Coloring 3D Printed Surfaces by Thermoforming

Decorating the surfaces of 3D printed objects with color textures is still not readily available in most consumer-level or even high-end 3D printers. Existing techniques such as hydrographics color transfer suffer from the issues of air pockets in concave regions and discoloration in overly stretched regions. We propose a novel thermoforming-based coloring technique to alleviate these problems as well as to simplify the overall procedure. Thermoforming is a widely used technique in industry for plastic thin shell product manufacturing by pressing heated plastic sheets onto molds using atmospheric pressure. We attach on the transparent plastic sheet a precomputed color pattern decal prior to heating, and adhere it to 3D printed models treated as the molds in thermoforming. The 3D models are thus decorated with the desired color texture, as well as a thin, polished protective cover. The precomputation involves a physical simulation of the thermoforming process to compute the correct color pattern on the plastic sheet, and the vent hole layout on the 3D model for air pocket elimination. We demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of our computational model and our prototype thermoforming surface coloring system through physical experiments.