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Category: 3D printing

Traditional 3D printing builds objects layer by layer, but tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (TVAM) takes a different approach. It uses laser light to illuminate a rotating vial of resin, solidifying material only where the accumulated energy surpasses a specific threshold. A key advantage of TVAM is its speed—it can produce objects in seconds, whereas conventional layer-based 3D printing takes about 10 minutes. However, its efficiency is a major drawback, as only about 1% of the projected light contributes to forming the intended shape.

Researchers from EPFL’s Laboratory of Applied Photonic Devices, led by Professor Christophe Moser, and the SDU Centre for Photonics Engineering, led by Professor Jesper Glückstad, have developed a more efficient TVAM technique, as reported in Nature Communications

<em> Nature Communications </em> is an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality research from all areas of the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, Earth sciences, and biology. The journal is part of the Nature Publishing Group and was launched in 2010. “Nature Communications” aims to facilitate the rapid dissemination of important research findings and to foster multidisciplinary collaboration and communication among scientists.

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Scientists have developed a way to 3D-print high-performance thermoelectric materials, promising a major leap in cooling technology. This breakthrough could cut costs, reduce waste, and improve efficiency, challenging conventional manufacturing.

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Researchers have developed a high-resolution embedded 3D-printing technique that enables the fabrication of ultra-fine fibers, mimicking nature’s structures. Using a solvent exchange process, they achieved unprecedented resolutions of 1.5 microns, unlocking new possibilities for bioinspired materials and advanced engineering applications.

Researchers have been exploring new methods to produce and replicate the diverse and valuable features found in nature. Fine hairs and fibers, which are ubiquitous in the natural world, serve various purposes, from sensory functions to contributing to the unique consistency of hagfish slime.

MechSE Professors Sameh Tawfick and Randy Ewoldt, along with doctoral candidate M. Tanver Hossain and external collaborators, have addressed this need using their advanced embedded 3D-printing technique, recently published in Nature Communications.

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A recent study published in Science by a Belgian research team investigates how genetic switches that regulate gene activity define brain cell types across different species.

A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.

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Researchers have developed a freely available droplet microfluidic component library, which promises to transform the way microfluidic devices are created. This innovation, based on low-cost rapid prototyping and electrode integration, makes it possible to fabricate microfluidic devices for under $12 each, with a full design-build-test cycle completed within a single day. The components are biocompatible, high-throughput, and capable of performing multistep workflows, such as droplet generation, sensing, sorting, and anchoring, all critical for automating microfluidic design and testing.

Microfluidics, particularly droplet-based systems, has become a promising technology for diverse fields, including protein engineering, single-cell sequencing, and nanoparticle synthesis. However, the traditional methods of fabricating —typically using PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane)—are time-consuming and costly, often requiring cleanroom facilities or external vendors.

While alternatives like laser cutting and 3D printing have been explored, these methods often suffer from limitations in resolution, material compatibility, and scalability. As a result, there has been an urgent need for a more efficient, cost-effective, and accessible fabrication method to help propel innovation in microfluidic technology.

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Buildings cost a lot these days. But when concrete buildings are being constructed, there’s another material that can make them less expensive: mud.

MIT researchers have developed a method to use lightly treated mud, including soil from a building site, as the “formwork” molds into which concrete is poured. The technique deploys 3D printing and can replace the more costly method of building elaborate wood formworks for concrete construction.

“What we’ve demonstrated is that we can essentially take the ground we’re standing on, or waste soil from a construction site, and transform it into accurate, highly complex, and flexible formwork for customized concrete structures,” says Sandy Curth, a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Architecture who has helped spearhead the project.

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Soft robots excel in safety and adaptability, yet their lack of structural integrity and dependency on open-curve movement paths restrict their dexterity. Conventional robots, albeit faster due to sturdy locomotion mechanisms, are typically less robust to physical impact. We introduce a multi-material design and printing framework that extends classical mechanism design to soft robotics, synergizing the strengths of soft and rigid materials while mitigating their respective limitations. Using a tool-changer equipped with multiple extruders, we blend thermoplastics of varying Shore hardness into monolithic systems. Our strategy emulates joint-like structures through biomimicry to achieve terrestrial trajectory control while inheriting the resilience of soft robots. We demonstrate the framework by 3D printing a legged soft robotic system, comparing different mechanism syntheses and material combinations, along with their resulting movement patterns and speeds. The integration of electronics and encoders provides reliable closed-loop control for the robot, enabling its operation across various terrains including sand, soil, and rock environments. This cost-effective framework offers an approach for creating 3D-printed soft robots employable in real-world environments.

Soft mechanism driven robots, made via multi-material 3D printing, combine soft and rigid components for robust, adaptable locomotion. This framework balances flexibility and strength, enabling effective operation across varied terrains.

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Engineering researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have achieved breakthroughs in multi-material 3D printing through the power of capillary action. The LLNL team printed lattice structures with a series of custom-designed unit cells to selectively absorb fluid materials and precisely direct them into patterns – making it possible to fabricate complex structures with unprintable materials or materials with vastly different properties.

According to the researchers, the technique, featured in Advanced Materials Technologies, would help engineers design and optimize structures for properties like extreme strength-to-weight ratios, large surface areas, or precision deformation.

“By decoupling some of the printing and patterning techniques, you could achieve some complex multi-material structures, and you wouldn’t always have to be able to print the material,” said Hawi Gemeda, Materials Engineering Division (MED) staff engineer at LLNL and the paper’s lead author.

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Rice University researchers have revealed novel sequence-structure-property relationships for customizing engineered living materials (ELMs), enabling more precise control over their structure and how they respond to deformation forces like stretching or compression.

The study, published in a special issue of ACS Synthetic Biology, focuses on altering protein matrices, which are the networks of proteins that provide structure to ELMs. By introducing small genetic changes, the team discovered they could make a substantial difference in how these materials behaved. These findings could open doors for advancements in tissue engineering, drug delivery and even 3D printing of living devices.

“We are engineering cells to create customizable materials with unique properties,” said Caroline Ajo-Franklin, professor of biosciences and the study’s corresponding author. “While synthetic biology has given us tools to tweak these properties, the connection between genetic sequence, material structure and behavior has been largely unexplored until now.”

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