Fig. 1: b-FDM 3D printing with a DM filament.
From: 3D printing with a 3D printed digital material filament for programming functional gradients
a Schematic illustration of b-FDM printing process. A DM filament with a prescribed material composition is first 3D printed according to the desired material property distribution in the target 3D geometry (programming, encoding). The desired material gradient appears in the 3D object printed with a standard FDM printer. (decoding). b Constituent materials (two filaments with different colors, cyan and yellow) can be heterogeneously printed into a single DM filament with a precisely designed spatial arrangement. The red arrow indicates the nozzle movement direction during DM filament printing. c-d A DM filament is designed to have same form factor of commodity filaments with diameter of 1.75 mm, as shown in schematic and optical image of a cross-section.
