Research & Education
Additive manufacturing is transforming how products are designed, produced, and serviced. AM lets us produce on-demand, without dedicated equipment or tooling. This unparalleled flexibility enables new digital design and production tools that can create components and products with breakthrough performance: in order to truly unlock the potential of AM, research & education is of fundamental importance.
Knowledge of the fundamentals of AM, its design principles, applications, and implications is one of the greatest barriers to its wider adoption. In recent years the key importance of integrating additive manufacturing in educational curricula has begun to be considered worldwide.
Additive manufacturing centered research & education initiatives by both governments and corporations – as well as individuals – have begun to focus on raising the next generation of additive manufacturing designers and engineers.
The main areas of exploration for educational activities are in software and hardware. While AM hardware learning is currently mostly limited to exploring the current additive production process and its applications, the software offers some of the most significant opportunities in terms of learning to fully exploit the AM process in the future.
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A team from aerospace and defense tech company Northrop Grumman is working to showcase the viability and reliability of electronics 3D printing by testing the performance of 3D printed electronic structures. The study, which was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, leverages Optomec’s Aerosol Jet…
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Somerset Community College (SCC) has become the first college in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to add metal additive manufacturing to its advanced manufacturing capabilities. SCC specializes in workforce development and it is the first institution of higher education in Kentucky to offer a technician certificate in 3D…
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Engineers from UCLA have received a $1.5 million research grant to develop an eco-friendly 3D printable concrete material that uses carbon dioxide as part of its binder. The large grant was funded by the National Science Foundation, which hopes the research team will find a more sustainable solution for the…
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is something of a mysterious disease. The demyelinating condition affects more than two million people around the globe—often with debilitating symptoms—yet has no known cure and the cause of the disease is still unknown. Recent research advances, including an effort from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)…
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Researchers at ETH Zurich’s Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (MSRL) have developed a new method for producing malleable microstructures – for instance, a vascular microstent that is 40 times smaller than previously possible. In the future, such stents could be used to help to widen life-threatening constrictions of the urinary tract in…
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The Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland has entered into a new partnership with Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS) and TWI Ltd to bring the production of space propellant tanks back to the UK. The agreement marks the AFRC’s first foray into the…
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California-based 3D printing company Airwolf 3D has released the latest 3D printer in its EVO series, the EVO R. Made in the United States, the new 3D printer was developed with dependability, safety and efficiency in mind and is being marketed to the engineering, design and primarily education segments. Priced…
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For the first time, a team of researchers, from the Department of Materials and the National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester have formulated inks using the 2D material MXene, to produce 3D printed interdigitated electrodes. As published in Advanced Materials, these inks have been used to 3D print…
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Scientists from Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics Laboratory (MPCR) have combined 3D printing, deep learning, artificial intelligence and robotics to bring to life Astro, an intelligent robotic dog that can see and hear. The Frankenstein-eque project actually uses an existing robotic configuration, Boston Dynamic’s quadruped robot, and adds a…
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An interdisciplinary team at Penn State University was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the College of Engineering’s Engineering for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) program, along with additional $25,000 from the College of Arts and Architecture, to pursue a concrete 3D printing project. The team—made up of faculty from the…
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