A new, versatile plastic-composite sensor can detect tiny amounts of water. The 3d printable material, developed by a Spanish-Israeli team of scientists, is cheap, flexible and non-toxic and changes its colour from purple to blue in wet conditions. The researchers lead by Pilar Amo-Ochoa from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) used DESY’s X-ray light…
New Research Identifies Causes For Defects in 3D Printing and Paves Way For Better Results
Argonne/Carnegie Mellon team works to eliminate tiny pockets that cause big problems. Additive manufacturing’s promise to revolutionize industry is constrained by a widespread problem: tiny gas pockets in the final product, which can lead to cracks and other failures. New research published today in Science, led by teams from Carnegie Mellon University and the U.S. Department…
3D Printed Tires and Shoes That Self-Repair
Instead of throwing away your broken boots or cracked toys, why not let them fix themselves? Researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering have developed 3D-printed rubber materials that can do just that. Assistant Professor Qiming Wang works in the world of 3D printed materials, creating new functions for a variety…
3D Printing Technique Uses Light to Shape Complex Objects
Soft, Programmable Material Could Yield Mesh Robots
Researchers have taken the next step in developing soft mesh robots that can contract, reshape and grab small objects and carry water droplets while floating on water. A North Carolina State University research team has found a way to 3D print soft, intelligent actuators that can be programmed to reshape and reconfigure under a magnetic…
The World’s Largest Concrete 3D Printed Pedestrian Bridge
On January 12, 2019, the world’s largest concrete 3D printed pedestrian bridge was completed in the Wisdom Bay Industrial Park, Baoshan District, Shanghai. The project was designed and developed by the team of Professor Xu Weiguo from Tsinghua University (School of Architecture) – Zoina Land Joint Research Center for Digital Architecture, and was jointly built…
Report: 3D Printing is Disrupting The Way We Provide Personalized Medicine
From its humble beginnings in the late 1980s, through to the global force that it is today, the capabilities of 3D printing technology have expanded dramatically, to establish itself as an attractive manufacturing solution for prototyping and production. Conferring advantages such as shorter lead times, reduced waste and opportunity for mass customisation, the potential of…
Rapid 3D Printing Technique Yields New Spinal Cord Treatment
Using new 3D printing technologies, researchers have developed a spinal cord implant that promotes nerve growth in injured sites and restore connections and lost function. A team from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Institute of Engineering in Medicine have for the first time used a rapid 3D printing technique to…
Penn Engineers 3D Print Smart Objects with ‘Embodied Logic’
Leftover Biomass Lignin Could be Key to Renewable 3D Printing
Researchers are using the polymer in plant cell walls to make renewable, soft feedstock for 3D printing. A team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a new technique for 3D printing feedstock that could enable a profitable use of lignin, the material left over from processing biomass. It has…
R&D Special Focus: 3D Printing
How AI and 3D Printing are Revolutionizing Materials Design
3D Printed Biosensors Offer Wearable Glucose Monitoring for Diabetes Patients
New biosensors could help diabetes patients forgo the constant finger pricking or expensive continuous monitoring systems to monitor their glucose levels. Researchers from Washington State University have created a 3D-printed glucose biosensor that could be used in wearable monitors, leading to customizable glucose monitors for individual diabetes patient’s biology. “3D printing can enable manufacturing of…
Researchers Investigate Unsafe Emissions From 3D Printers
New Tech Tracks the “Fingerprints” of 3D Printed Guns
Researchers Take Steps Toward 3D Printing Artificial Blood Vessels and Arteries
3D Printed Graphene Aerogel Enhances Supercapacitor Ability
3D Printers Have ‘Fingerprints,’ a Discovery That Could Help Trace 3D-Printed Guns
Company Hopes to 3D Print Rocket Engine
The new age space race could soon include 3D printed rocket engines. Launcher, a Brooklyn-based start-up, has successfully used a 3D printer to produce a copper alloy E-1 engine with the long-term goal of 3D printing a liquid rocket engine that can take satellites into space. Max Haot, the CEO of Launcher, said in an…
Understanding the Role of Carbon Fiber in 3D Printing
3D printing carbon fiber is perhaps the second most sought-after additive manufacturing technology, after metal. Thanks to recent developments in the additive manufacturing space, printers capable of utilizing the elusive material are finally a reality. However, not all carbon fiber 3D printers are created equal — some machines use microscopic chopped fibers to enhance conventional…
Lending a ‘Shell’ping Hand
These days, you can 3-D print toys, full-size skeletons, Halloween masks, art projects, mechanical parts and building blocks. You can also print tortoise shells — or, as the MakerLab at Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library did recently, implants for damaged tortoise shells to help a couple of local pets survive. Dr. Tereza DeMuth, a veterinarian…
Researchers Explore Machine Learning to Prevent Defects in Metal 3D-Printed Parts in Real Time
For years, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineers and scientists have used an array of sensors and imaging techniques to analyze the physics and processes behind metal 3-D printing in an ongoing effort to build higher quality metal parts the first time, every time. Now, researchers are exploring machine learning to process the data obtained during…
At Last, a Simple 3D Printer for Metal
Used to produce three-dimensional objects of almost any type, across a range of industries, including healthcare, aviation and engineering, 3D printed materials have come of age during the last decade. Research published in the journal Materials Today demonstrates a new approach to 3D printing to fuse metallic filaments made from metallic glass into metallic objects.…
Researchers 3D Print Colloidal Crystals
MIT engineers have united the principles of self-assembly and 3-D printing using a new technique, which they highlight today in the journal Advanced Materials. By their direct-write colloidal assembly process, the researchers can build centimeter-high crystals, each made from billions of individual colloids, defined as particles that are between 1 nanometer and 1 micrometer across.…
