Hydro dipping: technology for simple and fast coloring of 3D printed objects

Adafruit has presented the new technology for 3D printed object coloring: Hydro dipping. It allows to cover products with graphics, figures and just color them in different ways.

The concept of Hydro dipping, also known as hydrographics, is the following:

• one should take a container with hot water and put a hydrographic paper with an image on it;
• the 3D printed object is dipped into the container at a 45 degree angle;
• when exposed to water, inks transfer from the paper to the object;
• the item is got out of the container and dried out by hot air;
• the object is covered by the special spray for extra fixation of the image.

use the technology, one should prepare the hydrographic paper with the image. The image is modeled in digital design software and printed on a common printer. Resolution should not exceed 300 dpi, because the image will be slurred.

This technology has two disadvantages:

• it is difficult to put an image on a transparent background, as fragments without inks poorly stick to the object. Thus, it is better to make the coat light-grey or try to copy the object color;
• the method does not allow to reach high digitalization of an image.

Hydro dipping allows to put on graphic images, patterns, paint items with a certain color, make gradient, obtain tree grain effect etc. Paint won’t peel and fade for a long time.