3D Printing Industry News – Apple’s 3D Printer Design Patent

Apple now has have an approved patent for a color 3D Printer, making Apple’s entrance to the market likely. What’s more, they are showing interest in color printing systems.

The name of the patent is “Method and apparatus for three-dimensional printing of colored objects”. The illustration of the printer itself shows what one would expect of an FFF printer but with a color nozzle as well. The patent also includes a number of ways that the color printer could operate.

One of these ways was illustrated a flowchart that shows that the machine would add colors after the printing the object. It uses a “non-transitory program storage device” that reads the object file, automatically applies colors and sends it to the printer. Another version has an active color nozzle working alongside the print process. A third proposal outlines a “computer-implemented method of printing a custom manufactured object”. There are very few details on how this method works.

Will Apple take on the HP’s of the world?