A hot-molding method using a plastic elastomer to fabricate a vamp comprises steps: fabricating a hot-molding mold according to a pattern design of a vamp; fabricating blanks of different thicknesses, shapes, sizes, colors and materials; placing the blanks in the hot-molding mold; placing the hot-molding mold in a hot-molding machine to undertake a hot-molding process; and taking the hot-molding mold out of the hot-molding machine and then taking out the vamp from the mold after cooling. The method enables a single vamp to simultaneously use blanks of different thicknesses, shapes, colors and materials and diversifies vamp designs. The method fixes blanks securely in the mold and joins blanks of different colors to an identical vamp in a single process. The blanks are hard to peel off the vamp after molding. The method features a short fabrication cycle, high efficiency and high yield.

According to some aspects, a method is provided of producing multicolor objects via additive fabrication by forming a plurality of layers on a substrate from a plurality of materials each having a respective color, the method comprising obtaining image data, the image data indicating a color for each of a plurality of positions, determining a plurality of color stacks based on the image data, each color stack being determined based on the color associated with one of the plurality of positions of the image data, and each color stack specifying a sequence of materials, where each material in the sequence is selected from amongst the plurality of materials, and forming, via additive fabrication, a plurality of layers from the plurality of materials according to the specified sequence of materials associated with each color stack.

A method for printing a three-dimensional object includes printing a structural layer onto a three-dimensional object, printing a first color layer onto a first region of the structural layer, and printing a second color layer onto a second region of the structural layer. The first region includes a first structural thickness, and the second region includes a second structural thickness, which is different than the first structural thickness. The first color layer includes a first color and a first color thickness, and the first color thickness and the first structural thickness in combination form a target thickness. The second color layer includes a second color and a second color thickness, and the second color thickness and the second structural thickness in combination form the target thickness.

A printing method for printing a multi-material 3D model comprises the following steps: perform a slicing process on a multi-material 3D object to generate the multi-material object slices and the object slices of a useful object; compute a material-switching point and a retrieving point during the slicing process; print the multi-material object slices of a multi-material 3D model with one of the materials; when print to the material-switching point, switch to another different material and print useful objects with the material used before the material switching; when print to the retrieving point, print the multi-material object slices with the material used after the material switching; and repeat the above steps until completing the multi-material 3D model printing. The present disclosed example prints the useful object via the remaining materials after the material switching which effectively reduces the cost with of multi-materials printing.

A method includes injection molding a preform using a two phase injection system having a first phase in which a material is injected into the preform and a second phase in which the material is injected into the preform. The preform is disposed in a mold. The preform is blow molded into an intermediate article. The intermediate article is trimmed to form a finished container. The first phase includes injecting a material into the preform to form a single layer of the preform and the second phase includes injecting the material to form inner and outer layers and an intermediate layer between the inner and outer layers. The inner and outer layers include the material and the intermediate layer includes at least one additive. Finished containers are disclosed.

A method for printing a multi-color three dimensional (3D) object includes the following steps. A 3D object is layered to configure multiple layer-printing documents. The multiple layer-printing documents are integrated into a model printing document of the 3D object. The 3D object is printed according to the model printing document.

A shaping apparatus, a shaping method, and a shaping program with which a shaped object can be formed to have the interior with excellent color expression are provided. A 3D printer forms a three-dimensional shaped object having an interior colored, with layer bodies of a light reflective material and a coloring material ejected from an ejection head based on color image data layered. The 3D printer determines arrangement positions of a light reflective material and a coloring material so that the light reflective material is arranged at a predetermined position in each unit volume in a region to be colored inside a shaped object and the coloring material is arranged around the light reflective material based on the color image data. A set position of the unit volume is set to make one surface of one unit volume come into contact with a plurality of other unit volumes.

According to an example, an apparatus may include a processor and a memory on which is stored instructions that are to cause the processor to identify features for a three-dimensional (3D) indicator object to be fabricated by a 3D fabricating device, in which the identified features define a shape and a pattern of colors for the 3D indicator object. The instructions may also cause the processor to instruct the 3D fabricating device to fabricate the 3D indicator object to have the identified features, in which the 3D indicator object has a shape having a plurality of surfaces on which a plurality of colors are arranged in a certain pattern as defined by the identified features, and in which each of the plurality of surfaces has the same certain pattern of the plurality of colors and determine properties of the fabricated 3D indicator object.

In one example a method of generating a three-dimensional object in a 3D printing system using a fusing agent of a first colour and a build material having a second colour different from the first colour, and a detailing agent, comprises obtaining object model data describing an object to be generated, and determining a first portion of the object to be generated to have the second colour. The method comprises determining object generation instructions to generate the object by defining a gap region of a layer of build material that is to correspond to the first portion of the object to have the second colour on which no agents are to be applied, a band of detailing agent on a layer of build material immediately adjacent to the gap region to define an outer limit of the gap region and therefore a boundary of the first portion of the object, and a fusing agent region on a layer of build material adjacent to the gap region on which fusing agent is to be applied.

In one aspect, inks for use with a three-dimensional printing system are described herein. In some embodiments, an ink described herein is a composite ink. Such a composite ink, in some cases, comprises an optically transparent or substantially transparent carrier ink comprising a curable material; and a colorant dispersed in the carrier ink in an amount of about 0.01 to 5 weight %, based on the total weight of the composite ink.