3D Printing Materials

The London Borough of Hackney recently awarded £600,000 in grants via its Hackney Central Impact and Ideas Grant Fund, supporting local businesses pushing the circular economy. The program involved a total of 23 green enterprises, including Batch.Works, an East London design and manufacturing studio using 3D printing to upcycle plastic waste into useful products. Riding off the back of the initiative, the Hackney Council is now actively encouraging other local businesses to partake in discussions regarding the circular economy, all in a bid to cut waste, reuse materials, and slash emissions. Guy Nicholson, Deputy Mayor for Delivery, Inclusive Economy, and Regeneration, said, “It is all too easy to jettison some of our ambitions to reduce emissions, support the creation of a circular economy and play our collective part in transforming Hackney’s local economy and placing it at the forefront of the net zero carbon economy of tomorrow. Despite the challenges…    read more 

Biomaterials developer Jellatech has announced a new milestone in the development of its 3D printable cell-based collagen bioink. After two years of development, the company has successfully engineered a full-length, triple-helical and functional collagen made from its own proprietary cell lines.  “This is a major milestone for us and I am beyond proud and excited that we are already here,” said Stephanie Michelsen, CEO of Jellatech. “Being able to see our clean cell-based collagen with the naked eye – it brings happy tears.” Jellatech’s pure, white collagen in powder form. Photo via Jellatech. 3D printing with collagen Collagen is one of the most unique and abundant proteins in mammals found in connective tissue, skin, tendon, bone, and cartilage. It provides structural support to tissues and plays an important role in cellular processes like tissue repair, immune response, and cell migration.  Collagen’s properties have led to it being widely used across…    read more 

Scientists at the University of Houston have developed a novel method of 3D printing bio-sensors that could one day be implanted into human hosts.  Using multiphoton lithography (MPL), the team’s approach involves polymerizing a resin loaded with an organic semiconductor material layer-by-layer, to form tiny, biocompatible circuit boards. Thus far, the researchers have utilized their process to create highly-accurate glucose sensors, but with further R&D, they believe it could pave the way for the production of a new generation of bio-electronic devices. “Here, a homogenous and transparent photosensitive resin doped with an organic semiconductor (OS) material is introduced to fabricate a variety of 3D OS composite microstructures (OSCM),” say the team in their paper. “[Our] results demonstrate the great potential of these devices for a wide range of applications from flexible bioelectronics, to nanoelectronics and organ-on-a-chip devices.” The researchers’ initial 3D printed microstructures. Image via the University of Houston. Bringing…    read more 

Canada-based 3D printing materials start-up Fortis3D is breaking ground within the filament market thanks to its unique portfolio of custom filament formulations and compounds. Having made its debut earlier this year, the start-up has built up three product lines – Essential, Advanced, and Industrial – to meet the needs of hobbyists, professionals, and industry. The firm sets itself apart from other filament manufacturers with its specialty in custom formulations and compounding, which enables it to modify different resins to have “extraordinary” properties.  “As the 3D printing materials market is maturing, we want to bring value by creating innovative materials and pushing the boundaries of what current materials can do,” said Wayne Lam, Business Development Engineer at Fortis3D.  “We know the market needs more high performance, high quality, and sustainable materials and at Fortis3D that’s what we are striving for as well.” Fortis3D’s BioDuro PLA, Lignum PLA and BioDuro Metallic PLA…    read more 

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have come up with a novel way of turning discarded plastic into a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing material.  Using a ‘click chemistry’ reaction, the scientists’ method enables waste ABS to be turned into a ‘vitrimer,’ a polymer with the recyclability of thermoplastics and mechanical qualities of thermosets. According to the team, this “readily adoptable” process could serve as a basis for the introduction of “a closed-loop strategy,” that reduces the need for new plastics and cuts emissions tied to their production.  “We will need fundamental discoveries to overcome the challenges of increased costs and deteriorating material properties associated with recycling,” said lead author Tomonori Saito of ORNL’s Chemical Sciences Division. “Our goal was to develop an easily adoptable strategy that reuses plastic waste to create a more valuable material instead of generating fresh plastic.” The ORNL’s Sungjin Kim 3D printing using…    read more