Researchers at the UAB have developed a new chemical reaction to form solid polymeric networks using light (photocuring) which will allow the preparation of solid materials with controlled shapes measuring under a thousandth of a millimeter. The research is key for the development of new, performance-enhanced lithographic and 3D printing techniques.

At present, 3D printing is an increasingly widespread and accessible technology, typically involving the formation of solid polymeric materials in a specific region, either by extruding pre-formed polymers or by generating them in situ from their corresponding monomers, the molecules that make up polymers.

However, these techniques often suffer from several drawbacks, such as long printing times or low resolution, preventing the production of printed materials with micrometric dimensions.

A collaborative team of architects and builders has completed the first fully 3D-printed residential home in Auckland, New Zealand, and it’s also the largest building of that type in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Paremoremo home, named after the semi-rural suburb where it’s located, was highlighted by Home Magazine NZ in a short video. The low-slung, one-story residence spans over 2,700 square feet on a north-facing hill and incorporates smooth curved geometric surfaces that were facilitated by the novel 3D-printing process.

Tim Dorrington of Dorrington Atcheson Architects chose a concrete block form design due to the low cost and ease of construction, enlisting 3D-printed concrete specialist QOROX for their first full-sized home build.

It’s difficult to build devices that replicate the fluid, precise motion of humans, but that might change if we could pull a few (literal) strings. At least, that’s the idea behind “cable-driven” mechanisms in which running a string through an object generates streamlined movement across an object’s different parts. Take a robotic finger, for example: You could embed a cable through the palm to the fingertip of this object and then pull it to create a curling motion.

While cable-driven mechanisms can create real-time motion to make an object bend, twist, or fold, they can be complicated and time-consuming to assemble by hand. To automate the process, researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have developed an all-in-one 3D printing approach called “Xstrings.” Part design tool, part fabrication method, Xstrings can embed all the pieces together and produce a cable-driven device, saving time when assembling bionic robots, creating art installations, or working on dynamic fashion designs.

In a paper to be presented at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI2025), the researchers used Xstrings to print a range of colorful and unique objects that included a red walking lizard robot, a purple wall sculpture that can open and close like a peacock’s tail, a white tentacle that curls around items, and a white claw that can ball up into a fist to grab objects.

Prototyping large structures with integrated electronics, like a chair that can monitor someone’s sitting posture, is typically a laborious and wasteful process.

One might need to fabricate multiple versions of the chair structure via 3D printing and laser cutting, generating a great deal of waste, before assembling the frame, grafting sensors and other fragile electronics onto it, and then wiring it up to create a working device.

If the prototype fails, the maker will likely have no choice but to discard it and go back to the drawing board.

New research from India has made it 10 times cheaper to construct buildings on-site using a 3D printer.

A report from The Better India highlights the work of Dr. Pradeepkumar Sundarraj, who built the Kelvin6K Pro. It’s India’s first on-site construction 3D printer that can build a 2,500-square-foot home in less than 30 days.

The Smart 3D Printing Research Team at KERI, led by Dr. Seol Seung-kwon has developed the world’s first technology for printing high-resolution 3D microstructures using MXene, a material known as the dream material.

The work is published in the journal Small.

MXene, first discovered in the United States in 2011, is a two-dimensional nanomaterial composed of alternating metal and carbon layers. MXene possesses high electrical conductivity and electromagnetic shielding capabilities.

A new technique in detector fabrication could change high-energy physics forever.

By using additive manufacturing, researchers have developed a novel way to construct plastic scintillator detectors, drastically cutting costs and build time. Their first prototype, the SuperCube, has proven capable of tracking cosmic particles, marking a milestone for 3D-printed particle physics technology.

Next-Generation Neutrino Detection

Growing functional human organs outside the body is a long-sought “holy grail” of organ transplantation medicine that remains elusive. New research from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering brings that quest one big step closer to completion.

A team of scientists created a new method to 3D print vascular networks that consist of interconnected blood vessels possessing a distinct “shell” of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells surrounding a hollow “core” through which fluid can flow, embedded inside a human cardiac tissue. This vascular architecture closely mimics that of naturally occurring blood vessels and represents significant progress toward being able to manufacture implantable human organs. The achievement is published in Advanced Materials .

AI-driven research is making titanium 3D-printing faster, stronger, and more efficient, transforming aerospace and defense manufacturing.

Producing high-performance titanium alloy.

A mixture of two metallic elements typically used to give greater strength or higher resistance to corrosion.

Empa researchers are working on artificial muscles that can keep up with the real thing. They have now developed a method of producing the soft and elastic, yet powerful structures using 3D printing. One day, these could be used in medicine or robotics – and anywhere else where things need to move at the touch of a button.

A team of researchers from Empa’s Laboratory for Functional Polymers is working on actuators made of soft materials. Now, for the first time, they have developed a method for producing such complex components using a 3D printer. The so-called dielectric elastic actuators (DEA) consist of two different silicone-based materials: a conductive electrode material and a non-conductive dielectric. These materials interlock in layers. “It’s a bit like interlacing your fingers,” explains Empa researcher Patrick Danner. If an electrical voltage is applied to the electrodes, the actuator contracts like a muscle. When the voltage is switched off, it relaxes to its original position.

3D printing such a structure is not trivial, Danner knows. Despite their very different electrical properties, the two soft materials should behave very similarly during the printing process. They should not mix but must still hold together in the finished actuator. The printed “muscles” must be as soft as possible so that an electrical stimulus can cause the required deformation. Added to this are the requirements that all 3D printable materials must fulfill: They must liquefy under pressure so that they can be extruded out of the printer nozzle. Immediately thereafter, however, they should be viscous enough to retain the printed shape. “These properties are often in direct contradiction,” says Danner. “If you optimize one of them, three others change … usually for the worse.”