Purpose

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a common additive manufacturing method that is widely used owing to its low cost, environmental friendliness and safety. Colour models are needed because of their ability to express more information, but high printing quality and efficiency are difficult to achieve with the existing FFF colour printing methods because of the “inertia” of printing. Inertia refers to the feature of the former colour material remaining in the molten cavity when switching colours in colour FFF printing. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new FFF colour printing method to reduce printing material usage and printing time.

Design/methodology/approach

A new FFF colour printing method that uses transitioning waste to construct the part is proposed. Based on the freedom of the colour surface model’s interior space, the internal fill and support of the print model are generated using the transitioning waste to reduce printing material usage and printing time and to achieve environmentally friendly colour printing. The modified elite ant system (EAS) algorithm is used to construct and optimize this method based on the colour surface model.

Findings

A colour printing experiment is performed using a colour-mixing FFF printer platform with a special waste extrusion module. The experimental results show that this method can significantly reduce material and time consumption compared to the commonly used method. The printed part produced by this method also has high surface quality.

Originality/value

A new FFF colour printing method that uses transitioning waste to construct the part is proposed. Based on the freedom of the colour surface model’s interior space, the internal fill and support of the print model are generated using the transitioning waste to reduce printing material usage and printing time and to achieve environmentally friendly colour printing. The modified EAS algorithm is used to construct and optimize this method based on the colour surface model. A special waste extrusion module is developed.

中文翻译：

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基于彩色表面模型过渡废物填充技术的彩色熔丝制备方法

目的

熔融长丝制造（FFF）是一种常见的增材制造方法，由于其低成本，环境友好和安全性而被广泛使用。需要使用颜色模型，因为它们具有表达更多信息的能力，但是由于现有的FFF彩色打印方法因打印的“惯性”而难以实现较高的打印质量和效率。惯性是指在彩色FFF打印中切换颜色时，前一种色料保留在熔融腔中的特征。本文的目的是提出一种新的FFF彩色打印方法，以减少打印材料的使用和打印时间。

设计/方法/方法

提出了一种新的FFF彩色印刷方法，该方法使用过渡废料来构造零件。基于彩色表面模型内部空间的自由度，使用过渡废物来生成打印模型的内部填充和支撑，以减少打印材料的使用和打印时间，并实现环保的彩色打印。改进的精英蚂蚁系统（EAS）算法用于基于彩色表面模型构造和优化此方法。

发现

使用带有特殊废料挤出模块的混色FFF打印机平台进行彩色打印实验。实验结果表明，与常用方法相比，该方法可以显着减少材料和时间的消耗。通过这种方法生产的印刷部件也具有较高的表面质量。

创意/价值

提出了一种新的FFF彩色印刷方法，该方法使用过渡废料来构造零件。基于彩色表面模型内部空间的自由度，使用过渡废物来生成打印模型的内部填充和支撑，以减少打印材料的使用和打印时间，并实现环保的彩色打印。改进的EAS算法用于基于彩色表面模型构造和优化此方法。开发了特殊的废物挤出模块。