Click on photo to start video.
One company in California has found a new delicious way to use the technology.
Category: 3D printing – Page 42
Scientists develop rapid new method of 3D printing glass into parts with “the thickness of hair”
Researchers at the University of Freiburg have worked with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley to come up with a novel means of rapidly 3D printing complex glass parts at a microscopic scale.
Known as ‘Microscale Computed Axial Lithography’ (Micro-CAL), this approach involves exposing resin to 2D light images of a desired shape from multiple angles, which when they overlap, trigger polymerization. When used to print the Glassomer material previously honed at Freiburg, the team say their layer-free process has the potential to unlock devices with new microfluidic or micro-optical functionality.
“For the first time, we were able to print glass with structures in the range of 50 micrometers in just a few minutes, which corresponds roughly to the thickness of a hair,” explains the University of Freiburg’s Dr. Frederik Kotz-Helmer. The ability to manufacture such components at high speed and with great geometric freedom will enable new functions and more cost-effective products in the future.”
Taller Wind Turbines To Get TLC From 3D Printing
GE is ready to rock the world of onshore wind turbines with 3D printing for a new concrete base.
Vast swaths of the US have yet to be tapped for wind energy, partly on account of politics and partly because wind speeds in those areas are less than optimal. Only the voting public can take care of the political end. Meanwhile, engineers and innovators are hammering away at the wind speed issue, which can be solved by building taller wind turbine towers. That’s not as easy as it sounds, but GE Renewable Energy is banking on 3D printing to overcome the obstacles.
Why Not Taller Wind Turbines?
Taller wind turbines have several advantages over their shorter cousins. They can reach heights where winds are stronger, without interference from trees, topography, or buildings. The greater height also allows for longer blades, which means a single turbine can harvest more energy. The cost efficiencies can also pile up for taller, longer wind turbines, at least on paper.
Laser-based 3D printer can produce complex objects in any order
A 3D printer that uses lasers to build up an object in any order, rather than layer by layer, could produce more advanced designs than is currently possible.
Existing 3D printers work by depositing layers of a plastic filament from a nozzle or by curing layers of resin with UV light. In both cases objects are built up one layer at a time, meaning that overhanging parts of a structure – the outstretched arms of a model human, say – must be propped up by temporary supports until printing is complete. These supports must then be carefully removed manually.
To get around this, Dan Congreve at Stanford University in California and his colleagues created a 3D-printing system that involves focusing a red laser at a particular point in a pool of resin. The resin is impregnated with particles 80 nanometres wide that convert red light into blue once the light hits a certain energy threshold, which only occurs at the point where the red laser is precisely focused.
3D Printed IC to Reshape the Semiconductor Industry
3D printed ICs overcome semiconductor shortage and reinforce supply chains, leading to cheaper production costs, faster prototyping, and faster time to market.
As the size of microchip packages shrinks, semiconductor manufacturers are under pressure to improve lithography capabilities. For more than two decades, researchers have been working on 3D printed integrated circuits. Earlier attempts at 3D printing electronics used the proper technique but failed to reach the required levels of conductivity for a PCB, leaving complicated electrical circuits unusable. Over time though, these printing tools have gradually improved feature size resolution, yield, and variability in production.
● A broad variety of materials may be used to produce an assortment of printed electronics, including conductors, semiconductors, dielectrics, resistors, and other components. ● As has been the case in other areas, additive manufacturing is expected to result in more innovative products, lower costs, and faster production runs.
How to print a robot from scratch: Combining liquids, solids could lead to faster, more flexible 3D creations
Imagine a future in which you could 3D-print an entire robot or stretchy, electronic medical device with the press of a button—no tedious hours spent assembling parts by hand.
That possibility may be closer than ever thanks to a recent advancement in 3D-printing technology led by engineers at CU Boulder. In a new study, the team lays out a strategy for using currently-available printers to create materials that meld solid and liquid components—a tricky feat if you don’t want your robot to collapse.
“I think there’s a future where we could, for example, fabricate a complete system like a robot using this process,” said Robert MacCurdy, senior author of the study and assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Italian City Implements 3D Printed Benches Made From Recycled Plastic
In recent years, more and more environmentally friendly projects are being developed in many countries all around the world. Similar to earlier successful projects, like for example the Netherlands-based Print your City, R3direct from Italy is now also starting to use additive manufacturing as an eco-friendly option to develop street furniture. By using plastic waste as their main material and with the help of modern technology, the company is now 3D printing benches. And the first example of this is already installed in the heart of Lucca, Italy. Called USE (Urban Safety Everyday), these benches are intended to show that technologies can make it possible to significantly reduce plastic waste by reusing the recycled material.
Italian manufacturing company introduces new, eco-friendly public benches made of recycled plastic using 3D printing technologies.
3D printing smart clothes with a new liquid metal-alginate ink
In the future, smart clothing might monitor our posture, communicate with smartphones and manage our body temperature. But first, scientists need to find a way to cost-effectively print intricate, flexible and durable circuits onto a variety of fabrics. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a conductive 3D printing ink made of liquid metal droplets coated with alginate, a polymer derived from algae.
Conventional electronics are rigid and unable to withstand the twisting and stretching motions that clothing undergoes during typical daily activities. Because of their fluid nature and excellent conductivity, gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) are promising materials for flexible electronics. However, LMs don’t stick well to fabrics, and their large surface tension causes them to ball up during 3D printing, rather than form continuous circuits. Yong He and colleagues wanted to develop a new type of conductive ink that could be 3D printed directly onto clothing in complex patterns.
To make their ink, the researchers mixed LM and alginate. Stirring the solution and removing the excess liquid resulted in LM microdroplets coated with an alginate microgel shell. The ink was very thick until it was squeezed through a nozzle for 3D printing, which broke hydrogen bonds in the microgel and made it more fluid. Once the ink reached the fabric surface, the hydrogen bonds reformed, causing the printed pattern to maintain its shape. The team 3D printed the new ink onto a variety of surfaces, including paper, polyester fabrics, nonwoven fabrics and acrylic-based tape. Although the printed patterns were not initially conductive, the researchers activated them by stretching, pressing or freezing, which ruptured the dried alginate networks to connect the LM microdroplets.