New 3D printing system could make it easier to print increasingly intricate designs

Researchers at Stanford and Harvard have developed a new kind of three-dimensional (3D) printing system that could make it easier to print increasingly complex designs while saving time and material.

The team, led by Dan Congreve, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford and former Rowland Fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard University, has developed a way to print 3D objects within a stationary volume of resin. The printed object is fully supported by the thick resin, eliminating the need for the support structures typically required for creating complex designs with more standard printing methods.

Congreve and his colleagues focused a laser through a lens and shone it into a gelatinous resin that hardens when exposed to blue light. However, the researchers used red light and some cleverly designed nanomaterials scattered throughout resin to create blue light - a method called triplet fusion upconversion - at only the precise focal point of the laser. They created detailed, support-free prints by shifting the laser around the container of resin.

"Our real specialty is in the nanomaterials themselves – engineering them to emit the right wavelength of light, to emit it efficiently, and to be dispersed in resin," Congreve said.

The team is now working on ways to refine their 3D-printing technique. They are investigating the possibility of printing multiple points simultaneously, which would speed up the process considerably, as well as printing at higher resolutions and smaller scales.

The research is published in the journal Nature.