3D Printing

Renishaw is set to return to this year’s Develop3D Live event taking place on the 31st March, 2016, at Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick University, UK. Highlights at the show will include the company’s new build preparation software for Renishaw Metal Additive Manufacturing systems, QuantAM, and the latest updates on its upcoming global Additive Manufacturing Solutions Centres network.

Researchers have developed a new method that uses plasma to print nanomaterials onto a 3D object or flexible surface, such as paper or cloth. The technique could make it easier and cheaper to build devices like wearable chemical and biological sensors, flexible memory devices and batteries, and integrated circuits. One of the most common methods to deposit nanomaterials onto a surface is with an inkjet printer similar to an ordinary printer ...

Traditional fingerprint identification by pressing or rolling of finger against the hard surface often results in partial or degraded images due to improper finger placement, skin deformation, slippages, or smearing. Therefore touchless 3D finger imaging can provide more accurate personal identification as rich information is available from 3D fingerprint images.

A prototype 3D-printed antenna being put to work in ESA's Compact Antenna Test Facility, a shielded chamber for antenna and radio-frequency testing. "This is the Agency's first 3D-printed dual-reflector antenna," explains engineer Maarten van der Vorst, who designed it. "Incorporating a corrugated feedhorn and two reflectors, it has been printed all-in-one in a polymer, then plated with copper to meet its radio-frequency (RF) performance requirem...

Athletes, the elderly and others who suffer from injuries and arthritis can lose cartilage and experience a lot of pain. Researchers are now reporting, however, that they have found a way to produce cartilage tissue by 3D bioprinting an ink containing human cells, and they have successfully tested it in an in vivo mouse model. The development could one day lead to precisely printed implants to heal damaged noses, ears and knees.

University of Exeter experts will work to develop a solution to the growing problem of piracy caused by the increasing use of 3D printers. Academics will carry out research in China to resolve copyright issues posed by the new technology, which allows the copying of physical objects by scanning them. They hope to develop a single system for protecting intellectual property which could be used around the world.

Medical 3D printing has many applications in various fields. In orthotics, industrial 3D printers are used to manufacture custom-sized orthoses, braces as well as prosthesis and parts for powered exoskeletons. First two helps patients with broken bones while the latter are used for amputees. By Marcin Traczyk, ZMorph.

A team of veterinarians and 3D printing experts from the Renato Archer Technology and Information Center (CTI) in Campinas, Brazil, have successfully implanted the world’s first metal 3D printed beak on a bright blue and yellow macaw. The bird, named Gigi, was rescued from captivity and found with severe deformations on her beak that prevented her from feeding herself, yet just days after the surgery, she is already well-adapted and able to...

With findings that could have been taken from the pages of a spy novel, researchers at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated that they can purloin intellectual property by recording and processing sounds emitted by a 3D printer.

Massachusetts based generative design studio, Nervous System, has created a new Kinematics 3D printed dress, which will be debuted and exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston from March 6th to July 10th, 2016. The dress, which was inspired by natural elements such as petals, feathers, and scales, introduces a new dimension to the design studio’s previous work.