This is a neat idea -- using a temperature range for extrusion that can cross the color-changing range to allow multicolor 3D printing.
This same basic idea -- filament properties that change dramatically across the relatively small extrusion temperature range -- has been explored recently with foaming agents. The first I ran across was lightweight PLA, where by controlling temperature the amount of foaming is adjusted for about a 2x variation in density. Beyond that, I know that lightweight ASA is out there. Probably the most interesting use of foaming agents I've seen is with TPU, though, where the variation in density is less important than the variation in durometer, again over a pretty wide range.
In my somewhat limited printing experience, small changes to hotend temperatures can have a big effect on print quality. Wonder how they’ll get around that problem.
Not really. A little too hot and you get stringing or oozing filament. Too cold and layers don’t bound well enough. 5 degrees can make a big difference.
I remain somewhat obsessed with the idea that you can apply a strong electric field to a cooling polymer in a 3d printer and create a "programmable" electret. That's basically an electric field which is frozen in an insulator. I'm not sure what you could do with it, beyond storing some information (creation and ownership info?) or making part of an embedded sensor, but I feel like there are applications there...
That's fascinating. Here's my best shot at an application:
I have a mouse with a switch on the bottom, the switch lets me change the scroll wheel between free spinning mode and clicky mode. I wonder if you could achieve a sort of soft-clicky-mode with three discs, printed with the right electret pattern and arranged so that the middle one is free-spinning.
There would be preferred and not-preferred orientations, and you'd get a small force pushing the middle disc into a preferred location (providing tactile feedback). You could probably also embed some wires in the outer disc and use information about the currents induced to detect whether (and in which direction?) the wheel was spinning.
This same basic idea -- filament properties that change dramatically across the relatively small extrusion temperature range -- has been explored recently with foaming agents. The first I ran across was lightweight PLA, where by controlling temperature the amount of foaming is adjusted for about a 2x variation in density. Beyond that, I know that lightweight ASA is out there. Probably the most interesting use of foaming agents I've seen is with TPU, though, where the variation in density is less important than the variation in durometer, again over a pretty wide range.