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Conventional manufacturing methods such as soft lithography and hot embossing processes can be used to bioengineer microfluidic chips, albeit with limitations, including difficulty in preparing multilayered structures, cost-and labor-consuming fabrication processes as well as low productivity.

Materials scientists have introduced digital light processing as a cost-effective microfabrication approach to 3D print microfluidic chips, although the fabrication resolution of these microchannels are limited to a scale of sub-100 microns.

In a new report published in Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Zhuming Luo and a scientific team in biomedical engineering, and chemical engineering in China developed an innovative digital light processing method.

A group of 12 researchers at Rice University in Houston have used 3D printing to create near-bulletproof material made out of plastic. The novel materials can withstand being shot at by bullets traveling at 5.8 kilometers per second and are highly compressible without falling apart.

Tubulanes are theoretical microscopic structures comprised of crosslinked carbon nanotubes and the researchers sought to test if they would have the same properties when scaled up enough to be 3D printed. It turns out they did.

The researchers proved this by shooting a bullet traveling at 5.8 kilometers per second through two cubes. One cube was made from a solid polymer and the other from a polymer printed with a tubulane structure.

Continue reading “Researchers 3D Print Bulletproof Plastic Layered Cubes” »

Nominations are now open for the 3D Printing Industry Awards 2023. Who are the leaders in 3D printing? Find out on November 30th when the winners across twenty categories will be announced during a London-based live awards ceremony.

A team of scientists from the University of Sydney and the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) at Westmead have leveraged 3D photolithographic printing to fabricate functional human tissues that accurately mimic an organ’s architecture.

The researchers utilized bioengineering and cell culture techniques to instruct stem cells derived from blood cells and skin cells to become specialized. These specialized cells can then form organ-like structures.

A team of bioengineers and biomedical scientists from the University of Sydney and the Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) at Westmead have used 3D photolithographic printing to create a complex environment for assembling tissue that mimics the architecture of an organ.

The teams were led by Professor Hala Zreiqat and Dr. Peter Newman at the University of Sydney’s School of Biomedical Engineering and developmental biologist Professor Patrick Tam who leads the CMRI’s Embryology Research Unit. Their paper was published in Advanced Science.

Continue reading “New method a step toward future 3D printing of human tissues” »

Researchers have developed an easy-to-build, low-cost 3D nanoprinting system that can create arbitrary 3D structures with extremely fine features. The new 3D nanoprinting technique is precise enough to print metamaterials as well as a variety of optical devices and components such as microlenses, micro-optical devices and metamaterials.

“Our system uses a two-step absorption process to realize 3D printing with accuracy reaching the nanometer level, which is suitable for commercial manufacturing,” said research team leader Cuifang Kuang from the Zhejiang Lab and Zhejiang University, both in China. “It can be used for a variety of applications such as printing micro or nanostructures for studying biological cells or fabricating the specialized optical waveguides used for virtual and augmented reality devices.”

Conventional high-resolution 3D nanoprinting approaches use pulsed femtosecond lasers that cost tens of thousands of dollars. In Optics Letters, Kuang and colleagues describe their new system based on an integrated fiber-coupled continuous-wave laser diode that is not only inexpensive but also easy to operate.

UC San Diego.

According to the team, the soft gripper can be put to use right after it comes off the 3D printer and is equipped with built-in gravity and touch sensors, which enable it to pick up, hold, and release objects. “It’s the first time such a gripper can both grip and release. All you have to do is turn the gripper horizontally. This triggers a change in the airflow in the valves, making the two fingers of the gripper release,” said a statement by the university.

CIPhotos/iStock.

Standard immunotherapy procedures also employ intravenous injections loaded with NK cells to treat cancer but several limitations with this approach prevent it from delivering satisfying results. For instance, many NK cells lose their viability during the therapy and often fail to target the tumors, according to the researchers.

Although there are several methods of 3D-printing metal objects, all of them involve the application of heat – which isn’t conducive to producing certain heat-sensitive electronics, among other things. A new gel, however, can be used to print such items at room temperature.

Created by a team of scientists at North Carolina State University, the material starts out as a solution consisting of copper microparticles suspended in water. Microparticles of another metal, known as eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) are then added, as is hydrochloric acid.

Continue reading “Revolutionary gel allows metal items to be 3D printed at room temperature” »

This metallic gel is made from a mixture of micron-scale copper particles suspended in water and a small amount of a liquid indium-gallium alloy.

The origins of three-dimensional (3D) printing can be traced back to the 1970s when Johannes F Gottwald patented the Liquid Metal Recorder. This device used continuous inkjet technology to create metal objects that could be removed and reused or melted down for printing again.

Continue reading “Scientists create highly conductive metallic gel for 3D printing at room temperature” »