Lifeboat Foundation

Published on December 10th, 2016 | by Steve Hanley.

The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are at an advanced stage of with their synthetic biology research. The work could see bacteria being used to send signals and sense in a way similar to computers, the advantage being that it could potentially provide a more intuitive sensory experience to a piece of tech, and bypass some of the pitfalls unique to electrical structures. The research also has application for new 3D printing materials.

An Australian hospital is building a facility dedicated to 3D-Printing organs.

The future for hospitals.

The new facility will build tissues like bones and cartilage for surgery patients as a first step toward printers in every operating room.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) researchers in Singapore have embedded electronics into a 3D printed drone. Using Stratasys’ 3D printers and the advanced ULTEM 9085 material Phillip Keane produced the device as part of the Singapore Center for 3D Printing (SC3DP) at NTU. The quadcopter, it has four propellers, with its impressive construction and embedded electronics is impressive, but still has some way to go to catch up with TERN, DARPA’s military drone currently under development.

DARPA recently performed a critical design review (CDR) in mid-October of the design’s General Electric engine. The GE engine will enable the drone to fly both vertically and horizontally. GE are rarely far from 3D printing news, not just for developing their 3D printing portfolio but also for repairing 3D printed engines with 3D printing. Naturally, the details of TERN’s engine have not been made public by DARPA but it may be fair to speculate that GE would have looked to use their latest developments with 3D printing in the project, especially given the value of 3D printing for making low volume or one-off complex components.

Bioprinting has been all over the news in the past several years with headline-worthy breakthroughs like printed human skin, synthetic bones, and even a fully functional mouse thyroid gland.

3D printing paved the way for bioprinting thanks to the printers’ unique ability to recreate human tissue structures; their software can be written to ‘stack’ cells in precise patterns as directed by a digital model, and they can produce tissue in just hours and make numerous identical samples.

Despite the progress in bioprinting, however, more complex human organs continue to elude scientists, and resting near the top of the ‘more complex’ list are the kidneys.

Continue reading “Bioprinting Is One Step Closer to Making a Human Kidney” »

After 3D-printing a mouse thyroid gland and successfully transplanting it last year, Russia’s 3D Bioprinting Solutions is aiming to make a human kidney by 2030, the company’s scientists told Sputnik.

© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev

Continue reading “Stamping Out Disease: Russian Scientists Aim to Bioprint Human Kidneys By 2030” »

Lenses with a surface accuracy in the nanometer range are behind ever more accurate laser and optical systems. Manufacturers depend on ultra-precise optical and mechanical ablation processes, innovative coating processes and extremely accurate measuring technology to venture into these nano-worlds. The latest trends in optical manufacturing will be showcased by the world’s leading trade fair LASER World of PHOTONICS, from June 26–29, 2017 in Munich.

Nanoscribe GmbH’s 3D printing process creates three-dimensional micro and nano lenses from photosensitive coatings. The structures are built up a pulse at a time by highly focused femtosecond lasers employing two-photon polymerization. Source: Nanoscribe GmbH

The diversity of lenses, their shapes, sizes and materials is growing all the time. Applications in non-visible wavelengths from x-rays and ultraviolet to the far infrared also require special optics, such as material processing using short pulse and ultrashort pulse lasers or imaging techniques in the medical and research fields and industrial quality control.

Continue reading “Ultra-precision in optical manufacturing” »