Small multicolor prints like keychains, tags and badges are popular with print farms, and they are where purge waste hurts most. Every color change on a single-nozzle printer flushes material, and a batch repeats that flush on every part. A printer that changes color without purging keeps the cost of each small part close to the cost of the part itself.
A keychain weighs very little. The material you throw away while printing it can weigh more than the keychain.
Why Small Parts Make Waste Worse
Purge waste comes from color changes, not from part size. A small multicolor part still needs its color changes, so the waste per part stays roughly the same whether the part is large or tiny. When the part is small, that waste becomes a big share of what you used. See Purge Towers Explained for how it works.
Batches multiply it. A plate of keychains with several colors each repeats the same color changes across every part on the plate, and then across every plate in the order.
What a Batch Costs You
For a print farm, waste shows up in three places:
- Material. Purged filament is paid for and can't be sold.
- Time. Flushing and cleaning take printing time, and time is what a farm sells.
- Handling. Waste has to be cleared from the plate and the printer, and more handling means more chances for a failed plate.
To put your own numbers on it, see What Purge Waste Costs You.
What Changes Without Purging
Quadro uses four independent toolheads, so a color change means a different toolhead takes over instead of the same nozzle flushing out the old color. There is no color-clearing purge. A small priming tower is still used to prepare the active nozzle, so the waste is limited to priming, not flushing. Read Why Quadro Doesn't Purge for the details, and Multicolor Waste: Measured for a comparison test.
Making a Good Batch Plate
- Fill the plate. Quadro has a 300 × 300 mm plate, which leaves room for many small parts per job. See No More Splitting Large Models.
- Keep colors per part within four. One spool per toolhead means four colors per job without swapping filament in the middle of a plate.
- Use one design per plate, or a small set. Repeated parts make a plate predictable and easy to check.
- Plan for a restock, not a mid-plate refill. Check that each spool has enough filament for the whole plate before you start.
- Check the first parts as they come off. Color boundaries tell you quickly whether the toolheads are aligned. See How Quadro Calibrates Four Independent Toolheads.
What to Look For in a Multicolor Print Farm Printer
- How much material each color change costs, measured, not estimated.
- How many colors a job can use without a filament swap.
- How the printer handles idle nozzles, since oozing and stringing spoil small parts. See Inside QDock.
- Whether calibration is automatic or manual.
- Open firmware and slicer, so you can adapt settings to your own workflow. See QuadrOS, Klipper and Co Slicer.
More questions to ask are in our multi toolhead 3D printer buying guide. For other prints worth trying, see Multicolor 3D Printing Project Ideas.
Key Takeaways
- Purge waste depends on color changes, so small multicolor parts waste a bigger share of material.
- Batches repeat the waste on every part and every plate.
- Without a color-clearing purge, small parts stay close to the cost of the material in them.
- Fill the plate, stay within four colors per job and check each spool before you start.
Printing multicolor batches? See Quadro or visit the Kickstarter page.
3. FAQ
Why is multicolor printing wasteful for small parts? Waste comes from color changes. A small part needs the same changes as a larger one, so the waste becomes a bigger share of the material used.
How does batch printing affect purge waste? The waste repeats for every part on the plate and every plate in the order, so it grows with the batch.
Does Quadro waste filament on color changes? Quadro has no color-clearing purge because each color has its own toolhead. A small priming tower prepares the active nozzle.
How many colors can one job use on Quadro? Four, one per toolhead, without swapping filament during the print.
Can a print farm use Quadro? Quadro has a 300 × 300 mm plate and four independent toolheads, which suits plates of small multicolor parts. Check throughput against your own requirements.
