TECLA represents a viable model and key example of low-carbon housing construction that attains close to a net zero footprint as a result of its reliance on 100 percent locally-obtained raw earth materials and the elimination of waste and scraps.
To achieve these minimalist buildings, the construction process begins with digging and a mixing stage where regional soil is blended with water and special additives. Engineers analyze all terrain samples before moving on to the printing phase of the external house structure.
Then, a pair of synchronized printer arms coordinate their construction stage in a smooth dance of machinery. Each printer has the ability to print an area of 538 sq ft. A single TECLA module can be completed within 200 hours, utilizing 7,000 machine codes, 350 0.47-thick layers, 93.2 miles of extrusion, and 2,119 cu ft of natural materials for an average consumption of less than 6 kW.
3D Printing News & Discussions
3D Printing News & Discussions
World's first raw earth material 3D-printed house is ready for residents
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Industry Collaboration Highlights Path to 3D Printed Lungs
https://3dprinting.com/company/3d-syste ... ted-lungs/May 17, 2021
Earlier this year 3D Systems announced that they would be stepping up their efforts in the realm of bioprinting, in particular they intend to collaborate further with United Therapeutics and their subsidiary Lung Biotechnology, for the manufacture of printed organ scaffolds.
So what are the details of this enhanced collaboration and what does it mean for the future of 3D printed organs? Read on to know more about their development plans for engineered lungs.
Collaboration
3D Systems has been working with United Therapeutics for a while and much of their work has been focused on the development of printer systems and processes for organ scaffolds. It would seem that the main platform being used here has been the 3D Systems Figure 4 system in combination with various proprietary bioinks.
In 2020 it was announced that the companies had successfully demonstrated high rate, micron-level printing, which is required for vascularization (needed to sustain living cells). In addition, they had made significant developments in material formulation using a unique rhCollagen.
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Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Why astronauts are printing organs in space
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2021 ... obal-en-GB2nd June 2021
Andrew Morgan has seen some of the worst things that can happen to the human body. As a battlefield doctor with the US Army, he's treated young soldiers whose bodies had been torn and broken in explosions. "I've seen the loss of limbs and some devastating injuries as the result of blasts," he says. Witnessing the slow healing and recovery process first-hand got Morgan thinking – what if new tissue or even entire organs could be simply printed off to replace injured body parts?
"The ability to transplant tissues made from the injured person's own cells would be hugely beneficial," he says.
That's why Morgan conducted a series of unusual experiments over several months last year – in outer space. You see, Morgan is also a Nasa astronaut. In April 2020 he returned from a 272-day stay on the International Space Station (ISS). While he orbited 248 miles (400km) above the Earth's surface, Morgan created living tissue, cell by cell, using a 3D printer and something called bio-ink.
"It's not unlike changing a printer cartridge at home," says Morgan of the equipment he used. "You put in the ink cartridge, allow the culture to develop and then remove the tissue cassette for analysis."
So far, so simple. But there is a reason why Morgan and his fellow astronaut Christina Koch were doing these experiments while in orbit.
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams."
-H.G Wells.
-H.G Wells.
Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Military Looks for Novel Ways to Employ 3D Printing
In April, the Army signed a contract for its “Jointless Hull Project,” which has an ambitious goal of developing a 3D metal printer so large that it can create a military truck exterior in one giant piece.
“The mission is to develop a large-scale tool capable of producing single, jointless combat vehicle hulls at a near net size of 30-foot-by-20-foot-by-12 foot in size,” Larry “LJ” Holmes, principal investigator at ASTRO America, the nonprofit that is working with the Army to develop the massive 3D printer, said in a statement.
Additive manufacturing — also known as 3D printing — has been in development for decades and the U.S. military branches and the defense industrial base have both integrated the advanced manufacturing technique in their processes.
However, in January the Defense Department’s Joint Defense Manufacturing Council, the office of the deputy director for strategic technology protection and exploitation and the office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering released the Pentagon’s first additive manufacturing strategy.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
World's first 3D printed school opens in Malawi
13th July 2021
[...]
UNICEF estimates a shortage of 36,000 classrooms in Malawi. It would take 70 years – until 2090 – to fund and construct all these buildings with conventional methods. However, 3D printing could reduce that timeframe to just a single decade.
https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... school.htm
13th July 2021
[...]
UNICEF estimates a shortage of 36,000 classrooms in Malawi. It would take 70 years – until 2090 – to fund and construct all these buildings with conventional methods. However, 3D printing could reduce that timeframe to just a single decade.
https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... school.htm
Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
World's first 3D-printed steel bridge opens in Amsterdam
15 July 2021
The first ever 3D-printed steel bridge has opened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It was created by robotic arms using welding torches to deposit the structure of the bridge layer by layer, and is made of 4500 kilograms of stainless steel.
The 12-metre-long MX3D Bridge was built by four commercially available industrial robots and took six months to print. The structure was transported to its location over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in central Amsterdam last week and is now open to pedestrians and cyclists.
More than a dozen sensors attached to the bridge after the printing was completed will monitor strain, movement, vibration and temperature across the structure as people pass over it and the weather changes. This data will be fed into a digital model of the bridge.
Engineers will use this model to study the properties of the unique material and will employ machine learning to spot any trends in the data that could indicate maintenance or modification is necessary. They also hope it will help designers understand how 3D-printed steel might be used for larger and more complex building projects.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... amsterdam/
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/pime9de.jpg)
15 July 2021
The first ever 3D-printed steel bridge has opened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It was created by robotic arms using welding torches to deposit the structure of the bridge layer by layer, and is made of 4500 kilograms of stainless steel.
The 12-metre-long MX3D Bridge was built by four commercially available industrial robots and took six months to print. The structure was transported to its location over the Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal in central Amsterdam last week and is now open to pedestrians and cyclists.
More than a dozen sensors attached to the bridge after the printing was completed will monitor strain, movement, vibration and temperature across the structure as people pass over it and the weather changes. This data will be fed into a digital model of the bridge.
Engineers will use this model to study the properties of the unique material and will employ machine learning to spot any trends in the data that could indicate maintenance or modification is necessary. They also hope it will help designers understand how 3D-printed steel might be used for larger and more complex building projects.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... amsterdam/
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/pime9de.jpg)
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Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
3D printing and machine learning unite to improve cochlear implants
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11- ... lants.html
by University of Cambridge
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-11- ... lants.html
by University of Cambridge
A team of engineers and clinicians have used 3D printing to create intricate replicas of human cochleae—the spiral-shaped hollow bone of the auditory inner ear—and combined it with machine learning to advance clinical predictions of "current spread" inside the ear for cochlear implant (CI) patients. "Current spread" or electrical stimulus spread, as it is also known, affects CI performance and leads to "blurred" hearing for users, but no adequate testing models have existed for replicating the problem in human cochleae—until now.
CIs have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from severe or profound hearing loss. However, the efficacy of the surgically implanted medical device has been hampered by "current spread"—a phenomenon caused by the high electrical conductivity of the fluids that sit inside cochlear ducts. These fluids prevent the CI user's auditory nerve from being stimulated accurately, leaving many users experiencing significant distortions to the sounds they perceive.
Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Kyoto Company Creates One of World’s Biggest 3-D Printers
By Kazuhito Suwa
November 15, 2021
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14469348
Introduction:
By Kazuhito Suwa
November 15, 2021
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14469348
Introduction:
(The Asahi Shimbun) KYOTO--A startup company here developed a 3-D printer that can create chairs, benches and other items measuring up to 3 meters by 3 meters by 3 meters.
Slab Inc.’s printer is called Chashitsu, which means “traditional tea house” in Japanese, and it is among the world’s largest.
The device forms a shape by piling layers of plastic melted at 200 degrees or higher at the print head. Various plastic materials can be applied.
Although it can print out small boats and doors for automobiles, extra reinforcement and treatment processes will be required for their practical use.
Slab is looking to further improve Chashitsu so that it can place concrete or spray noncombustible materials at construction sites.
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Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Research team unlocks new method to 3D-print complex, functional components for soft robotics
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-team-meth ... ional.html
by Singapore University of Technology and Design
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-team-meth ... ional.html
by Singapore University of Technology and Design
A team of researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has developed a new approach for adopting the Freeform Liquid 3D Printing (FL-3DP) technology to 3D print more robust and geometrically complex components for soft robotics.
FL-3DP is an emerging technology with high potential that enables the 3D printing of multi-material functional components. It uses gel as a temporary suspension media in which inks are extruded and held in place. Once the inks are solidified, the gel can then be easily washed off.
This approach overcomes two major limitations faced in existing 3D printing technologies. Firstly, it enables the 3D-printing of materials that take a long time to solidify when extruded. Secondly, due to its ability to hold inks and maintain them in the liquid state, advanced geometries such as overhanging structures shapes with high-aspect ratios or fine combinations of multiple materials have now become a feasible option.
However, early FL-3DP was found to have limited features when fabricating advanced components, as only mono-material structures or simple shapes such as meshes and shells could be demonstrated. The absence of more complex demonstrators, despite the promises of this technology, could be partly explained by difficulties in controlling the interfaces between the inks and supports, thus challenging the printing resolution.
Through an in-depth study of the rheological properties and interfacial stabilities between inks and support gels, SUTD researchers managed to better predict the filament shape, which led to improved printing resolution and fidelity.
Re: 3D Printing News & Discussions
Want to 3D Print a Kidney? Start by Thinking Small
April 13, 2022
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949723
Introduction:
April 13, 2022
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949723
Introduction:
(Stevens Institute of Technology via EurekAlert) Human organ transplants offer a crucial lifeline to people with serious illnesses, but there are too few organs to go around: in the U.S. alone, there are more than 112,000 people currently waiting for transplants. The promise of 3D printing organs is one possible solution to address this shortage but has been fraught with complexity and technical barriers, limiting the type of organs that can be printed. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are now pushing through these barriers by leveraging a decades-old technique to reproduce any tissue type.
The work, led by Robert Chang, an associate professor in the mechanical engineering department at Stevens’ Schaefer School of Engineering & Science, could open up pathways for 3D printing any kind of organ at any time, even skin directly on an open wound.
“Creating new organs to order and saving lives without the need for a human donor will be an immense benefit to healthcare,” said Robert Chang, whose work appears in the April issue of Scientific Reports. “However, reaching that goal is tricky because printing organs using “bio-inks” — hydrogels laden with cultured cells — requires a degree of fine control over the geometry and size of printed microfiber that current 3D printers simply can’t achieve.”
Chang and his team, including Ahmadreza Zaei, first author and doctoral candidate in Chang’s lab, hope to change that by fast-tracking a new 3D printing process that uses microfluidics — the precise manipulation of liquids through tiny channels — to operate at a far smaller scale than has been possible. “The recent publication aims to improve the controllability and predictability over the structure of the fabricated microtissues and microfibers enabled by microfluidic bioprinting technology,” said Zaeri.
Most current 3D bio-printers are extrusion-based, squirting bio-ink out of a nozzle to create structures about 200 microns — around a tenth as wide as a strand of spaghetti. A microfluidics-based printer could print biological objects measuring on the order of tens of micrometers on par with the single cellular scal
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