Dutch 3D printing filament producer colorFabb (Venlo; www.colorfabb.com) has a new custom colour service, which has been developed with German masterbatch producer Grafe (Blankenhain; www.grafe.com). The "Color on Demand" service, which was launched in June, offers quantities of both custom and pre-defined colours from just 2 kg per colour. Previously, the development of custom colours was only possible from quantities of 50 kg because of high costs and production economics.

ColorFabb said it primarily uses references to PAL – the colour matching system used in Europe – but can also closely match Pantone and other references with PLA as the base material. Pantone is a proprietary matching system offered by US company Pantone (Carlstadt, New Jersey; www.pantone.com).

As well as printing filaments, the Dutch company can also provide small custom colour batches of resin for injection moulders. Its sister companies are masterbatches, additives and bioplastics provider Helian Polymers (Venlo / The Netherlands; www.helianpolymers.com) and 3D printer manufacturer Blackbelt 3D (Belfeld / The Netherlands; www.blackbelt-3d.com).