Research

Examples of objects in ThingiPrint. Image via arXiv.
Research
Researchers propose CAD-based method to identify new 3D printed parts without retraining

Researchers from KU Leuven, Materialise, a 3D printing software and services company, and Iristick, which develops industrial smart glasses, have proposed a method for classifying new 3D printed objects without retraining a vision model each time a new part enters…

SEM image of cemented carbide molded with the rod‑leading method. Image via ScienceDirect.
Research
Hot-wire Laser Additive Manufacturing Produces Defect-free WC–Co Cemented Carbide 

Researchers led by Keita Marumoto at Hiroshima University together with collaborators from Mitsubishi Materials Hardmetal Corporation, a manufacturer of cemented carbide tooling materials, investigated how laser irradiation strategies influence the microstructure and hardness of additively manufactured WC–Co cemented carbide. The…

Research
Texas A&M and U.S. Army Develop Foam That Absorbs Ten Times More Energy

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory have engineered a composite that absorbs up to ten times more energy than conventional padding, threading a 3D printed elastomeric skeleton through ordinary open-cell foam to deliver a material…

Plug-and-play concept. Photo via Science.
Research
3D Printed plug-and-play Packaging Enables low-loss Fiber Coupling for Photonic Chips

Researchers led by Erik Jung from Heidelberg University, a German research university with programs in photonics and nanotechnology, together with collaborators including Wolfram Pernice from University of Münster, a public research university known for work in nanophotonics and materials science,…

UltraGRAIN project partners meeting in Dresden. Image via Fraunhofer IWS.
3DP Applications
Fraunhofer’s UltraGRAIN project enables in-process microstructure control for metal AM

Researchers from the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and RMIT University have demonstrated a method to control the grain structure of metal components during additive manufacturing (AM). The work was carried out within the UltraGRAIN research project, which focused on laser-based directed energy deposition…

Research
North Carolina State University Develops Long-Lasting Self-Healing Composites

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a composite material capable of repairing itself over 1,000 times, demonstrating toughness beyond conventional fiber-reinforced composites used in aircraft, wind turbines, and turbine blades. The team estimates this approach could extend the…

Annotated infrared spectra of PLA, ABS, and PETG 3D printing filament. Image via Forensic Chemistry.
Research
3D Printed Ghost Guns Are Hard to Trace. Researchers May Have Found a Way In

A team of researchers in Australia has taken a closer look at a problem that is becoming more visible in forensic casework: how to analyse 3D printed firearms when the usual methods no longer work. Led by scientists at Curtin…

Overview: (a) Fabrication Setup with 180 g silicone + 100 g NdFeB composite, (b) Soft magnetic bar with programmable polarity, (c) Capsule’s soft magnetic coat for rolling and directional rotating, (d) Experiment setup with diverse test bases. Image via University of Texas at Austin.
Research
UT Austin Team Develops 3D Printed Capsule Robot with Magnetic Coating

A team at the University of Texas at Austin has unveiled a new soft capsule robot that could allow for minimally invasive diagnostics and therapy. Unlike traditional capsule robots, which rely on bulky internal magnets and limit the space available…

Optimization of UV exposure time for microscale hole 3D printing. Image via PubMed Central.
Research
Researchers fabricate low-cost 3D printed microcolumn arrays for high-throughput DNA synthesis

Researchers at Yonsei University in Seoul developed a 3D printed microcolumn array designed to produce sub-nanomole quantities of DNA per feature while maintaining dense synthesis layouts. Published in Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio), the study describes a substrate fabricated using LCD-based…

Research
MIT’s Multi-Material Extrusion Platform Develops Fully Electric Motors On-Site

Electric motors are essential components across automated manufacturing systems, yet their production and replacement typically rely on centralized facilities and complex supply chains. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a multimaterial 3D printing platform designed to…