3 D Printing & Additive Manufacturing

New High-Speed Microscale 3D-Printing Technique

Researchers at Stanford University have introduced a more efficient processing technique that can print up to 1 million highly detailed and customizable microscale particles a day. Read on to learn more about it.

MIT Engineers Develop a Fully 3D-Printed Electrospray Engine

An electrospray engine applies an electric field to a conductive liquid, generating a high-speed jet of tiny droplets that can propel a spacecraft. These miniature engines are...

Artificial Muscles Could Lead to Soft, Wiggly Robots

A team has developed a method to grow artificial muscle tissue that twitches and flexes in multiple coordinated directions. As a demonstration, they grew an artificial, muscle-powered structure that pulls both concentrically and radially.

Bioprinting Artificial Organs in Space to Benefit Human Life on Earth

Recent successes in cultivating human heart tissue, knee cartilage, and pharmaceutical crystals in space have relied on technology that was initially developed decades ago with support from NASA.

Readers Select 2024 Products of the Year

Last December, Tech Briefs readers were asked to select one product from our 2024 Products of the Month to be named Readers’ Choice Product of the Year. Thanks to all of our readers who cast their votes. Read on to learn the 2024 winners.

Mass 3D Printing in Space for the First Time

Auxilium Biotechnologies has successfully deployed its 3D bioprinter aboard the ISS. The platform is the first of its kind, making history by printing eight implantable medical devices simultaneously in just two hours.

Detecting Additive Manufacturing Defects in Real Time

A research team led by Associate Professor Tao Sun has made new discoveries that can expand additive manufacturing in aerospace and other industries that rely on strong metal parts. Read on to learn more.

Providing Robots a Soft Touch Using 3D Printing

A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently manufactured using 3D printers. Read on to learn more.

AI Discovers Stiff and Tough Microstructures

A team at MIT has moved beyond traditional trial-and-error methods to create materials with extraordinary performance through computational design. Their new system integrates physical experiments, physics-based simulations, and neural networks to navigate the discrepancies often found between theoretical models and practical results. Read on to learn more.

Snail-Inspired Robot Could Scoop Ocean Microplastics

Inspired by a small and slow snail, scientists have developed a robot prototype that may one day scoop up microplastics from the surfaces of oceans, seas, and lakes.

Meet MobiPrint: A Mobile 3D Printer that Can Automatically Measure a Room and Print to the Specs

University of Washington researchers have created MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer that can automatically measure a room and print objects onto its floor. The team’s graphic interface lets users design objects for a space that the robot has mapped out.

MIT Team Takes a Major Step Toward Fully 3D-Printed Active Electronics

Active electronics — components that can control electrical signals — usually contain semiconductor devices that receive, store, and process information. These...

Bio-Ink for 3D Printing

Biomedical engineers have developed a “bio-ink” for 3D-printed materials that could serve as scaffolds for growing human tissues to repair or replace damaged ones in the body. Read on to learn more.

4D Printing of Shape Memory Polymers

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the 4D printing of shape memory polymers in submicron dimensions that are comparable to the wavelength of visible light. Read on to learn more.

3D-Printed Reactor Core Makes Solar Fuel Production More Efficient

In recent years, engineers at ETH Zurich have developed the technology to produce liquid fuels from sunlight and air. In 2019, they demonstrated the entire thermochemical process chain under real conditions for the first time, in the middle of Zurich, on the roof of ETH Machine Laboratory. Two ETH spin-offs, Climeworks and Synhelion, are further developing and commercializing the technologies. Read on to learn more.

Microscale Robot Folds, Crawls

The robot’s versatility is due to a novel design based on kirigami, a cousin of origami in which slices in the material enable it to fold, expand, and locomote.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including Pi Americas' S-335 fast steering mirror; Smalley's new online shopping tool for its customers; Markforged Holding Corporation's FX10 Metal Kit, a print engine that brings metal printing capability to the FX10; Automated Precision, Inc.'s iScanMagic Composite 3D Scanner and iScanLite 3D Blue Laser Line Scanner; Navitas Semiconductor's portfolio of third-generation automotive-qualified SiC MOSFETs in D2PAK-7L (TO-263-7) and TOLL packages; and much more.

Origami-Inspired Shape-Shifting Transformer Bots

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, North Carolina State University engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors. The findings could pave the way for shape-shifting artificial systems that can take on multiple functions and even carry a load. Read on to learn more.

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: Seeq Vantage, Seeq's first industrial enterprise monitoring app. Read on to learn more about it.

New Technology Uses Light to Engrave Erasable 3D Images

Imagine if physicians could capture 3D projections of medical scans, suspending them inside an acrylic cube to create a hand-held reproduction of a patient’s heart, brain, kidneys, or other organs. Then, when the visit is done, a quick blast of heat erases the projection, and the cube is ready for the next scan. A new report by researchers at Dartmouth and Southern Methodist University outlines a technical breakthrough that could enable such scenarios, and others, with widespread utility. Read on to learn more.