Science & Technology
Custom 3D Printed Ocular Prosthetics: Through A Semi Automated Fabrication Process
In a previous post we mentioned the work of a team from the Severance Hospital South Korea on ocular prostheses. Led by Professor Yoon Jin-sook and working together with artificial eye maker Baik Seung-woon, the team was able to create an artificial eye using 3D...
Researchers Create Fuzzy Like PI Controller to Control FFF 3D Printer Extruder and Bed Heaters
I learn all kinds of interesting things writing about 3D printing every day. Much to my chagrin, today I learned that a fuzzy print controller is not actually fuzzy or furry. For those of you who are also in the dark, fuzzy control systems are based on what’s...
Wake Forest: In Situ 3D Printing of Tailored Skin Grafts, a Possible Step Forward in Tissue Engineering
In recent years bioprinting has proved to be an important tool for tissue engineering applications and it holds great promise towards the fabrication of skin tissue. A team from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) has brought progress in this...
3D Printed Self-Healing Material Can Fix Sole of Shoe In Two Hours
The potential uses for unique self-healing materials are numerous, varying from fixing cell phone screens and other electronics to repairing cartilage and other biomedical applications. Now, a team of student and faculty researchers from the University of Southern...
How & Why 3D Printing will Become an Integral Part of Disaster Response
3D printing has revolutionised industries, ranging from fashion & sport to medical & engineering. However, this new technology has only scraped the surface of its potential. One area which is destined to be transformed through 3D printing is humanitarian aid....
Northwestern University & Argonne National Laboratory Examine Directed Energy Deposition by X-Ray
While the structures produced through 3D printing can be fascinating, tangible, and extremely inspiring—not to mention actually useful—you may still find the operational processes behind the technology to be a little intimidating as it often seems the impossible is...
3D Printing News Briefs: February 8, 2019
We made it to the weekend! To celebrate, check out our 3D Printing News Briefs today, which covers business, research, and a few other topics as well. PostProcess has signed its 7th channel partner in North America, while GEFERTEC partners with Linde on 3D printing...
LLNL and UC Berkeley Researchers Continue Work on Their Promising Volumetric 3D Printing Method
It’s been said that volumetric 3D printing has more speed, flexibility, and geometric versatility than other methods, with a lower cost. In late 2017, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California teamed up with collaborators...
INTAMSYS Announces “FUNMAT HT Enhanced” 3D Printer
NEW features include automatic-leveling, removable, magnetic glass-ceramic build plates, and more Since INTAMSYS released the FUNMAT HT at “Formnext 2016” convention in Frankfurt, Germany, the printer has been praised for its high-performance functional material...
3D Printing Hierarchical Porous Materials
Hierarchical porous materials are commonly found in nature and have numerous applications as well, such as catalytic supports, biological scaffolds and lightweight structures. 3D printing has allowed for the fabrication of porous materials in the forms of lattices,...
Researchers Use Shape Memory Polymers to Increase Stiffness of 3D Printed Soft Actuators
While soft robots are very flexible, and adaptive to more complex environments, they aren’t great at completing tasks with a high load capacity due to the low stiffness of constituent materials. Attempts have been made to use variable stiffness materials and...
Virginia Tech Researchers Using a New Method to Create 3D Printed Piezoelectric Materials
Originally discovered in the 19th century, piezoelectric materials, which convert stress and strain into electric charges, are in everything from musical greeting cards to cell phones. Piezoelectricity is electricity that results from pressure, and thanks to a new 3D...
Jabil to Enter 3D Printing Materials Market & Develop Custom Materials “Open Systems are the Future of 3D Printing”
Jabil is one of the largest contract manufacturing and engineering companies worldwide. They’ve been very serious about 3D Printing for a number of years as well. The company has made moves in 3D printed footwear, setting up an Additive Manufacturing Network,...
3D Printing Metals Onto Fabric for Inexpensive Antenna, Sensors and Wearables
A group of researchers from Imperial College London has developed a technique for 3D printing metals such as silver, gold and platinum onto natural fabrics. The process could also be used to incorporate batteries, wireless technologies and sensors into paper and...
3D Printed Electrodes Make Microfluidic Devices Cheaper and Quicker to Fabricate
Researchers at Imperial College London wanted to develop a microfluidic biosensor for analysis of cancer cells that was quicker and easier to produce. A microfluidic device involves biological material traveling through tiny channels and electrodes passing electrical...
TU Delft Researchers Discuss Microstructural Optimization for 3D Printing Trabecular Bone
Trabecular bone, also known as spongy or cancellous bone, is one of two types of bone found in the human body. It is found at the end of long bones, in the pelvic bones, ribs, skull and vertebrae. Trabecular bone is one of many microstructures with spatially varying...
Researchers Investigate Tensile Properties of 3D Printed PLA Specimens: Is 80% Infill Best?
Plastic is still one of the most popular, least expensive 3D printing materials, and polylactic acid, better known as PLA, is at the top of the bunch, due to its high strength, biocompatibility, and biodegradable nature. A lot of studies have been completed regarding...
University of Michigan Researchers Develop New Ultrafast 3D Printing Technique: Two-Color Irradiation
University of Michigan researchers have developed a new vat polymerization 3D printing technique that produces objects at up to 100 times faster than current 3D printing techniques, as detailed in a paper entitled “Rapid, continuous additive manufacturing by...
Researchers Improve Femtosecond Selective Chemical Etching
In a paper entitled “Polarization-insensitive space-selective etching in fused silica induced by picosecond laser irradiation,” a group of researchers discusses space selective chemical etching, which can be achieved when fused silica is irradiated with...
Massachusetts Researchers Develop In-Line Rheometer for FDM 3D Printing
Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, and the flow rate of 3D printing materials is fairly important when it comes to the final print. According to a pair of researchers from Massachusetts, it’s actually “the most critical material property”...
3D Printing Cell Cultures Using PulMA Hydrogels
Biomimetic hydrogels offer several opportunities in medical applications, according to a group of researchers in a paper entitlted “Polysaccharide hydrogels for multiscale 3D printing of pullulal scaffolds.” But the generation of synthetic...
3D Printing News Briefs: December 30, 2018
In this week’s abbreviated 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ve got a story on a new type of 3D printing that makes it easy to 3D print small objects, and a distinguished professor gives a TEDx talk about the importance of interdisciplinary research. Wrapping...
Electro-Assisted 3D Bioprinting Method for Low-Concentration GelMA Microdroplets
While low-concentration gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) is biocompatible with 3D bioprinted cell‐laden structures, because of its low viscosity it’s hard to stably make organoids, and even microdroplets, with the material. A team of researchers from Zhejiang...
LLNL: Magnetically Responsive Metamaterials Instantly Stiffen 3D Printed Structures
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) frequently does impressive work with 3D printing materials, including metamaterials. Now the lab has introduced a new class of metamaterial that can almost instantly respond and stiffen 3D printed structures when exposed...
Researchers Study the Microstructure of Laser Cladding
While metal additive manufacturing has plenty of benefits, it has its drawbacks as well. Two of those drawbacks are high production costs and often unpredictable failure of parts. Laser cladding (LC) is one commonly used method of metal 3D printing, but has an...
