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Dansk AM Hub Looks at Sustainable 3D Printing
It is no secret that we’re fans of Dansk AM Hub, the Danish national 3D printing body. The organization has a rather cost-effective way of marshaling the resources of a…
2020 Industrial Polymer 3D Printer Buying Guide
Industrial 3D printers are those used by companies on the factory floor, generally for manufacturing end products. In a lot of cases, they can also be used for making items…
A General Review of Methods and Materials for 3D Food Printing
Researchers from the University of Birmingham published a paper that reviews various methods and materials related to the scope of food 3D printing, which they write is “an area of…
Food 3D Printing: What Happened to 3D-Printed Food for the Elderly?
Near the peak of food 3D printing hype, circa 2014, one European project garnered a good deal of attention for its exciting work in food fabrication The PERFORMANCE project, which…
Electronics 3D Printing Part Three: Inkjet 3D Printing
In our previous articles in this series, we discussed the history leading up to the development of electronics 3D printing, as well as one of the two dominant methods for…
Food 3D Printing: Food Printing in the Culinary Arts
As we’ve explored in our food 3D printing series, the technology is still emerging, with only a handful of food printing processes really approaching any form of maturity and level…
Electronics 3D Printing, Part One: History of Electronics 3D Printing
Perhaps the holiest of holy grails for the additive manufacturing (AM) industry is the fabrication of complete, functional goods within a single print operation. Rather than produce individual parts that…
Electronics 3D Printing, Part Two: Direct Writing
As we already began to discuss in part one of this series, there are already a handful of companies that offer electronics 3D printing platforms and services. Perhaps the most…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? The State of Recycling
In our already-climate-disrupted world, we are inundated with petro-based plastics. We could rehash the numerous statistics that we probably already know, like the fact that only 9 percent of plastic…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Distributed Manufacturing
The concept of distributed manufacturing, which we’ve covered numerous times, could play an interesting role in a climate-disrupted world. Just as large swaths of a centralized electrical grid can suddenly…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Jevons Paradox
In this series so far, we’ve discussed the many ways that additive manufacturing (AM) can fit into our already climate-disrupted world, as well as the many obstacles yet to be…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Emergency Response to Extreme Weather
Immediately in the wake of Hurricane Maria, small communities in Puerto Rico found themselves relying on the few sites that maintained electricity after the island’s gas power plant went offline….
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Optimizing Designs for Efficiency
If industrialized society is determined to maintain its industrial activities, its engineers will need to completely rethink how parts are designed in order to improve energy efficiency. This is true…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? The Circular Economy
In trying to prevent the total collapse of our natural ecosystem, we can work toward building a circular ecosystem of goods production and consumption. The goal of a circular economy…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Lignin, Cellulose, & Starch Bioplastics
In our series on 3D printing in a climate-disrupted world, we have been exploring the variety of biodegradable bioplastics that could be used to replace petro-based materials. We have so…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Chitin and Keratin Bioplastics
If we plan on continuing to make plastics past the point that oil is no longer profitable, easily accessible or socially acceptable, we will need to turn to more ecologically…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? The Promise of PHA
In our last article in our series covering 3D printing in a climate-disrupted world, we discussed the myriad problems associated with polylactic acid (PLA), the most popular plastic and bioplastic…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? 3D Printing and the Problem(s) with PLA
While our ecosystem is collapsing, we are at the very least fortunate to witness the rise of a potentially more sustainable form of manufacturing coinciding with the rise of potentially…
Eco Friendly 3D Printing? Oil Companies Bet on Plastic
Given the global shift to renewable energy, fossil fuel companies are looking for new ways to maintain their livelihoods. In a 2018 investor report, ExxonMobil admitted to a decline in…
Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Eight: Recycling Carbon Fiber
Now that we’ve covered the roots and present state of carbon fiber 3D printing, including current research, we should take a look at where carbon fiber goes to die—or, to…
Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Seven: R&D
So far in our series on 3D printing carbon fiber and other reinforcement materials, we’ve discussed much about the present state of the technology, including large-scale composite deposition and some of…
Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Six: Go Big or Go Home
One topic we’ve skirted around in our carbon fiber series so far is large-scale composite printing processes. The reason for this is because it is both a big topic, literally…
Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Five: Applications
In the first part of our series on carbon fiber 3D printing, we discussed how the material is used in the larger world of manufacturing. As we’ve learned throughout this…
Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Four: Matrix Materials
In parts one, two and three of this series, we’ve discussed the variety of technological developments taking place in the 3D printing of composites but have not yet covered the…