3D Printing

California-based rocket company Relativity Space has announced their new super-sized rocket printing robotic 3D printer system, dubbed the Stargate 4th generation. The new system is capable of printing objects up to 120ft long and 24ft wide at speeds of up to 12x faster than the previous systems. Yes, that means rockets! This one also differs from previous iterations in one notable way – it prints rockets horizontally. You can see the 4th gen Stargate in the image below. Stargate 4th gen. Faster, better, cheaper? (Image credit: Relativity Space) The new printer platform will support the scaled up production of Relativity Space’s Terran-R rocket, which is the company’s first fully reusable, 3D printed rocket, which will be capable of hoisting 20,000 tons into low Earth orbit (LEO). The new robotic printer achieves its higher print speed thanks in part to the new multi-wire print head into which multiple metal feedstock wires…    read more 

Accuracy and speed are often the big trade off especially when it comes to resin printers with their increasingly fine micron-level resolutions. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Heidelberg University, and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have published details on their successful demo of a method called lightsheet 3D microprinting, that maintains small voxel sizes while keeping a relatively high speed. According to the researchers, using light-sheet 3D printing technology, the print time per part has now come close to typical manufacturing times found in injection molding. The paper, titled “Light-sheet 3D microprinting via two-colour two-step absorption”, states that voxel volumes of less than 1 cubic micron are possible with non-linear optical systems in resin printing, but these often suffer from low printing speed or high cost. Typical linear optical systems (projection methods such as LCD) print in the 100 cubic micron voxel size region, and so while…    read more 

Mosquitos suck. That’s not an insult, it’s just what they do. And they do it all over the world except for Antarctica and a few other subpolar island locations (such as Iceland). They are vectors for such diseases such as malaria and dengue, and are responsible for one million deaths per year, according to the WHO. They are literally the world’s deadliest animal. And if they’re not killing us in huge numbers, their bites are incredibly annoying, causing irritation, swelling, rashes, and sleepless nights for many. There are many solutions for repelling these hellish insects, but they are far from perfect. Wearable Repellent A team of researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Germany have developed a potential solution that may prove to be a step in the right direction, and their answer comes in the form of a 3D printed wearable containing a skin-friendly chemical repellant. You can…    read more 

Early adopters who have dreamed of living in a printed home, but don’t want to drop a big pile of cash on the experience can now do so thanks to US company Azure Printed Homes, who are printing homes to rent. The Los Angeles-based construction company has teamed up with property developer Reinhabit to construct 10 prefabricated homes which will be rented out to occupants. What’s more is that the little houses will be printed out of recycled plastic, and according to the company, the modular components that make up one of their houses can be printed in the space of a day. You can see an example one Azure’s prefabricated designs in the image below, being lowered into position by crane. An Azure Backyard Studio, being delivered.(Image credit: Azure Printed homes) The 10 tiny houses will be assembled on three different sites in Southern California. “We have been researching…    read more 

Living organs for medical experimentation are pretty hard to come by, on account of human beings actually using them on a day to day basis. To rectify this, the concept of the organoid has been developed. Functional Organ Models Organoids are mini-versions of organs that replicate various biological functions, and they are grown in-vitro, in a petri dish or test tube or some other kind of container outside of the normal environment of the body. Manufacturing of organoids has had its limitations however, as it has been difficult to demonstrate consistent and robust extraction of mature organoids from renewable cells. This could be about to change though, thanks to a team of researchers from the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh who have been awarded funding to further research into organoid production using AI and 3D printing. In-vitro organoids. (Image credit: University of Pittsburgh) The team of…    read more