Hatching for 3D prints: line-based halftoning for dual extrusion fused deposition modeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a line-based halftoning method called 'hatching' for FDM 3D printing, enabling grayscale appearance without affecting surface geometry or printing time, demonstrated through experiments on dual-nozzle printers.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel line-based halftoning technique tailored for FDM 3D printing that preserves surface quality and structural integrity while producing grayscale effects.

Findings

Effective grayscale rendering on FDM prints

Minimal impact on surface geometry and print time

Promising experimental results on dual-nozzle printers

Abstract

This work presents a halftoning technique to manufacture 3D objects with the appearance of continuous grayscale imagery for Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers. While droplet-based dithering is a common halftoning technique, this is not applicable to FDM printing, since FDM builds up objects by extruding material in semi-continuous paths. The line-based halftoning principle called 'hatching' is applied to the line patterns naturally occuring in FDM prints, which are built up in a layer-by-layer fashion. The proposed halftoning technique isn't limited by the challenges existing techniques face; existing FDM coloring techniques greatly influence the surface geometry and deteriorate with surface slopes deviating from vertical or greatly influence the basic parameters of the printing process and thereby the structural properties of the resulting product. Furthermore, the proposed technique has little effect on printing time. Experiments on a dual-nozzle FDM printer show promising results. Future work is required to calibrate the perceived tone.