Where 3D Printing Should Be Headed March 13, 2012
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Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have now made a major breakthrough in speeding up three dimensional printing at the nanoscale resolution. The high-precision-3D-printer at TU Vienna is orders of magnitude faster and opens up completely new areas of application, like medicine.
This is done by combining two improvements: one, in the extremely precise way in which the laser’s mirrors are accelerated and decelerated (details boring, will not trouble you with this) and two, the chemistry of the resin. The resin has some initiator molecules which induce polymerization when hit by TWO photons from the laser, which only happens in the very center of the beam. Subtle and tricky, since this can be focused very precisely in all three dimensions. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by the aforementioned movable mirrors and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer just a few hundred nanometers wide, allowing creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand.
This video shows the 3d-printing process in real time: one hundred layers, consisting of approximately 200 single lines each, are produced in four minutes.
Beat that, RepRap.
A 75-nanometer model of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna.
In contrast to conventional 3D-printing techniques, solid material can be created anywhere within the liquid resin rather than on top of the previously created layer only. Therefore, the working surface does not have to be specially prepared before the next layer can be produced which saves a lot of time. A team of chemists led by Professor Robert Liska (TU Vienna) developed the suitable initiators for this special resin.
The London Tower Bridge, also pretty small.
Researchers all over the world are working on 3D printers today. Because of the dramatically increased speed, much larger objects can now be created in a given period of time. This makes two-photon-lithography an interesting technique for industry. At the TU Vienna, scientists are now developing bio-compatible resins for medical applications. They can be used to create scaffolds to which living cells can attach themselves facilitating the systematic creation of biological tissues. The 3d printer could also be used to create tailor-made construction parts for biomedical technology or nanotechnology.
Jan Torgersen (l) and Peter Gruber (r) and the fastest 3D nanoprinter ever!
I am very interested in seeing how long it will be before custom electronics and analytical biochips are made using these techniques, like all those science fiction authors said would happen in nanobot medicine. Just sayin’.
Graphene Ink Printing of Electronic Components November 25, 2011
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Using ink-jet printer nozzles for any number of fine fabrication techniques is already underway and under research, but Professor of Nanotechnology Andrea Ferrari and colleagues from the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge have developed a method of creating a graphene ink that can be used with a modified ink-jet printer. This is revolutionary for two reasons: first, electronic components such as thin film transistors (TFTs) can already be created using ink-jet printing with ferroelectric polymer inks, but the performance of such components is poor and they are too slow for many applications. Graphene-enhanced versions of these transistors are much, much faster and have higher electron motilities. Second, the resulting components can be transparently printed on a number of flexible substrates. Essentially, the moving, flexible folding newspaper from Harry Potter films (and any number of science fiction stories) can be fabricated with a system of these graphene-ink-printed components.
Using flakes of pure graphite, the team peeled off layers of graphene using liquid-phase exfoliation (sonication of the graphite in the presence of a solvent). The graphene bits were ultra-centrifuged and filtered to remove any particles large enough to block the ink-jet printer heads (about a micron). These processed graphene bits were then used as the basis for the ink printed, using a more-or-less standard ink-jet printer, onto silicon and glass. They heated the substrates to drive off the ink carrier, leaving the graphene flakes behind. The results are at least comparable to current ferroelectric polymer inks:
“They achieved mobilities of up to around 95cm2V−1s−1, about 80% transmittance and 30kohm sheet resistance. Non-graphene polymer inks typically achieve mobilities of less than 0.5cm2V−1s−1, while adding carbon nanotubes can increase this to around 50cm2V−1s−1.”
The results should only improve as the method is refined and enhanced. I imagine that any number of display manufacturers would be interested in this method, if only to print touchscreens directly on their current displays cheaply.
I predict a burgeoning movement among the various hobbyists who specialize in printer hacks a la RepRap. People like Jeri Ellsworth have been working on home-made electronics (specifically in her case transistors) and will be very, very interested in what sounds like an easily-reproduced inkjet solution for printing small electronic components.
Ink-Jet Printed Graphene Electronics, F. Torrisi, T. Hasan, W. Wu, Z. Sun, A. Lombardo, T. Kulmala, G. W. Hshieh, S. J. Jung, F. Bonaccorso, P. J. Paul, D. P. Chu, A. C. Ferrari arXiv:1111.4970v1
More Valuable Than You Think July 7, 2011
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What price hubris? Well, it cost Pete Rose his career (but he avoided jail, so there’s that going for him) and endorsements, which are much the same thing (I haven’t heard about him shilling for casinos, but I’m sure someone will think of that eventually). Still, if he makes half of what Walmart is asking for this item, he could make about $5400 an hour autographing these (at one a minute). Maybe that’s why he doesn’t shill for casinos.
That’s probably more lucrative than his baseball earnings. Especially if he got an Eggbot. Then he would be free of the limitations of carpal-tunnel syndrome.
Another Goal of 3D Printing June 30, 2011
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3D printing is all about making things rapidly for relatively cheap and is still referred to as “rapid prototyping”, which is what it is. It’s an iterative design-manifestation procedure. It can be more, however. Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way for the first time to create successful “CIGS” (copper, indium, gallium and selenium) solar devices with inkjet printing. This turns out to be a very cheap way to get the alloys right, because you make a layer that’s two microns thick instead of fifty microns thick. This makes it much cheaper to manufacture than methods like vacuum sputtering, and allows much more complex wiring at smaller dimensions. Researchers were able to create an ink that could print chalcopyrite (CIGS) onto substrates with this inkjet approach, resulting in a solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of about 5 percent. The OSU researchers say that with continued research they should be able to achieve an efficiency of about 12 percent, which would make a commercially viable solar cell…at a reduced cost.
The findings have been published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, which is pretty instructive reading.
Glorious Mud May 25, 2011
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Researchers at Cornell are using 3D scanners and printers to produce copies of ancient cuneiform tablets for study. The real thing is needful because sometimes you have to see it from different angles to bring out the writing, etc. The originals are fragile enough that scholars are reluctant to ship them around the world for study, so copies have an obvious advantage. Another advantage they have is that the 3D print for them can be enlarged with no loss of data, so a larger copy can be more easily read. Brilliant! Here is an original, a copy and a twice-life-sized copy:
Interested scholars can download this one here.
Speaking of mud, ancient Egyptians built their homes, temples and tombs from mud bricks, which apparently are denser than the silt which makes up the Nile delta…meaning a good IR scan could pick out structures from that time period from under the silt.
This is great, since the Nile changes course frequently and covers over whole towns, like the ancient city of Tanis (sound familiar?).
It turns out that this is precisely what has happened. Seventeen lost pyramids have been identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt. More than a thousand tombs and three thousand ancient settlements were also located by looking at these infrared images which show underground buildings at slightly different temperatures than the surrounding silt. A little digging shows that, yes, there are two pyramids correctly identified—and probably all the other structures as well. This is apparently a pretty reliable method for finding old structures (in the Nile delta, anyway)
So, overall, a big day for mud.
The title of this blog entry actually comes from the chorus of this song by the legendary Flanders and Swann
This is only one of dozens of songs, each more charming and funny than anything written since (with the possible exception of the works of Tom Lehrer
Mondo, From TechZoneCommunications May 21, 2011
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No ordinary RepRap, this one is a variation with a 12”x18”x11” print area. The unassembled kit is 1089.00 while at the Maker Faire (in other words, through tomorrow). Bring your checkbook.
3D Scanning on the Web! April 25, 2011
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A website (http://www.my3dscanner.com) has a nifty little service that allows you to create a pointcloud (and therefore potentially a fully-realized 3D scan) from a series of photographs taken ~60 degrees apart. You walk around it rather than rotating the object, so this can be used on a statue in a park, or a person holding very, very still.
Still very tricky, but the idea is great. They have a helpful set of instructions on how to photograph correctly and another on how to make a 3D model out of the resulting point cloud. Also, it’s all written in a friendly and cheerful tone, which is even better.
Another Low-cost 3D Scanner April 13, 2011
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David Software makes a suite of 3-D scanning tools with a low-cost (and probably low-resolution) hardware. You make a little video clip of a laser-line scanner flashing over the object you want scanned against a 3-D calibration box and feed it into their software and a point cloud is generated. Then you use DAVID-Shapefusion to make exportable files to plug into your RepRap or MakerBot.
Cute, huh? I’m guessing it doesn’t work nearly that easily without a lot of tweaking. One reason I’m guessing this is that there is a wiki, which implies a lot of wiggle room and need for lots of (unpaid?) folks to help write the documentation. Looking at the wiki, it’s pretty clear that this is the case. There are problems with lighting, scan angles, different colors of objects, different colors of lasers, etc…but it still seems like a cost-effective way to scan something for 3-D manufacture. I wonder how large an object can be scanned? Be sure to buy your laser from here
David Software is downloadable in the trial form here.
Getting There, One Bit at a Time April 12, 2011
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Trimensional, a 3D scanning application for the current incarnation of iPhone (the one with the user-facing camera), can create a 3D model of an object held close to the phone using the light from four corners of the screen and assembling the video images into a 3D model in STL, OBJ, or PLY format. It’s an app you have to purchase and it’s only for iPhone right now.
Still, it’s another important (because it’s among the first easy to use) application in the chain of innovative methods to create or copy 3D objects with 3D printing.
The Most Useful Tool March 9, 2011
Posted by stuffilikenet in 3D Printing, Awesome, Brilliant words, Toys.1 comment so far
Consider for a moment the lowly inkjet printer. Nowadays, a lonely inkjet printer can be found, fully functional but slightly used at your local thrift store for about $6. I myself found (yes, found) maybe ten of the suckers on street corners waiting to be scavenged by industrious mendicants and bindlestiffs of our fair city. I yanked the motors and sundry other useful bits and discarded the dismembered corpses, but I think these noble devices should have better treatment than this.
What are we talking about here? An inkjet printer usually consists of a shaft-encoded pinch roller to move paper (hereinafter referred to as "substrate") in one direction very accurately, while thermospray print heads glide across the paper (sorry, "substrate") in a perpendicular direction depositing ink very accurately in desirable patterns.
Imagine what happens when additions are made to this device, like changing "ink" to "acid" and "paper" to "copper-clad boards"
Lots of hackers have had the same thought. One fellow has tried printing etchant-resistant wax on printed circuit boards, to pretty good success.
Others may try other, more tractable substances, but you get the idea. Another idea is adding a Dremel rotary cutting tool to scrape off the copper in the correct pattern. This hasn’t been done yet for some reason, but people have thought about it. They also have thought about a laser, but cooler heads apparently prevailed.
Imagine what happens if you substitute plastic for ink, and add a third dimension to add multiple layers.
Imagine what happens when you can fabricate enough parts to make another printer, and it makes another printer, and it makes another printer, etc. This is already happening.
Imagine what happens when you add that third dimension and just change the ink to something more fabric friendly?
Direct-to-fabric printing apparently is already taking off in a small way.
Perhaps changing the substrate alone would be enough. This fellow printed some small parts in WeldWood, a kind of wood and plastic powder and a bit of putty. The “ink” in this case is dihydrogen monoxide, a nearly ubiquitous chemical known for causing drowning:
Except for the Reprap, these little hacks use only slightly-modified inkjet printers and slightly-modified software to drive them. That’s a lot of potential for a humble $6 printer.
