3D printing - Materials

Researchers have produced a gel from cellulose fibres and biodegradable nanoparticles that liquifies when pressed through the nozzle of a 3D printer, but then quickly returns to its original shape. Their invention paves the way for personalised biomaterial implants.

Multi-metal printing gives designers and engineers the ultimate degree of freedom to make better parts. Multi-metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion creates a range of new use cases and applications.

Researchers have, for the first time, turned waste cooking oil - from the deep fryers of a local McDonald's - into a high-resolution, biodegradable 3D printing resin.

Albright has added a 3D printing capability and developed a special 3D silicone molding process for relatively low cost rapid turnaround prototyping. Customers that need a small number of parts for initial testing but are not ready for metal tooling can benefit from working with a silicone molder that is able to provide LSR molding with 3D printed tooling.

Researchers have used sound vibrations to shake metal alloy grains into tighter formation during 3D printing.

Successful trials of titanium-copper alloys for 3D printing could kickstart a new range of high-performance alloys for medical device and aerospace applications.

The rise of additive manufacturing - or as it's more commonly known, 3D printing - has enabled the rapid production of complex parts across many domains. As the techniques have become more refined, the semiconductor industry has taken note. But until recently, no one's been able to form single-crystal materials - the building block of semiconductors - with traditional additive manufacturing processes.

Producing glass objects using 3D printing is not easy. Only a few groups of researchers around the world have attempted to produce glass using additive methods. Some have made objects by printing molten glass, but the disadvantage is that this requires extremely high temperatures and heat-​resistant equipment.

A new technique called multimaterial multinozzle 3D printing uses high-speed pressure valves to achieve rapid, continuous, and seamless switching between up to eight different printing materials, enabling the creation of complex shapes in a fraction of the time currently required using printheads that range from a single nozzle to large multinozzle arrays.