Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

Scientists built a 3D printer that can print objects smaller than red blood cells

Lulu Chang
By

When it comes to tech, it seems as though the most impressive sizes are always on opposite ends of the spectrum. On the one hand, 3D-printed luxury homes are making waves as a revolutionary new development, but on the other hand, a team from South Korea is garnering significant attention for their equally impressive (though much physically smaller) accomplishment. Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have developed a new high-resolution 3D printer that layers special inks to form tiny 3D forms, some as small as just 0.001 millimeters. To put this in perspective, bear in mind that a single human red blood cell ranges in size between 0.006 and 0.008 millimeters, meaning these new printers are printing truly microscopic objects.

This printer actually operates similarly to the ones the average inkjet printer the American consumer is accustomed to, but instead of your day-to-day cartridges, the electrohydrodynamic inkjet employs very specific inks that stack upon one another to form tiny 3D objects, including arched bridges, zig-zags, and even pillars.

Recommended Videos

Whereas the current 3D printers on the market have trouble creating smooth objects, and instead have more obvious, rougher textures that reveal how they were made, these new printers may eliminate this shortcoming by operating at high rates of precision. These printers could also be used to help manufacture objects where small size is key, like computer chips, circuit boards, and other items that have only gotten smaller as technology has become more advanced.

Park Jang-ung, the material science and engineering professor leading the initiative, believes that this new technology “will provide a new paradigm in the research field of 3D printing.”

Related

“The existing ultrafine pattern production methods in semiconductor manufacturing procedure had difficulties in reproducing 3D patterns,” Park says. “But this new technology can realize those in high resolution. We believe the technology has set a new paradigm for research using 3D printing and wearable electronic devices.”

Bigger isn’t always better, and this latest form of 3D printing really drives that point home.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
GPS-tracking, 3D-printed decoy eggs can help root out illegal poachers
Decoy turtle eggs

Poachers pose a major threat to sea turtle nests by stealing eggs to sell in what has become a rampant black market trade in certain parts of the world. Conservation efforts to stop this have, to date, included patrolling beaches for would-be poachers, as well as removing the eggs and placing them in a secure hatchery so that they can be incubated in safety.

Conservationists at the nonprofit organization Paso Pacifico in Nicaragua and researchers from the U.K.’s University of Kent have another idea, however -- and it involves 3D-printed decoy eggs, boasting built-in GPS trackers.

Read more
Printable wood biopaste could be the sustainable future of 3D printing
Biopaste 3D printing

Researchers at Germany’s University of Freiburg may have found a way to make 3D printing a bit more environmentally friendly -- by printing with a new material best described as a wood-based biopaste. After all, who needs boring, unsustainable plastics when you’ve got an alternative that works impressively well, made out of wood biopolymers cellulose and lignin?

Marie-Pierre Laborie, the lead researcher on the project, told Digital Trends that creating the printable material is straightforward. “We put each component, a cellulose-based derivative and lignin, into [a] solution and blend the two … to form a sort of paste of high-solid content,” Laborie said. “At [a] particular solid content and composition, we retain the lyotropic liquid crystalline behavior of the cellulose derivative. This facilitates the processing of the paste. The paste then solidifies thanks to the stabilizing effect of the lignin upon 3D printing.”

Read more
This startup says it will be 3D-printing entire houses within a year
mighty buildings 3d print house 5

Is 3D printing the future of housebuilding? It certainly will be if new startup Mighty Buildings, which launched from stealth mode this week, has its way. The company builds houses rapidly using a giant 3D printer and proprietary 3D printing material that, unlike concrete, hardens almost immediately thanks to a UV light curing process. This technique allows it to create houses with 95% fewer labor hours and significantly less waste than traditional construction techniques, which could be a game-changer in the construction field.

“The 3D printing, robotic post-processing, and the ability to automate steps like the pouring of insulation means that Mighty Buildings will be able to automate up to 80% of the construction process,” Sam Ruben, chief sustainability officer and co-founder of the company, told Digital Trends.

Read more