Dual Pro Extruder: ZMorph Team Makes Eye-Catching 3D Printed Neon Outdoor Sign for Home Office

Throughout the ages, what has really defined the artists and designers is their facility in discovering, reaching out for, and using new tools. The ability to do so is what inevitably offers change in the world, or at least in the way we see it. The team at ZMorph understands that some may begin using 3D printing technology feeling limited by materials and process, and they see it as their mission to change that.

The most common limitation for users is that they are only able to use one material and one color at a time; indeed, while there are ways around that, it can seem awfully complicated, and hardly worth the trouble. To get around that issue, the Polish company has created a new tool for the 3D printing enthusiast in the form of the new Dual Pro toolhead, which offers twice as many options with two-color and two-material 3D printing. And with a new toy like this in the office come some fun new creations, as shown by the ZMorph team upon demonstrating the benefits of two-material printing. What could be better than making something exciting and unique for the office?

Paula Szarejko, a ZMorph designer, gave the team an idea upon suggesting that they were in need of an attention grabbing outdoor sign. With the perfect opportunity to create something using their new toolset, the team set out to make a new 3D printed sign–in neon.

“As we were discussing our new outdoor sign, we knew it had to be connected to the things that we do in the company, so we decided to print the sign from ABS using our new Dual Pro Extruder. This gave us the possibility of two-color printing from different materials with full process control, fast iterations and finally–a unique effect,” states the ZMorph team on their site.

The neon design was based on their logo and then printed on their proprietary software, Voxelizer, which we’ve followed the company’s progress on for quite some time from its use in medical modeling to its role in making items like a custom mechanical clock. With Voxelizer, designers enjoy not just a user-friendly platform, but also many options, with the ability to drag and drop, voxelize, and create gcode.

Using multiple colors was as easy as corresponding different colors with the appropriate nozzles.

“This gave us the possibility to use dedicated settings for each part, for example a different infill. Depending on the size of letters you can print the whole word or just single letters. We chose the second solution, because it gave us more possibilities, like making the whole project bigger,” stated the team.

They also decided to go with low energy LED lights, along with other materials that were easy to come by, like Plexiglass. Szarejko employed the new Dual Pro Extruder with a printer they just so happened to have on hand–the ZMorph 2.0S Hybrid 3D Printer. The team found that due to their single-nozzle construction, there was a lot less mess than they would have encountered with a two-nozzle extruder, and this allowed them to work with two colors easily. ABS proved to be a very good choice as well because it is waterproof, meaning they had no trouble working with the neon outside.

“The effect of our work is amazing–we’ve created an eye-catching neon, which will shine in the front of our office. The cost of whole project was many times lower than traditional outdoor advertising.”

With only about ten hours of printing time, Szarejko was able to complete the project using less than 1kg of ABS. The whole team was very proud of their work with the new extruder, and they see the sign as something that will be very inviting to people walking by on their way to ZMorph headquarters.