Advancements in 3D printing have come a long way in recent years, but current limitations in the tech can make the process of printing itself slow. But it doesn't have to be.
A 3D printed boat figurine made during the trial. Credit: Dan Congreve / Stanford University
A potential new method of 3D printing has been developed by a team of engineers at Stanford and Harvard Universities which involves printing an object within resin that could potentially save time and effort during the printing process.
Read more: How 3D printing is inspiring the next generation of engineers
Typical 3D printing is done by printing layers on top of one another. This new method allows the model to be added to from any angle, which could save significant amounts of time and materials.
This removes the need for support structures during printing and makes it easier to print more intricate designs.
“The ability to do this volumetric printing enables you to print objects that were previously very difficult,” said Dan Congreve, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity for three-dimensional printing going forward.”
The process involves using a laser into a gelatinous resin which hardens on contact with blue light, but the team couldn't shine a blue laser into the mixture as it would cure along the length of the beam. Instead, they had to use a red laser and use nanomatter scattered through the resin to disguise the light.
Congreve's team specialises in converting a wave of light into another, so the process was relatively simple for them to conduct.
The team is currently exploring ways to refine the printing process so it can be used for larger and more intricate designs, as well as looking into whether they can use multiple lasers at once to speed the process up further.
The team also say nanomaterials could see use outside of 3D printing as well, such as in making solar panels more efficient. By creating low-energy light solar cells can collect, helping researchers study biological models triggered by light, or even aiding in the delivery of localised treatments into the human body.
Read more: How 3D printing is helping disabled animals walk
“You could penetrate tissue with infrared light and then turn that infrared light into high-energy light with this upconversion technique to, for example, drive a chemical reaction,” Congreve added.
“Our ability to control materials at the nanoscale gives us a lot of really cool opportunities to solve challenging problems that are otherwise difficult to approach.”
Back to Homepage
Back to Construction & Engineering