Wipe tower: why multicolour printing costs more

Why the tower exists

When the colour changes, there is still some of the previous plastic in the nozzle. To stop the colours mixing in your part, the nozzle pushes out a bit of plastic to the side, onto the tower, before it returns to the model. The tower is built layer by layer up to the height of the tallest part, so it grows together with it. The details are on the OrcaSlicer wiki.

This works with automatic filament changes, which our filament changer does for up to 4 colours.

What the tower costs

• Plastic. The tower and the purging use extra material, often more than a small part itself. See purge.
• Time. Every colour change takes time, and the nozzle visits the tower on every layer where colours change.
• Bed space. The tower takes up area, so fewer parts fit at once. See full bed.

How to bring the price down

The price rises with the number of colour changes. It helps to use fewer colours, keep colour areas joined together instead of alternating on every layer, and assign colours so they do not have to change often. Send a 3MF with colours assigned to the parts of the model. You will find more in the entry on multicolour printing.

The tower and parts on the bed. The tower is printed once for the whole bed, not separately for each part. When you print many small parts at once, its cost is split between them, so each one comes out cheaper than a single part would. That is why multicolour batches pay off more than one-offs. The tower still takes up space, so a few fewer parts may fit.

The tower on your order

For a multicolour model we add the wipe tower automatically. Its plastic and time are already included in the price per part and in the lead time you see in the calculator. A single-colour part does not need one.