Month: February 2016

A new 3D bioprinter technology developed by scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine opened a great opportunity for organ replacement. Scientists say that now they can print muscles, human bones and even the whole ear by pressing a button on the 3D bioprinter.

The lack of donated tissues and organs is a big problem for many diseased or injured people in the world today. The issue is to produce these tissues and organs using 3D printer, which can lay cells down in specific patterns. read more

In eighties Chuck Hull, the inventor of 3D printer, predicted to his wife that his new device would enter the people’s houses in 25- 30 years. And was absolutely right! Now 3D printing technology gets more accessible to simple people and costs from $300 in Amazon.com market. Additive manufacturing can be used in many fields from medicine to robotics and its possibilities seem to be endless. But what 3D printing started with? read more

A new generation of additive manufacturing, 4D printers, copies the nature to create 3D objects that can change their shapes after they are printed. The basis of the method was borrowed from the flowers bending and twisting their petals depending on the light and humidity in the environment.

“Other active research teams exploring 4D printing require multiple materials printed together, with one material that stays rigid while another changes shape and acts like a hinge,” said Jennifer Lewi, a materials scientist, at Harvard University. read more

In September 2015 Nepalese locals were astonished to find a little plastic device dared to regulate their way of life after terrible earthquake in May 2015. A small 3D printer was brought to the camp in Bahrabise, central Nepal, by Field Ready engineers to print and facilitate some essential equipment for 200 homeless families.  read more

Is it possible to make a 3D printer by yourself? Two businessmen from Maryland Institute College of Art, Evan Roche and Harrison Tyler, say “Yes”. They released a workshop teaching students how to make a simple 3D printer from the ground up.

Buildclass is held for 3 days and involves its participants into fabrication, programming and customization processes of 3D printers. The organizers prepared individual packages for each student with two hundred individual elements for constructing a personal printer. read more

The recent 2016 Toy Fair in New York City showed its visitors that retro toys like “ThingMaker” by Mattel can still be interesting to up-to-date kids if modernized properly.

A new version of the ThingMaker allows children to design a model of the toy within an app and then print it by themselves. The toy 3D printer is going to be launched this fall. read more

What’s in common between soft robots, stretchable garments and therapeutic clothing? It’s the liquid metal that is the main construction material of all these things.

Scientists from Purdue University discovered a technique aiming to change a natural form of liquid metal into inkjet-able one.  The production method consists of dispersing liquid metal in a non-metallic solvent with the help of ultrasound. This process makes liquid metal nanoparticles that are small enough to pass through an inkjet nozzle. In the result we get the ink that can be used by a modern 3D printer. read more