The QuadFusion Print Head Brings Color Mixing to FFF 3D Printers

FFF (fused filament fabrication) 3D printers have largely driven the consumer 3D printing market because of their affordability, usability, and relatively high-quality output. But, a major drawback of the technology is that you’re generally limited to printing a single color of plastic for each part. Multi-extruder printers expand that, but your color options are still limited to the number of extruders on the printer. The QuadFusion print head from M3D, now on Kickstarter, is designed to overcome that limitation by mixing filament on demand to create a range of colors.

You may know M3D from their successful Kickstarter campaigns for the Micro and Pro FFF 3D printers. But, the QuadFusion isn’t just for those models; it should be compatible with most FFF 3D printers, and has already been tested with the MakerBot Replicator 2X, Prusa i3 MK2, and M3D’s Crane and Promega printers. Support for other popular 3D printers will almost certainly be coming in the future if you don’t own one of those models.

The QuadFusion print head works by carefully mixing up to four different filaments inside the head as it’s printing. The optimal setup is a CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and key) selection of colors, with the key being either white, black, or translucent filament. But, other combinations — even of different materials — have potential too. While any filament can be used, M3D has developed their own specifically for the QuadFusion that’s chemically optimal for clean color mixing.

For those of you who are frugal, the QuadFusion is also surprisingly affordable. Options range from $159 to $189 depending on when you want to receive yours, with the first batch shipping in August. The campaign runs until May 22nd, and is just about to reach the funding goal.