It were the researchers from the Solheim Lab’s that actually showed what other use the 3D printers could be put to, by printing with ceramics. And now the University of Washington’s Solheim Rapid Manufacturing Laboratory has worked out a process to create glass objects using conventional 3D printers.
The typical 3D printing requires material to be powdered, say 20 microns thin, which when placed over a platform on the printer is picked by the binder to place only where required, thus binding the particles together and create the 3D object. Because glass doesn’t readily observe water – the researchers adopting a different approach had to alter the glassy powder adjusting the ratio to liquid. Here by mixing the powder with the binding material, and then heating, the researchers found the grind fused into an object.
Ronald Rael, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley said,
3-D printing in glass has huge potential for changing the thinking about applications of glass in architecture. Before now, there was no good method of rapid prototyping in glass, so testing designs is an expensive, time-consuming process. 3-D printing allows one to insert different forms of glass to change the performance of the material at specific positions as required by the design.
Via: Eurekalert
