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Category: 3D printing

Researchers successfully 3D print one of industry’s hardest engineering materials

Tungsten carbide–cobalt (WC–Co) is prized for its hardness, but that same property makes it unusually difficult to shape. The current process is wasteful and expensive for the yield produced, and an economically sensible method for creating these materials is long overdue.

WC-Co cemented carbides are important in fields that require high wear resistance and hardness, such as cutting and construction tools. Currently, these carbides are made using powder metallurgy, utilizing high pressure and sintering machines to combine the WC and Co powders to yield a manufactured cemented carbide.

Though this method does produce highly durable and hard final products, a lot of expensive material is used, and the yield is suboptimal.

New AI system fixes 3D printing defects in real time

Additive manufacturing has revolutionized manufacturing by enabling customized, cost-effective products with minimal waste. However, with the majority of 3D printers operating on open-loop systems, they are notoriously prone to failure. Minor changes, like adjustments to nozzle size or print speed, can lead to print errors that mechanically weaken the part under production.

Traditionally, manufacturers fix these issues on a case-by-case basis, ultimately “babysitting” the printer to manually adjust parameters and test samples in an effort to figure out what went wrong.

Washington state proposes new 3D-printed gun controls with ‘blocking features’ and blueprint detection algorithm — proposal would carry sentences of five years in prison, $15,000 fine for violation

All three are explained in more detail in the bill, but arrive at broadly the same destination. This law, if approved, would prevent 3D printer brands from selling their wares in Washington State without stringent controls to prevent the printing of 3D firearms, or indeed parts that could be used to modify existing weapons.

According to the bill, violating this proposed law would be a class C felony, which means anyone found in violation of these terms could face up to five years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Washington is not the first state to propose addressing 3D-printed firearms by way of legislation, and is unlikely to be the last. Earlier this month New York took steps to ban 3D-printed guns, proposing the mandating of 3D printer safeguards and cracking down on the sharing and possession of 3D files containing guns or gun components.

3D-printed surfaces help atoms play ball to improve quantum sensors

Scientists have created 3D printed surfaces featuring intricate textures that can be used to bounce unwanted gas particles away from quantum sensors, allowing useful particles like atoms to be delivered more efficiently, which could help improve measurement accuracy.

The researchers from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy created intricate, fine-scale surface textures that preferentially bounce incident particles in particular directions. This can help to keep unwanted particles out of the way. The team demonstrated this by applying it to a surface-based vacuum pump and tripled the rate at which it removed nuisance gas particles.

The study, “Exploiting complex 3D-printed surface structures for portable quantum technologies,” is published in the journal Physical Review Applied.

Laser speed in 3D printing tunes atomic structure of high-entropy alloys

Next-generation technology requires next-generation materials that can be tailored to exact mission requirements. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, has already revolutionized industries like aerospace engineering by enabling previously unthinkable component designs. However, this technique has been largely limited to pre-existing metallic alloys. This is due to the inherent complexity of the process that leads to far-from-equilibrium microstructures and results in mechanical properties that are hard to predict.

New research on alloy microstructures

In a new study, scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and their collaborators demonstrate a method to overcome the challenges of the traditional additive manufacturing process. By adjusting the speed of the laser in a compositionally complex alloy (also called high-entropy alloy), the team discovered a method to guide how the atoms settle as the metal solidifies, controlling the material’s properties directly at the atomic scale.

Scientists demonstrate low-cost, high-quality lenses for super-resolution microscopy

Researchers have shown that consumer-grade 3D printers and low-cost materials can be used to produce multi-element optical components that enable super-resolution imaging, with each lens costing less than $1 to produce. The new fabrication approach is poised to broaden access to fully customizable optical parts and could enable completely new types of imaging tools.

“We created optical parts that enable imaging of life’s smallest building blocks at a remarkable level of detail,” said lead author Jay Christopher from the University of Strathclyde in the UK. “This approach opens the possibility for customized imaging systems and unlocks imaging scenarios that are traditionally either impossible or need costly glass manufacturing services.”

In the journal Biomedical Optics Express, the researchers describe their lens design and manufacturing processes, which combine 3D printing, silicone molding and a UV curable clear resin. They used lenslets fabricated with their technique to create a multifocal structured illumination microscope that imaged microtubules in a cell’s cytoskeleton with a resolution of around 150 nm.

“Is larger always better?” An in vitro comparison of cyclical and static aspiration with different catheters in a neurovascular flow model

Background Recent advances in mechanical thrombectomy for large vessel occlusion suggest that cyclical aspiration (CyA) may enhance clot ingestion and reduce embolic complications compared with static aspiration (StA). We aimed to identify the experimental conditions under which CyA outperforms StA.

Methods A 3D-printed neurovascular model in a flow loop (137÷89 mmHg, 72 bpm) simulated middle cerebral artery M1 segment (MCA-M1) occlusions with soft and stiff clot analogs. CyA (4.5 Hz and Δp=85–105 kPa) was performed with a dual-solenoid device coupled to a vacuum pump. Eighty experiments were randomized into four treatment arms combining aspiration patterns and 0.071″ and 0.088″ aspiration catheters: CyA-71, CyA-88, StA-71, and StA-88.

Results The overall first pass recanalization (FPR) rate was 74% (59÷80), with CyA significantly outperforming StA (92% vs 55%, p0.001).

3D-printable concrete alternative hardens in three days, not four weeks

Although we’ve heard a lot about how 3D-printing concrete homes speeds up the construction process, you still have to wait up to 28 days for the concrete to sufficiently cure. A new printable substitute, however, is ready to go in just three days.

Concrete consists of three parts: water, an aggregate such as sand or gravel, and a cement which binds everything together. The cement is the part that typically takes about a month to cure after being poured. And a slow curing time isn’t cement’s only problem.

Traditional Portland-style cement is made by grinding up limestone and other raw materials, then heating the resulting powder to temperatures of up to 1,450 ºC (2,642 ºF). Unfortunately, the processes by which that heat is generated produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

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