New developments in 3D printing




3D printing is about much more than homemade figures for war games. Here, our in-house expert Jack Dempsey takes a look at the latest cool developments in the world of 3D printing

Science shows its heart

Hot off the press is news that researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel claim to have made the first ever 3D-printed heart with human tissue and blood vessels.

It’s only the size of a cherry and it cannot pump blood, but it is being hailed as a major medical breakthrough all the same.

This amazing little print out has cells, blood vessels and chambers. Scientists now hope to begin work on a heart which can pump blood within a year.

It is possible, we are told, that fully working printed hearts could be being routinely transplanted into patients within a decade.

A preposterous oesophagus

But 3D printing is not just about hearts – the race is apparently on to try and print every part of the human body.

A team of Japanese researchers has now successfully transplanted a 3D bioprinted oesophagus into rats.

The oesophagus not only maintained its structure after the transplant, it even grew to be covered by natural tissue.

Take off for 3D printing

One of the big advantages of 3D printing is how strong finished product can become due to the mixture of materials that can be used, and the way they are compounded together.

This makes 3D printing very interesting to NASA, which has worked with the Glenn Research Center (GRC) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to develop GRCop-42, a copper-based high strength alloy with high conductivity.

Using powder bed fusion (PBF) 3D printing, NASA researchers successfully 3D printed near-fully-dense GRCop-42 components that are resistant to deformation and remain strong even at elevated temperatures.

Further tests will follow, but it could be a major breakthrough for engine performance.

Wolf dog back from the dead

A historical group in Scotland has used 3D printing to reconstruct a 4,000-year-old Neolithic dog found in a tomb in Orkney.

The skull was scanned and printed to reveal a creature which looks similar to a European grey wolf.
It’s believed the dog was ritually buried along with eight humans and 22 other canines.

And finally…

A Boston company believes it has come up with a way to drastically increase the speed of 3D printing by 100 times.

It has the potential to open up 3D printing into mass production.

Normal 3D printers melt metal with the laser, but the process is too slow. The new Desktop Metal system uses metal powder from vats. The powder is laid down in thin layers – printing one layer every two to two-and-half seconds.

The powder is fixed with a glue to create a 3D object. It’s a way to mass produce metal objects in a cost-effective way.

Clickhere to read our previous blog about 3D printing

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Motherboard Buying Guide 2021

Image
When building or upgrading a PC, there’s one component that is arguably the most important, serving as your system’s foundation. This is, as you may have guessed, the motherboard. Your choice of motherboard will determine many things in your build, such as the components you are able to use, and vice versa - for example, your choice of CPU may determine which motherboard you should purchase. So, what exactly  is a motherboard, and what should you look out for? Read on for our top tips. What is a motherboard? A motherboard is the foundation of a computer and is the main printed circuit board that holds and allows communication between your crucial components, from processor to memory. Without having a motherboard, your hard drive, graphics card, and every other component won't be able to interact. It serves as a backbone to your system, which is why selecting the right motherboard for your build is crucial. While many modern motherboards are packed with a wide endless list of featu...
Read more

Where to Buy Lite Hash Rate GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 3070 and 3080 Graphics Cards

Image
While many of us rely on graphics cards to enjoy the latest gaming titles or to upgrade our PCs, their intelligent technology makes them ideal for alternative uses. NVIDIA GPUs are programmable, meaning they can be used for a range of activities from gene sequencing and weather simulation to mining cryptocurrency. Passionate about gaming, NVIDIA strives to find ways to ensure their GPUs " end up in the hands of gamers ", so we can experience cutting-edge technologies such as RTX real-time ray tracing as they were meant to be. What is Lite Hash Rate? Following the announcement in February that NVIDIA were reducing the Ethereum hash rate in all of their GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards, they have now taken additional measures by applying a reduced hash rate to their new GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti ranges. "Lite Hash Rate" or "LHR" for short, is the term given to these new GPUs, which contain a reduced hash rate making them perfect for gaming ...
Read more

Encrypted Data Storage vs Traditional Data Storage

Image
If you run a business, you may have large amounts of important data and files that need to be kept secure and confidential. So what’s the best way to keep this data safe? You need secure storage devices! A recent survey conducted by iStorage Ltd, found that some businesses may be at risk, with two thirds of data being stored on unencrypted storage devices. iStorage Ltd is an award-winning company and trusted global leader in PIN-authenticated, hardware-encrypted data storage and cloud encryption devices. Their research into data security found that 99% of people consider data security to be a necessary practice, but only 5% are following advice from the National Cyber Security Centre on data storage and backup. Not storing and backing up data with secure methods is causing a vast majority of data, and the businesses storing this data, to become vulnerable. Because of this, it's important to let businesses know about the importance of using encrypted storage methods, over tradit...
Read more