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3D printing is opening doors for what were previously thought to be unfeasible projects, paving the way for breakthroughs in a wide variety of areas: The Cell3Dtor project, funded by the European Union, is aiming to bring to market solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), much more energy efficient and easily/cheaply manufacturable through 3D printing. Bioprinting is going further than medical implants, enabling tunable designs of biological matrixes to radically change drug testing. Graphene is also almost ready for mass-production as a new 3D printing method using Nickel and sugar makes it simple and efficient to produce.
Cell3Ditor uses ceramics 3D printing to improve production of energy efficient solid oxide fuel cells
A pioneering new project, Cell3Ditor, by the Catalan Energy Research Institute is now aiming to leverage ceramics 3D printing to help the environment more directly, with the production of new, more efficient solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Currently, manufacturing a SOFC requires more than 100 stages of production, with the different components being made separately and assembled with vitreous seals. This complexity greatly increases the costs of both production and initial investment, which is estimated at around € 4.8 million. 3D printing technology could change all this for the better, cutting down production time and costs as well as drastically simplifying the whole assembly process. 3D printing techniques also allow for an improved final product, as the cell could be made in one single piece.
Read the full article here.
Why Drug Testing May Be the Most Important Application of 3D Bioprinting
3D printed tissue is proving to be an effective means of testing new pharmaceuticals, meaning that drugs can be thoroughly assessed and brought to market more quickly, all without harming animal test subjects. A group of researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) recently published a paper discussing the development of a new type of bioink that enables the 3D printing of cells and other biological materials as part of a single production process. You can access the paper, entitled “Mechanically Tunable Bioink for 3D Printing of Human Cells,” here.
Read the article at 3DPrint.
Scientists May Have Discovered a Sweet Way to Mass Produce Graphene
Nanotechnologists from Rice University and China’s Tianjin University have come up with a way to make centimeter-sized objects of atomically thin graphene that’s pretty sweet. The method is simple, can be performed at room temperature, and only requires sugar and nickel in a process called “3D laser printing.” Due to the printing method, the scientists were able to control the shapes to the level of the pore and make them 99 percent air — retaining graphene’s lightness. This is a landmark for the “miracle material” — composed of a single atomic layer of hexagonally linked carbon — which has paradigm-shifting potential due to its high strength (200 times stronger than steel) and conductivity.
Read more about the landmark here.
See you next week for another News In Review! Our Twitter feed will keep you updated on the latest 3D printing/IIOT news as you wait.