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Category: 3D printing

Why luxury brands like Hermès, Iris Van Herpen, and Stella McCartney are turning to mushrooms for an eco-alternative to leather.

The wondrous fungi-inspired creations in Dutch couture designer Iris Van Herpen’s Spring 2021 collection are like nothing else in the fashion world. Undulating crowns of brass coils top delicate micro-plissé gowns with bodices formed from sinuous silk tendrils. An early adopter of 3D printing and advocate for sustainability, van Herpen has emerged as a kind of oracle within the fashion industry. She spent lockdown in Amsterdam reading biologist Merlin Sheldrake’s book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, which describes the hidden world of mycelium, the sprawling underground root-like networks of fungi (the visible part we know as mushrooms are akin to fruit on trees).

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I still don’t get how there seems to be No organized effort anywhere to achieve the ability to 3D print a perfect genetic match of all organs by 2025 — 2030. You would think some government somewhere would want to work round the clock on this.

NIBIB-funded engineers at the University of Buffalo have fine-tuned the use of stereolithography for 3D printing of organ models that contain live cells. The new technique is capable of printing the models 10–50 times faster than the industry standard-;in minutes instead of hours-; a major step in the quest to create 3D-printed replacement organs.

Conventional 3D printing involves the meticulous addition of material to the 3D model with a small needle that produces fine detail but is extremely slow —taking six or seven hours to print a model of a human part, such as a hand, for instance. The lengthy process causes cellular stress and injury inhibiting the ability to seed the tissues with live, functioning cells.

The method developed by the SUNY Buffalo group, led by Rougang Zhao, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, takes a different approach that minimizes damage to live cells. The rapid, cell friendly technique is a significant step towards creating printed tissues infused with large numbers of living cells.

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Tomographic 3D printing is a revolutionary technology that uses light to create three-dimensional objects. A projector beams light at a rotating vial containing photocurable resin, and within seconds the desired shape forms inside the vial. The light projections needed to solidify specific 3D regions of the polymer are calculated using tomographic imaging concepts.

The technology was first demonstrated by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Labs in 2019, and a Swiss group at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2020. It is significantly faster than traditional 3D printing in layers, can print around existing objects, and does not require support structures.

Though incredible, the technology can get messy in the lab. The vial’s round shape makes it refract rays like a lens. To counter this, experts use a rectangular index-matching bath that provides a flat surface for rays to pass through correctly. The vial of resin must be dipped in and out of the bath for each use—creating a slimy situation.

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Desktop Metal today announced the launch of wood 3D printing tool, Forust. Founded in 2019, the company specializes in 3D printing for interior design. The company’s “non-destructive” printing methods have managed to largely fly under the radar, with minimal press coverage until now — making them a pretty ideal acquisition candidate.

In fact, the gross assets acquisition actually occurred back in October 2020, according to a filing, which pegs it at a price at $2.5 million, including $2 million in cash considerations. Since then, it seems, the two have been working together ahead of an official launch.

In a press release issued today, Desktop Metal is positioning Forust as the name of the new manufacturing process now in the company’s portfolio. The technology utilizes cellulose dust and lignin, byproducts from the wood and paper industries, respectively.

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Scan the World might be one of the only institutions where visitors are encouraged to handle the most-valued sculptures and artifacts from art history. The open-source museum hosts an impressive archive of 18000 digital scans—the eclectic collection spans artworks like the “Bust of Nefertiti,” the “Fourth Gate of Vaubam Fortress,” and Michaelangelo’s “David” in addition to other items like chimpanzee skulls—that are available for download and 3D printing in a matter of hours.

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Texas-based construction company ICON has delivered what it hails as the “world’s first” 3D printed lunar launch and landing pad to NASA, bringing its goal of creating an off-world construction system for the moon a step closer.

Working with a team of students from 10 colleges and universities across the US, ICON used its proprietary technology to 3D print a reusable landing pad using materials found on the moon. The partners recently conducted a static fire test of the rocket pad with a rocket motor at Camp Swift, a Texas Military Department location just outside of Austin.

“This is the first milestone on the journey to making off-world construction a reality, which will allow humanity to stay – not just visit the stars,” said Michael McDaniel, Head of Design at ICON.

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Researchers from the German Kiel University have developed novel 3D printed ‘spiky-joints’ that provide wrist injury patients with a more flexible form of arm support.

Inspired by the natural wing micro-joints of the dragonfly, the spiky-joint features a novel interlocking mechanism that’s designed to cushion the wrist without impairing free movement. When set to its maximum rigidity, the scientists believe their device could be ideal for treating everyday strains and sprains, and preventing common hyperextension injuries in athletes.

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Engineers at the US Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) have deployed a 3D printer to fabricate optimized antenna components that could be key to advancing the US Navy’s radar monitoring capabilities.

Utilizing 3D printing, the engineers were able to create cylindrical arrays at a lower cost and with reduced lead times compared to those incurred using conventional specialized equipment. The resulting parts also proved to be significantly lighter than previous iterations, potentially lending them new end-use navigational or defense applications.

“3D printing is a way to produce rapid prototypes and get through multiple design iterations very quickly, with minimal cost,” said NRL electrical engineer Anna Stumme. “The light weight of the printed parts also allows us to take technology to new applications, where the heavy weight of solid metal parts used to restrict us.”

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