Yellow Methine Dyes for Color-Stable Urethane Acrylate Prints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing 3D printing technologies using photopolymerization-based methods face issues with colorants that cause color changes due to light exposure during the printing process, leading to undesirable fading or discoloration, and affect the curing process.
Innovation Solution
The use of yellow methine dyes with specific molecular weights and solubility in urethane acrylate resins, ensuring a color difference ΔE <20 from the L*a*b* coordinates in the RAL color table, enhances lightfastness and coloristic properties in 3D printed products.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional colorants are used in photopolymerization-based 3D printing, then the curing process can proceed, but color changes and fading occur due to light exposure during printing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical parameters of the colorant by selecting specific yellow methine dyes with molecular weights between 50-1000 g/mol and solubilities ≥0.05 g/L in urethane acrylate resin. These parameter changes enable the dye to withstand photopolymerization light exposure without fading, achieving ΔE<20 color stability while maintaining cureability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite system by combining urethane acrylate resin with specific yellow methine dyes. This composite material achieves synergistic properties where the resin provides the photopolymerization matrix and the dye provides color stability, resulting in a material that cures properly and maintains color fidelity under light exposure.
2Manufacturing precision
If colorants are used to achieve desired color tone, then coloristic properties are improved, but lightfastness during printing deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the molecular weight parameter of the dye to 50-1000 g/mol and solubility parameter to ≥0.05 g/L in urethane acrylate resin. These parameter changes enable the dye to maintain both color tone accuracy (ΔE<20 vs. RAL) and lightfastness during the printing process by preventing premature fading while preserving the desired yellow coloration.
3Manufacturing precision
If soluble dyes are used for photopolymerization, then coloristic properties are enhanced, but solubility requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies a solubility parameter of ≥0.05 g/L for yellow methine dyes in urethane acrylate resin. This parameter ensures sufficient dissolution of the dye in the resin matrix to achieve pure, uniform coloration without precipitation or aggregation, while maintaining the photopolymerization functionality of the resin system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution maintains a defined yellow color tone and improves lightfastness, preventing color changes and ensuring stable color properties during and after the printing process.
Implementation Method 1
The selective, layer-by-layer curing of the liquid resin occurs through a spatially limited, precisely defined, computer-controlled exposure of the resin to light within a spectral range suitable for the initiation of the photopolymerization process
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to urethane acrylate resin-based 3D printed products having a color difference ΔE <20 from the L*a*b* coordinates to a color number beginning with "1" in the RAL color table, containing at least one yellow methine dye dissolved therein, the use of yellow methine dyes for producing 3D printed products having a color difference ΔE <20 from the L*a*b* coordinates to a color number beginning with "1" in the RAL color table by means of photopolymerization-based 3D printing, and a method for increasing the lightfastness and the coloristic properties of photopolymerizable, urethane acrylate resin-based compositions and 3D printed products to be produced therefrom having a color difference ΔE <20 from the L*a*b* coordinates to a color number beginning with "1" in the RAL color table by means of at least one yellow methine dye dissolved therein.