be
In the meantime, another option is to find a custom 3d printing service. We’ve heard that SIMT can do multiple material prints with an Object Connex.