additive manufacturing

Video: Year-long simulated Mars mission taking place in 3D-printed concrete habitat

By Lisa McDonald / July 19, 2023

Materials are not the only challenge to carrying out a successful space mission—the toll on a crew’s cognitive and physical performance must also be anticipated. In June 2023, NASA announced the start of its first year-long simulated Mars surface mission, which will take place within a 3D-printed concrete habitat.

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Searching for strength: Researchers investigate whether uniform grain size improves properties of 3D-printed cemented carbides

By Lisa McDonald / October 18, 2022

Additive manufacturing offers a potentially easier way to fabricate cemented carbide parts. In a recent paper, researchers from Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. in Pennsylvania explored whether ensuring a uniform grain size in the 3D-printed part will improve its properties.

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Video: First-of-their-kind drones can 3D print in flight

By Lisa McDonald / September 28, 2022

Using additive manufacturing to repair objects in difficult-to-access locations, such as at the top of tall buildings, is not convenient because the 3D-printing equipment cannot be transported there easily. An international team of researchers developed a swarm of cooperative, 3D-printing drones that can print materials for building or repairing structures while flying.

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Direct ink writing opens the door to complex-shaped objects with isotropic structural color

By Lisa McDonald / September 2, 2022

Structural color is a more durable and less hazardous alternative to conventional pigments, but the angle-dependence of the color limits its broader application in synthetic systems. Researchers at ETH Zurich proposed a 3D printing process to create complex-shaped objects with angle-independent “isotropic” structural color generated from photonic colloidal glasses.

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Additive manufacturing for energy applications, plus more inside September 2022 ACerS Bulletin

By Lisa McDonald / August 18, 2022

The September 2022 issue of the ACerS Bulletin—featuring additive manufacturing for energy applications—is now available online. Plus—ACerS Awards of 2022 and new C&GM.

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Digital light processing allows for design of fine-featured bioceramic scaffolds

By Lisa McDonald / August 12, 2022

Digital light processing is one of the most promising additive manufacturing technologies for preparing ceramic scaffolds with complicated fine features. Three recent studies by several groups in China explore the use of this technique to fabricate bioceramic scaffolds for medical applications.

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Laser-based process allows direct creation of 3D glass structures

By Lisa McDonald / January 26, 2021

Glass additive manufacturing is a less developed field compared to methods for printing plastic, metal, and ceramic, but the last few years saw significant advances. Three researchers in France now propose that two-photon polymerization, a technique used in fields such as micro/nanophotonics, could offer an effective way to 3D print glass directly rather than by layer-on-layer procedures.

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A double-edged sword—reverse engineered 3D-printed parts show security risk presented by machine learning

By Lisa McDonald / July 31, 2020

Machine learning is poised to play a big role in speeding up materials discovery and commercialization—but could such techniques present a risk to the global additive manufacturing market as well? Researchers at New York University showed they could potentially steal trade secrets by reverse engineering 3D-printed parts using machine learning.

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3D-printed rocks improve understanding of fracture formation

By Lisa McDonald / April 21, 2020

The unpredictable nature of fracture formation in rocks makes it difficult to ensure reproducible measurements across different samples. Researchers at Purdue University 3D-printed gypsum rocks to overcome this problem and clearly investigate the effect of mineral fabric and layering on fracture formation.

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Ceramic and glass business news of the week for January 20, 2020

By Lisa McDonald / January 20, 2020

New facility to research coal in West Virginia, NSL Analytical Services acquired by May River Capital, and more ceramic and glass business news of the week for January 20, 2020.

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