#3d printed Tadpole Endoscope device can improve cancer diagnoses Very recently, we reported on 3d printed icrofishrobots that can be injected directly into our blood to perform complex medical tasks.
Now, yet another aquatic creature has inspired scientists and 3d engineers within the medical community. A team from the Institute of Precision Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong kong as developed 3d printed tadpole-like devices that can improve diagnosis of various cancers by entering the patient stomach
and wirelessly transmitting images of what it sees. A traditional procedure for diagnosing cancers of the gastrointestinal (GI TRACT
which rank as the second most prevalent among all types of cancers in the world,
is endoscopy, wherein a long, flexible tube with a light and camera attached to its end passes through a person digestive system.
This can be done either through the mouth and back of the throat, as in gastropy,
By observing the transmitted video on a TV monitor, doctors can get a firsthand view of the patient organs
and assess the damage. While the procedure has been invaluable in diagnosing stomach, intestinal, esophagus and colon cancers
it requires a great deal of skill on behalf of the doctor, and can be uncomfortable, painful, and stressful for the patientot to mention prohibitively expensive.
The new 3d printed device, called the Tadpole Endoscope (TE), is a reliable and relatively noninvasive solution that could improve the very way we diagnose cancers.
Developed to be swallowed just like a large pill (it is a bit bigger than a small coin),
While similar devices, known as wireless capsule endoscopes, have been created in the past, the TE is notable for its soft tail,
which allows it to be guided deftly around the entire stomach by the doctor, and the ingeniously 3d printed shell,
which houses control electronics and the video camera holder. According to the engineers, who published their breakthrough research in the journal HKIE Transactions
when it comes to cancer diagnosis. Once the stomach has been checked thoroughly, the device wimsinto the lower GI TRACT aided by natural peristaltic actionhat is,
So far, the Tadpole Endoscope has been tested in an artificial stomach as well as in a pig stomach
and eventually be implemented successfully in medical applications i
#American Wind turns wind-generated electricy on its head with 3d printed Microcube Aerospace engineer Robert Yost has developed
and patented a micro wind turbine device that is capable of generating power in wind speeds as low as 1 mph,
the founder of American Wind, will drive across the United states in an electric vehicle powered by four Microcubes without stopping even once to plug in the battery for a recharge.
which can either be converted to DC power for backup storage, or directly connected to power grids.
A single Microcube can generate more power than a standard solar panel for a fraction of the size,
and stacking several Cubes together in the same space it takes for one solar panel can produce 18x as much energy.
While engineers have worked previously with miniature turbines and combining multiple turbines together Yost patented design stands apart due to its truly impressive efficiency.
This deciding factor comes from his unique, multiple airfoil design, which captures a high level of windflow."
because they don't produce the amount of electricity that our unit generates, "said Yost.""A U s. patent examiner told us there has never been created a generator with the characteristics of the Microcube.
"A'wall wind'of stacked Microcubes3d printing technology, provided with the support of 3d Systemscloud-based manufacturing service Quickparts, played a major role in helping Yost realize this project.
durable 3d printed plastic parts and assembles that are indistinguishable from injection molded-product parts in all aspects except for time and money:
his work was done at a fraction of the cost and in a quarter of the time. uickparts enables us to use 3d printing to explore what works
and what doesn work on a production part, said Yost. e can make multiple changes and print those changes without investing thousands of dollars in molds
or machining parts out of expensive materials. Quickparts utilized 3d System SLS printing technology and three different materials:
Duraform polyamide (PA), Duraform glass-filled (GF), and Duraform HST Composite. Yost is acutely aware of his many critics and nonbeleivers,
and so he has come up with a bold adventure to prove his concept works. He has installed four Microcubes on the roof of a Ford C-Max Energi electric car,
generating what he estimates will be 2, 800 watts per hour to keep its lithium-ion battery charged.
While electric vehicles have been on the market for some time, promising to help us reduce our deadly carbon footprints and reliance on nonrenewable fuels,
the reality is that most electric cars can only drive short distancesnywhere from 25-312 milesefore they need to be recharged.
If Yost plan to drive the thousands of miles across America without stopping to recharge his vehicle works,
he will have created a cost-effective and Earth-friendly power alternative, and accomplished what other said could never be done.
Additional applications for the Microcube include stacking them by the thousands in populated cities, where, unlike traditional turbines,
they can efficiently deal with the turbulent air conditions. They can also be placed into cellular towers to produce power during disaster periods
or to increase power on busy days. Short clip of the Microcube's capacitieshis inspiration came from watching an Alabama tornado in 2011 and observing how the wind was harnessed by a pedestal fan.
As an engineer with a backround working for major aerospace companies such as Boeing and GE Aircraft engines, Yost founded American Wind and quickly put his skills to work."
"Yes, I've heard all the critics state that this is perpetual motion, which can't be done,"he said."
"We also hear that wind turbines cannot produce enough energy in such a small form factor as the Microcube.
We are not breaking any physics laws with the Microcube, but we are pushing the limits of
And we have the test results to prove it works."
#Harvard researchers design multi-material 3d printheads that change materials on the fly A team of researchers has invented a method for integrating disparate materials and propertiesncluding flexible and rigid materials,
and conductive and resistive inksnto a single 3d printed object, opening up new possibilities for entirely 3d printed wearable devices, soft robots and electronics.
as well as some very recent 3d printed wearables that embed electronic components, current 3d printing technology struggles with multi-material integrationhat is, the seamless and precise transition between flexible materials, rigid materials,
This method works well enough for low-viscosity fluids, but is ineffective with high-viscosity liquids such as gels.
The new research, led by Professor Jennifer A. Lewis, instead uses active mixing and fast-switching nozzles, allowing for the printing of concentrated viscoelastic inks and the simultaneous control of composition and geometry during printing.
With this method, rather than the fluids converging in a single stream, each fluid enters the mixing chamber through a separate inlet
Lewis is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) and a Core Faculty member at the Ywss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.
She designed the active mixing technology alongside Thomas Ober, postdoctoral research scholar at the Wyss Institute,
The team demonstrated that silicone elastomers can be printed seamlessly into gradient architectures composed of soft and rigid regions (meaning that for wearable devices,
flexible materials that move with our bodies and joints can be combined to rigid materials that house electrical components).
The research was supported by the Department of energy Frontier Research center on Light Material Interactions in Energy conversion, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) o
#Scientists develop 3d printed Edge Detector that sorts sound waves If youe a naval captain using sonar, a gynaecologist conducting ultrasounds,
and filtering out the others. his type of measuring method delivers similar results to the edge detection filter in an image-processing software,
which allows the outline of prominent photo objects to be identified with the click of the mouse,
explains Chiara Daraio, professor of mechanics and materials at ETH Zurich and one half of the research team behind the project.
is pipe-shaped polymer structure with a square cross-section, the inside of which is divided into five adjoining resonance chambers connected via small windows. he resonance achieved by this structure intensifies the evanescent waves,
and the successive chambers filter out the longer waves, explains Miguel Molerón, the other half of the ETH research duo.
At the head of the 3d printed structure, four microphones measure the transmitted sound. To create an outline image of an object,
They attached the 3d printed polymer structure along with microphones, to a robot close to the object surface,
which enabled them to systematically scan the entire surface and generate the outline image from the measured sound data.
Without the 3d printed device to amplify evanescent sound waves and minimise other noise, a less precise image would have been obtained.
the work is currently just a proof of concept, and the method needs to be refined before it can be applied in practice. ecause the size of the polymer structure has to be adjusted to the operational wavelength,
we need to miniaturize the structure. We now want to find out how far we can go with it,
Their article, coustic metamaterial for subwavelength edge detection can be found here n
#ORNL unveils integrated 3d printed house and car that produce and share clean energy Two of the most pressing and discussed issues facing the world today include the global housing crisis,
with more than 800 million people forced to live in slums, and our grotesque reliance on nonrenewable energy sources,
which has led to the depletion of Earth resources and has increased dramatically global warming. 3d printing technology has made already huge contributions to address both of these concerns individually,
such as affordable 3d printed homes and efficient 3d printed wind turbines, however energy waste in manufacturing, buildings and transportation is connected fundamentally real breakthrough means solving them together rather than separately.
At today EERE day, The Oak ridge National Laboratory unveiled its Additve Manufactuing Integrated Energy (AMIE) project,
a first-of-its-kind design that uses an integrated symbiotic energy system to share energy between a single-unit, 3d printed solar powered house and a 3d printed electric car.
When scaled up to a full-size community, AMIE could support worldwide electricity needs, completely revolutionizing how we generate,
use and store clean energy. Thanks to a collaboration between more than 20 major industry partners and with the innovative use of 3d printing technology
AMIE went from concept to launch within just one year. The fact that both house and car are completely 3d printed is an impressive feat in itself.
The team, led by ORNL Roderick Jackson, had to rethink existing construction methods and additive manufacturing technologies in order to churn out the 38x12x13 foot house
and accompanying Printed Utility Vehicle. To do so, they turned to their own BAAM (Big Area Additive manufacturing) system and a mighty 3d printing machine known as Bertha,
which has a massive 8206build volume. e build buildings the same way wee built them for centuries,
said Jackson. hat if we didn have to use any of the materials that we typically have?
Wee not limited to corners and straight wallsemove all of the constraints of today. They turned to architecture firm Skidmore, Owings,
and Merrill to design the house, which includes a small kitchenette, entertainment area, and Murphy bed.
Clayton Homes, the nation largest builder of manufactured housing, assembled it. Both the house and car used over 25,000 lbs of printed material.
The team took advantage of 3d printing instant feedback and rapid prototyping to experiment with new shapes, printing speeds, battery technologies, cleaner burning fuels,
and basically every possible option that could improve the design and maximize energy savings. t the flexibility of this printed platform that allows us to explore all of those opportunities,
said Scott Curan of ORNL Fuels, Engines and Emissions department. Their ongoing philosophy during the construction phase?
F we get it right the firs time, it probably wasn said innovative enough Jackson. The fact that both house and car are 3d printed would be impressive enough in its own right,
however the true innovation comes from the integrated energy-sharing platform, which uses a bidirectional wireless charger to direct energy to and from the car or house as needed.
The project energy control center manages the system electrical demand and load by balancing the intermittent power from the buildin 3. 2 kw solar array with supplemental power from the vehicle.
In essence this approach was designed to take advantage of the fact that even though we aren using our car and our house every minute of the day,
they can still be generating and storing energy. So, while it is sunny outside, the house produces its own solar energy,
and at night or on cloudy days, the natural-gas-powered hybrid electric car can provide supplemental power.
This groundbreaking system could only have been achieved through the collaborative effort and expertise of several specialized areas, including advanced manufacturing, vehicle technologies, building technologies and sustainable electricity.
To that end major industry partners include Alcoa/Kawneer, Clayton homes, Cincinnati Incorporated, Dowaksa, GE Applicances, Spiers New Technologies,
and many others. The AMIE project is perhaps our most promising solution to the challenges facing the modern electric grid,
which faces extreme weather blowouts, climate change, and increasing demand for renewable energy sources. Today, more than 1. 3 billion people worldwide have no access to an electric grid,
yet with AMIE that could soon be solved. ee looking at large community issues from the single-unit level,
said Martin Keller, associate laboratory director for Energy and Environmental sciences at ORNL. ur research provides solutions on a small scale,
which will translate to a significant reduction in energy use and an increase in cost savings when ramped up to a national,
and even global, level. Having gone from concept to reality in just 12 months, it is obvious that the developers see AMIE not as a finished product,
but as the very beginning of a new way of producing, consuming, and storing clean energy.
MIE is not the end, it the beginning of a discussion, said Jackson. e want people to look at it
and say, hat if?
#Scientists announce a method for 3d printing objects out of living human cells Scientists at the University of Florida developed a way to print detailed soft structures from a 3d printer.
The new 3d printer is able to print traditionally mpossibleshapes, such as a thin tube tied in a knot.
The process involves injecting inks into a gel that solidifies and traps the inks in place,
and could be useful for tissue engineering, providing invaluable aid to neurosurgeons and cancer researchers.
or the tendency of the 3d printed object to deform after it is 3d printed because of surface tension, gravity,
To address the problem, the team of researchers, led in part by Thomas Angelini, assistant professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Florida, took advantage of the physical properties of a commercially available granular hydrogel made up of 7 m-wide particles.
The gel, similar to common hand sanitizer, minus alcohol and perfume, is able to rapidly switch from a solid to liquid state in response to stress.
Angelini likens this effect to the way that sugar can appear both solid and fluid depending on physical impact:
Angelini and co were able to produce a kind of silicone jellyfish and suspended networks of veins written entirely out of living human aortic cells.
This high level of precision is why the researchers are confident in their 3d printer ability to contribute to the building of flexible electronics
#Graphene 3d files patent for low-cost, toxic-free process for producing high grade graphene for 3d printing Graphene 3d Lab has filed a non-provisionary patent pertaining to a new method for the preparation
and separating GNP. 3d printed graphene battery by Graphene 3d Labdiscovered in 2004, graphene is considered a sort of oly grailin 3d printing and manufacturing materials.
it has the highest strength of any isolated material (200x stronger than steel), is very light and flexible, an efficient conductor of heat and electricity,
and is compatible with human tissue. Its applications range from medicine, advanced energy, electronics, aerospace design and many others.
Despite these groundbreaking characteristics, however, the manufacture of high quality graphene has been restricted to manually intensive, high-energy and toxic chemical processes, limiting its use to certain R&d labs. Graphene 3d new process,
however, promises to make the material more accessible and affordable for mainstream manufacturers, including 3d printing services.
The honeycomb structure of graphene"The business implications associated with this filing are significant and near term.
"The Calverton, New york-based Graphene 3d Lab is already well-known for the development of proprietary graphene-based nanocomposite materials for 3d printing,
The company is a worldwide leader in the manufacurting and retailing of graphene and other advanced materials, with clients such as NASA, Ford motor, Apple, Samsung, Harvard and Stanford.
and will allow an ever widening variety of manufacturers to consider incorporating the extraordinary qualities of graphene in wide range of materials from batteries to consumer electronics to plastics. s the most sought-after and groundbreaking material,
The robot was designed by MIT Computer science and Artificial intelligence Lab (CSAIL and could eventually allow robots to not only pick up,
Each finger is outfitted with resistive bend sensors that collect data points, just one from each finger.
These points are configured using a clustering algorithm, allowing them gripper to identify the object in front of it
this breakthrough technology is the first step towards robust prorprioceptive soft grasping. f we want robots in human-centered environments,
in order to enable the gripper to be usable for a variety of existing hardware bases, simply by swapping out the 3d printed interface.
and thus had to rely on the clustering algorithm to choose the appropriate strength and grasping method (enveloping grasp for larger items, pinching grasp for lightweight ones).
There are still some kinks to work outor example, it cannot properly grip items that are slippery or heavy,
such as small booksut with future research, that might not be a problem for long. uture work will take these core principles
They plan to add resolution with better flex sensors as well as multiple internal flex sensors to get independent data from different segments of each finger.
or performing even more precise and intricate tasks, like maneuvering medical instruments. his knowledge is useful for creating a system
#This OLO box will turn your smartphone into a DLP 3d printer for just $99 The great majority of consumers today aren familiar with the processes behind 3d printing,
That right, our beloved smartphones, which follow us everywhere and replace an ever-increasing number of tools
the world first app-powered smartphone 3d printer, and are about to unleash accessible, affordable, and socially driven 3d printing on the world.
and speculation surrounding how the technology actually works, what it will be capable of, and who it is intended for.
The OLO, for all intents and purposes, is powered a battery box (consisting of seven parts plus an engine) that fits on top of your Android, OS or Windows smartphone.
Users are simply to install the free OLO app, where they can upload, download, manage and share 3d designs,
put the box on their phones and hit rint. The device has a build volume of 7. 6 x 12.7 x 5 cm,
Because of the sharing-function of the app, the OLO is also being touted as the first ocial3d printer. he idea behind the development of OLO was to create a cheap 3d printer that anyone could easily use,
Despite more and more ser-friendly3d printers and 3d printing services hitting the market, the truth is that most people either do not understand the technology,
(or shall we say, all who already own smartphone). Priced at just $99 and with its free, easy-to-use app,
or willing to make a big investment in it. It an entry-level device for the curious, that might just get them excited enough to eventually upgrade to more complex 3d printer models and software.
Given its compact size, weight, and battery power source (standard AA 1. 5v that last for at least 100 printings),
it is also ideal for anyone who is traveling and would want access to a 3d printer on the road.
but users can print anything from functional replacement parts to art, like with normal 3d printers.
or other artistic models can be made for display or as gifts. Yet another advantage of resin 3d printing in comparison to FDM, for example, is that parts can be printed at full density in almost the same amount of time as hollow
3d printed objects directly from our smartphones? It turns out, it not as terrifyingly complicated as it seems.
Basically, the OLO uses photopolymer 3d printing technology, wherein liquid polymer hardens when exposed to a light sourcehich in SLA
However, in order to make full use of the smartphone exising features, the OLO simply replaces expensive lasers and projectors with the phone own LED display.
When you place your smartphone underneath the glass surface of the resin container, the app will make the screen light up in a pattern specific to the object you are printing.
As the directed light moves upward and hardens the resin, the object is built layer by layer,
resulting in high-resolution, durable prints. he big work wee done is to deploy the chemistry for a new resin that is capable of being cured not by UV LIGHT,
but by the visible spectrum, said Gabriele. Along with the OLO, Solido3d will be launching their patented resin,
optimized for the OLO smartphone display light-source. In order to get the OLO on the market and into the hands of new or would-be makers,
200 projects for top clients including Calvin klein, Vodafone, and Coca cola, this is the first time any of their companies has used Kickstarter.
Then again, what better way is there to reach the socially connected in-crowd than through social media-driven crowdfunding itself?
and excitement, usually in that order, he said. hen told that OLO could turn your phone into a 3d printer,
most people were skeptical of how that could work to create such detailed models as the samples we brought with us.
whether the key to consumer 3d printing has been our smartphones all along. The official Kickstarter launch date hasn been announced,
Until then, users can register to win a free OLO 3d printer through their social media contest by taking a picture and posting it to Instagram with the hashtag#olo3d p
the polymer foam can be poured into a mold to form a soft yet solid material.
The porous channels are created by mixing salt with the rubbery elastomer when still in the liquid stage.
The salt is then removed upon the elastomer hardening. To seal an organ or prosthetic so air or fluid can be pumped through it without escaping,
the outside of the organ is coated with the polymer, minus the salt. This prevents the external layer from also becoming permeable and eakingfluid.
mechanical engineering professor Robert Shepherd. The 3d printed heart, made from elastomeric foam, can pump fluid at a higher volume
and allow greater airflow than other artificial hearts made from metals and plastics. nstead of taking a bunch of nuts and bolts
and screws and building and screwing them together and assembling them, we can just take a mold
and inject our material and create a machine. What we've done is make a foam rubber that we can mold with any shape
The silicone on the outside of the heart is yet to be approved by the FDA, so it must be replaced
In a separate study published last month, Shepherd and his team developed a 3d printed elastomer
#Sponge Suit 3d printed bikini with cleantech material cleans water as you swim From the ocean to our local lakes and even neighbourhood swimming pools,
water contamination and pollution is an increasing concern. The ecological devastation from major oil spills can last for years,
A breakthrough uper-materialcreated by University of California Riverside engineers has the ability to repel water
Created by Mihri Ozkan, electrical engineering professor at UC Riverside Bourns College of Engineering, Cengiz Ozkan, her husband and fellow engineering professor, Daisy Patino,
The nanoscale structure of the material allows it to absorb more than 25 times its own weight in contaminants,
economically sustainable and intelligently manufactured combining cutting edge 3d printing and nanoscale cleantech material research, said the developers. pongesuit aims to transform the swimming experience into an eco-friendly activity,
and encapsulated into a agemade from a strong 3d printed elastomer with the necessary flexibility to fit to the contours of the body.
allowing room for further research and development in cleantech wearable. We aim for a future where everyone,
#New 3d printed Lamellar Titanium Technology encourages bone growth with spinal implants There a reason the expression o be the backbone ofexists.
It also houses the all-important spinal cord, which connects all parts of our body directly to the brain.
Unfortunately, a number of injuries, infections and conditions directly affect the backbone and spine, limiting movement or at times even the very functioning of our bodies.
K2m, a global medical device company focused on developing complex and minimally invasive spine solutions for patients suffering from the most complicated spinal pathologies
which uses advanced 3d printing techniques to create spinal implants out of a porous and rough biomaterial that actually promotes bone growth activity.
K2m 3d Lamellar Titanium Technology uses advanced 3d printing technology to mimic lamellar structures and rowspinal implants with titanium powder and a high-energy laser beam.
This proprietary technique uses titanium with a surface roughness of 3-5 microns that unlike smooth titanium or other biomaterials such as PEEK, has been associated in preclinical data with bone growth (osteoblastic) activity.
The technology also incorporates 500 micron diameter pores that run through the walls of the implant,
forming channels for bony integration. This means that the patient own bone could grow within and throughout the bioprinted implant.
K2m, whose goal is to become the preeminent Complex and Minimally Invasive Spine Company in the world, will be integrating their Lamellar Titanium Technology into the CASCADIA AN and TL Interbody Systems,
spinal implant lines offered in a range of sizes uniquely designed to accommodate the vertebral anatomy.
CASCADIA AN and TL Interbody Systems spinal implants"With 3d printed Lamellar Titanium Technology, an innovative alternative to many traditionally manufactured PEEK and titanium designs now exists in the interbody space,
"said Tom Morrison, MD, a neurosurgeon at Polaris Spine & Neurosurgery Center in Atlanta, Georgia."I'm excited about the CASCADIA platform
and porosity that may allow the bone to grow into the implant.""The announcement was made today at the 2015 North american Spine Society (NASS) Annual meeting in Chicago and offers an unprecedented application for 3d printing in spinal implants and the treatment of complex spinal pathologies
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