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The 6 best full-color 3D printers in 2022

What is the best full-color 3D printer?

It’s complex to 3D print in full, photorealistic color, and there are less than ten 3D printer manufacturers that achieve this.

Until recently, full-color 3D printing was exclusive to expensive industrial additive manufacturing systems from brands such as Stratasys or 3D Systems. Today, more affordable (under $10K) desktop full-color 3D printers also exist.

What is full-color 3D printing?

Full-color 3D printers are able to create objects with photorealistic color.

To do so, the 3D printer must be able to mix different filaments or inks together to obtain precise shades and gradients, similar to regular 2D paper printers.

This is also known as indirect color 3D printing, as the color is applied to the base material (the base material isn’t pre-colored before 3D printing).

Full-color 3D printing vs. multicolor 3D printing

In the 3D printing industry, the term “multicolor” is sometimes used as a synonym for full-color.

However, for clarity in this article, we will only refer to multicolor for 3D printers and accessories that are able to 3D print a few colors (e.g.: 2-color 3D printers, 3-color 3D printers, Prusa multi-material add-on, Mosaic Palette, etc.).

This type of 3D printing is also called direct color 3D printing, as the filament already has a specific color before being 3D printed.

The best full-color 3D printers

Expand to see more specs

The products in the table are ranked by price (low to high).

Brand	Product	Technology	Build size	Country	Price Approximate starting prices based on supplier-provided information and public data. Prices may vary by region, over time and do not include additional products or services (taxes, shipping, accessories, training, installation, …).
ComeTrue	T10	Binder Jetting	200 × 160 × 150 mm7.87 × 6.3 × 5.91 in	–	$ 30,00030 495 €26,611 £4,471,680 ¥	Get a quote
XYZprinting	PartPro350 xBC	Binder Jetting	350 × 222 × 200 mm13.78 × 8.74 × 7.87 in	Taiwan	$ 30,00016 690 €26,611 £4,471,680 ¥	Get a quote
Mimaki	3DUJ-2207	Material Jetting	203 × 203 × 76 mm7.99 × 7.99 × 2.99 in	Japan	$ 39,00035 000 €34,595 £5,813,184 ¥	Get a quote
Stratasys	J55 Prime	Material Jetting	–	United States	$ 99,00095 000 €87,817 £14,756,544 ¥	Get a quote
Mimaki	3DUJ-553	Material Jetting	508 × 508 × 305 mm20 × 20 × 12. 01 in	Japan	$ 230,000200 000 €204,019 £34,282,880 ¥	Get a quote
3D Systems This brand is a certified partner from our network.	ProJet CJP 660Pro	Binder Jetting	254 × 381 × 203 mm10 × 15 × 7.99 in	United States	upon request	Get a quote

Overview of the best full-color 3D printers in 2022

The ComeTrue T10 full-color 3D printer uses sandstone– a neutral, plaster-like powder– as its base material. This material is solidified and colored with ComeTrue’s proprietary liquid binding agent.

Then, users must insert the parts into a dry vacuum unit (available separately) to manually remove excess powder with an airbrush. The final steps involve covering the part in a liquid infiltrant for it to harden and then leaving the part to dry.

Contact manufacturer Get a quote Add to comparison

Targeting professionals such as architects and designers, the PartPro350 xBC 3D prints, colors, and cures materials all at once.

This full-color 3D printer features a removable build tray, enabling users to quickly launch a new print job before taking out freshly 3D printed parts from the previous tray.

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The 3DUJ-2207 is an affordable full color 3D printer produced by Mimaki. Mimaki is a 3D printer manufacturer based in Japan. This 3D printer offers a build volume of 203 x 203 x 76 mm.

Contact manufacturer Get a quote Add to comparison

The Stratasys J55 Prime is a full-color 3D printer for professionals. Stratasys is a worldwide 3D printer manufacturer based in the United States.

This color 3D printer can print over 1,900 PANTONE colors.

Contact manufacturer Get a quote Add to comparison

Mimaki is a professional inkjet printing solution manufacturer from Japan. The 3DUJ-553 is their first 3D printer, and it produces high-quality, photo-realistic 3D prints.

To do so, its ink heads deposit a layer of colored ink, which the printheads then coat with UV-sensitive material to harden the layer with LED lighting. According to the manufacturer, this full-color 3D printer offers over 10 million colors.

Contact manufacturer Get a quote Add to comparison

This full-color sandstone 3D printer by 3D Systems produces high-quality parts. The ProJet CJP 660Pro deposits liquid color binding agent (proprietary VisiJet PXL) through its 1,520 jets in a process called ColorJet Printing.

Different infiltrants are available from 3D Systems for varying color 3D printed part properties: ColorBond, StrengthMax, and Wax.

Contact manufacturer Get a quote Add to comparison

Other full-color 3D printers

Below are a few mentions of products that are unavailable, discontinued, or suspicious.

M3D Crane Quad

The Crane Quad is a $999 desktop 3D printer that is advertised by M3D as capable of printing full-color objects with its four-in-one-out extruder. However, it has been brought to our attention that some users have never received the machine, while many others have encountered serious issues with it. A recap of user complaints and types of issues can be found in this BBB report. We don’t recommend this company.

Mcor ARKePro

Mcor debuted with the Mcor IRIS and Matrix 300+ and then launched the Mcor ARKePro full-color desktop 3D printers for professionals (an updated version of the original Mcor ARKe). The ARKe used Selective Deposition Lamination (SDL) technology, which consists of depositing colored ink on sheets of paper. Mcor is no longer active.

SOMETHING 3D Chameleon

This 3D printer was announced by Israel-based SOMETHING 3D (ST3D) in 2017. The Chameleon mixes five colors together (WCMYK) to create full-color 3D prints.

ORD Solutions RoVa4D full-color Blender

The RoVa4D full-color Blender is another filament-mixing 3D printer. Canadian company ORD Solutions launched this full-color desktop 3D printer on Kickstarter in 2016, but there has been very little news about its availability since then.

Apple full-color 3D printer

There were rumors of the tech giant developing a full-color desktop 3D printer. Apple filed a patent in 2015, which was approved at the beginning of 2018. However, the project appears to be on standby as no official Apple announcements regarding 3D printing have been made.

Ilios Ray

Ilios was a 3D printer manufacturer from Cyprus that closed its doors in late 2016. Their Ilios Ray resin 3D printer was claimed to mix colors with different resin cartridges.

SKY-TECH 3DPandoras

Launched on Kickstarter in 2014, this full-color powder 3D printer was well-received by the community– at first. Since then, its backers have largely denounced this product as a scam.

Multicolor 3D printing: alternatives to full-color 3D printing

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, multi-color 3D printing is different from full-color 3D printing. Multi-filament 3D printers, such as dual extruder 3D printers, are able to 3D print different colors at the same time. These multi-nozzle 3D printers can be considered multi-color, but not full-color.

Accessories such as the Mosaic Palette or the Prusa multi-material add-on also allow for multicolor 3D printing with simple single-extruder 3D printers. They enable users to 3D print with up to four or five colors.

With SimplyColor3D software, it’s also possible to program filament color changes. The software also allows users to paint 3D models and allows for less material waste during purge transitions.

Another solution is post-processing. Germany-based DyeMansion provides full-color post-processing solutions (“DyeMansion RAL color palette”) for powder-based 3D printed parts. See our post on multicolor 3D printers and multi-filament accessories for more information.

Benefits of full-color 3D printing and applications

Full-color 3D printers allow users to obtain photorealistic 3D models with limited post-processing required. This is useful for rapid prototyping as well as for the manufacturing of end-use products:

• Realistic prototypes (e.g. packaging, architecture models)
• Customized consumer products (e.g. phone cases, figurines, toys)
• Educational items (e.g. medical models)

Full-color 3D printing service

Full-color 3D printers are quite expensive and they require users to have at least some 3D printing knowledge. If users only need to 3D print a few parts a year, then ordering online service bureaus can be more cost-effective. Here’s a list of a few trusted online full-color 3D printing services:

• 3D Hubs
• i.materialise
• Sculpteo
• Shapeways
• WhiteClouds

How much does a full-color 3D printer cost?

The price of a full-color 3D printer can range from $550 to over $250,000. It depends on the type of 3D printing technology that the 3D printer uses. Full-color extrusion 3D printers cost less, while complex binder jetting and material jetting are the most expensive.

Find the right full-color 3D printer for sale

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Both extruders are designed for 3D printing polymers and composites, compatibles with various FDM 3D- printers and differ in cooling - air or liquid, depending on the option.

As the names suggest, the new options are upgrades to the h3 direct extruder with two stainless steel pinion gears and a 7:1 gear ratio. The capabilities of the new extruders are broadly similar to each other, with the significant difference that the h3O option is better suited for operation in thermostated chambers with a high background temperature, where air cooling would be ineffective. nine0003

Extruder BIQU h3 500°C

“Since the release of the BIQU h3 extruders, we have received a lot of positive feedback and at the same time requests for extruders capable of printing with high temperature filaments such as PEEK and carbon fiber composites. For this reason, we have spent the last year developing h3O and h3 500°C variants that support liquid cooling and 3D printing temperatures up to 500°C,” explains BIQU Founder Eric Zhang.

BIQU h3O extruder

To increase thermal conductivity, the aluminum thermal blocks in the new extruders were replaced with nickel-plated copper ones with 70 W heating elements. Instead of brass, hardened steel nozzles with a diameter of 0.4 mm are used, hot ends are equipped with bimetallic copper-titanium thermal barriers. Temperature sensors are PT100 thermistors with MAX31865 amplifiers.

Air-cooled version uses a fan that delivers up to 9000 rpm, and the liquid cooling system allows the extruder to be operated at background temperatures up to 180°C.

In theory, the new extruders can confidently print polyamides, polycarbonates, carbon-filled composites, and even high-melting engineering thermoplastics such as polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and polyetherimide (PEI, PEI). 3D printing the latter without thermostated chambers will be very difficult, so a liquid-cooled version seems to be the best option. To make typing more fun, h3O also added RGB lighting. nine0003

The new options are not much more expensive than the base version: if h3 extruders of the second iteration are offered at a selling price of $77, then for h3 500 ° C the company asks for $89, and for h3O in a complete set - $179. Kits are currently not available, but the h3O extruder and liquid cooling system can be ordered separately for $89 and $85 respectively.

Additional information is available on the official website of the manufacturer at this link. nine0003

biqu h3O

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Weber. Granular high-speed 3D large format printers.

DXR-series

In addition to the DX series, WEBER Additive offers a robotic system (DXR) for additive manufacturing. nine0065 Here, a high-quality WEBER extruder is moved by a precise 6-axis industrial robot.

01. ROBOT 3D printing system

WEBER DXR 25

Weber DXR systems work with various industrial robots that move specially designed AE series extruders with the highest precision. They are highly modular and adaptable to our customers' requirements.

Advantages when printing with robots using CAM systems:

• Optimized print strategies with 6-axis kinematics
• Variable print head angle
• Print on existing parts
• Optimize layer direction based on product loads

Printable area

Customizable. Determined by the robotic arm used.

Controller and print speed

Print speed: customized
Controller: Windows IPC, Siemens S7-1500 SPS

Main characteristics

• Kinematics: 6-axial industrial robot (Stäubli, ABB, KUKA)
  
• Table temperature: 120ºC
• Maximum chamber temperature: 45ºC
• Monitoring Pits: RGB IP Cameres
• AE 20 / AE 30

Options

• Pellet conveyor: included
• Pellet dryer: 25 l / 50 l
• Vacuum table: option
• Cooling system: option
• Thermal insulation: option
• AiSync (control system): still available with KUKA
  

02.

AE-SERIES OF EXTRUDERS

AE-SERIES designed for dynamics: lightweight, optimized for variable output, with powerful servomotor and compact material feed.

The correct configuration and size of a pellet extruder depends on many factors:

• Typically required extrusion speed
• Desired layer and wall thickness
• Material and material composition

Contact our specialists and we will select the configuration you need!

The main features

The most important features of the AE extruders series:

• are controlled through the central control of the machine
• The optimal geometry of the screw for linear output characteristics
• The extrusion temperature up to 450 ° C
• Solutions for protection against wear during processing by reinforced fibers materials
• Replacement nozzle
• Water-cooled hardened feed zone
• Additional extruder zone cooling

Interested?

Contact us for more information!

Technical support

Help and service support.

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