Sculpteo Marks the First of April With a Stunning New Invisible 3D Printing Material
These days, it seems like there’s almost nothing you can’t 3D print with. There’s electrically conductive filament, magnetic filament, filament that glows, shimmers, or smells nice. There’s a whole world of fancy filaments and magical metals, but Sculpteo has just announced a new type of material that may overshadow them all. No one saw this material coming, and it’s likely that no one will – literally, as in, you won’t see the 3D printed object thrown at your head, because it’s invisible. That’s right, Sculpteo’s team of magicians has done the seemingly impossible and developed an invisible printing material – plus a brand new method of 3D printing.
“With the additive manufacturing technique SLS, your object will be composed of thin layers which are almost invisible to the naked eye unlike FDM,” Sculpteo explains. “Through the hard work of our engineers during those long winter months in a room where the temperature rarely exceeded 50°F, we finally found a way to have the perfect object. We realized that the powder used in the SLS process generates a thickness that could be reduced to some extent. The limiting factor of this process is the size of the powder particle. So we removed the powder and we have created air laser sintering (ALS)!”
The process is similar to SLS, which uses a laser to sinter together layers of powder material. After each round of sintering, the print bed is lowered and another layer of powder is swept across the top. It’s the same with ALS, except that layers of air are swept over each other as the print bed is lowered. Sculpteo is being a bit cryptic as to how, exactly, these layers of air are sintered together, but they’ve hinted that it has something to do with UFOs.
So…why would you want to print anything with invisible filament? Why wouldn’t you, I ask. Just think of the pranking possibilities for this material, oh-so-conveniently introduced on April Fools’ Day. There are the unseen objects you can throw at people, as described above, and as an added convenience, Sculpteo points out, the negligible amount of raw material involved in an invisible print makes it incredibly inexpensive. Invisible 3D printed projectiles? Cheap. Messing with people’s heads? Priceless.
At this point, it doesn’t appear as though the invisible material can transfer its powers of invisibility, so, sadly, invisibility cloaks still aren’t a thing. That we know of. But the material’s perks by far overshadow its limitations, in my opinion. According to Sculpteo, it prints in seconds, it’s food safe, and extremely flexible and durable. Caution is advised when trying to glue multiple parts together, as it’s obviously a bit of a challenge to assemble things you can’t see; rumor has it that even Sculpteo’s finest engineers ended up gluing their fingers together during research and development.
“Parts printed in invisible being designed from one of the four elements that is air, are resistant to water, fire and earth relatively speaking,” the Sculpteo team states. “The invisible material can not resist a single concept: imagination. Give an invisible object to someone who lacks imagination and your item will be reduced to nothingness. Because of their invisibility, please mark their presence by a label when you set them on a table to easily find them.”
Have a happy April Fools’ Day, dear readers, and watch out for any invisible banana peels someone may have left lying around. Discuss in the Invisible 3D Printing Material forum over at 3DPB.com.
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and recieve information and offers from thrid party vendors.
You May Also Like
3D Printed Biocomposites Could Help Reduce Marine Plastic Pollution
Concerns about the impact of plastic litter and microplastics in the oceans are at the forefront of environmental study. For decades, the marine environment has suffered from the degradation of...
Markforged Buys Digital Metal: What Does it Mean for the 3D Printing Industry?
It’s been a few months since the additive manufacturing (AM) industry had a notable corporate acquisition, which seems like an eternity after all the competitive consolidation and shakeup we saw...
Black Buffalo Partners with Xerox to Finance Client’s Construction 3D Printing Purchases
Black Buffalo 3D, an emerging additive construction (AC) startup, announced a strategic partnership with FITTLE, Xerox’s equipment financing arm. Through the alliance, FITTLE will help make it easier for Black...
3D Printing News Briefs, July 21, 2022: Layoffs, Heat Exchangers, & More
In today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, starting with business, manufacturing company Fast Radius recently cut 20% of its workforce. Then, Xometry has introduced new digital sourcing tools and more. A...
Print Services
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.