Color Durability

#1

Hi,
around 3 years ago I printed my eyewear. Back then I used Nylon Polyamide(SLS) without polishing and colored them. However, the color vanished pretty fast after not even a month.
Now I want to print new eyewear and would like to know which coloring process is most durable?
How durable is polished and colored Polyamide?
Since I want to use flat hinges, I need to keep thin wall thicknesses and therefore, I am curious how much spray paint adds to the thickness.
Further on, I read that clear acrylic sealer can make color durable.

Any recommendations?

Kind regards!

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#2

If I understand well, you ordered your eyewear before as a natural, colored them yourself and the color varnished pretty fast. I don’t know which color was used by you, but normally standard model-making paints (e.g. Revell) work great with SLS.

If you order a dyed model, we submerge your model into a bath containing color pigment. It has a limited set of colors, so for exotic or specific ral references , your parts will have to be painted. Color dyed parts have a color penetration of only 0.3mm , so while light scratching will not result in a loss of color, heavy scratching, drilling, etc. will reveal the white part underneath.

Spray painting is only a very thin layer and will add no thickness to your design. I hope this answers your question. Kind regards Lizy

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#3

Dear lizy,
thanks for your reply!
I realised that I ordered my eyewear at a different supplier and they were also dyeing the parts as you stated in a bath. But it seems like there are different qualities. Since my model was not polished the material went of rather fast and with it the color. So I guess polishing it beforehand is better.
I might consider doing this.
Best,
Martin

#4

Hi Martin, nice to hear that the quality problem was not with a product from i.materialise. I really hope you will have a better result following the advice I gave you. Kind regards Lizy