Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2022 - 32

Manufacturing & Prototyping
3D System Prints Structures of Submicrometer Accuracy
This system prints centimeter-sized objects at high speed.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
3
D printers working in the millimeter
range and larger are increasingly
used in industrial production processes.
Many applications, however, require precise
printing on the micrometer scale
at a far higher speed. Researchers have
developed a system to print highly precise,
centimeter-sized objects with submicrometer
details at unmatched speed.
To demonstrate not only the speed but
also the reliability of the setup, the researchers
printed a lattice structure of 60 cubic
millimeters in size with details down to the
micrometer scale. It contains more than
3 mm
The metamaterial printed with the new system consists of a complex three-dimensional lattice
structure on the micrometer scale. (Photo: Vincent Hahn, KIT)
300 billion voxels (a voxel is the 3D counterpart
of a pixel or 2D picture element).
For this type of 3D printing, the beam
of a laser passes a liquid photoresist in a
computer-controlled manner. The material
located in the focus of the laser only is
exposed and hardened. The focal points
correspond to the nozzles of an inkjet
printer - the only difference being that
they work three-dimensionally. In this
way, highly precise filigree structures can
be produced for various applications such
as optics and photonics, material sciences,
bioengineering, or safety engineering.
Typically, several hundred thousand
voxels per second have been produced
with a single laser light spot. This means
that it was nearly a hundred times slower
than graphical inkjet printers, which impeded
many applications to date. Using
special optics, the laser beam is divided
into nine partial beams that each focus on
a focal point. All nine partial beams can be
used in parallel and, thanks to improved
electronic control, they can be moved precisely
much more rapidly than ever. This
and some other technical improvements
enabled the team to reach 3D printing
speeds of about 10 million voxels per
second, which corresponds to the speed
reached by graphical 2D inkjet printers.
For more information, contact Regina Link
at regina.link@kit.edu; +49 721 608-21158.
3D Printing Creates Environmentally Friendly Material
Made of Algae
Applications include energy, medicine, space exploration, and clothing.
University of Rochester, New York, NY, and Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
L
32
iving materials made by housing biological
cells within a nonliving matrix
have gained popularity as scientists recognize
that often the most robust materials
are those that mimic nature. Researchers
have now used 3D printers and
a novel bioprinting technique to print algae
into living, photosynthetic materials
that are tough and resilient.
To create the photosynthetic materials,
the researchers began with a nonliving
bacterial cellulose - an organic
compound that is produced and excreted
by bacteria. Bacterial cellulose has
many important mechanical properties
such as flexibility, toughness, strength,
and the ability to retain its shape even
when twisted, crushed, or otherwise
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physically distorted. The bacterial cellulose
is like the paper in a printer, while
living microalgae acts as the ink. A 3D
printer was used to deposit living algae
onto the bacterial cellulose.
The combination of living (microalgae)
and nonliving (bacterial cellulose)
components resulted in a unique
material that has the photosynthetic
Tech Briefs, May 2022
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Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2022

Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2022 - Intro
Tech Briefs Magazine - May 2022 - Sponsor
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