Lifeboat Foundation

The human eye is a remarkably sophisticated organ and like the lens to a camera, it’s the cornea that focuses the flood of photons into a perceptible image. But for an estimated 15 million people around the world, eye disease and trauma make surgery the only path to clear vision.

In the next few years, artificial corneas may become more accessible thanks to new research out of Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. There, researchers mixed stem cells from the cornea of a healthy donor with collagen and algae molecules to create a bio-ink, which they 3D-printed into an artificial cornea. The research is currently just a proof-of-concept but lays the groundwork for future techniques to create low-cost, easy-to-produce bionic eyes.

Continue reading “World’s first 3D-printed cornea made from algae and human stem cells” »

https://www.engadget.com/…/3D-printed-brain-medical-imagin…/

There are almost limitless possibilities when it comes to 3D printing. Design your own color-changing jewelry? Fine. Fabricate your own drugs? No problem. Print an entire house in under 24 hours? Sure! Now, researchers have come up with a fast and easy way to print palm-sized models of individual human brains, presumably in a bid to advance scientific endeavours, but also because, well, that’s pretty neat.

In theory, creating a 3D printout of a human brain has been done before, using data from MRI and CT scans. But as MIT graduate Steven Keating found when he wanted to examine his own brain following his surgery to remove a baseball-sized tumour, it’s a slow, cumbersome process that doesn’t reveal any important areas of interest.

Continue reading “You’ll soon be able to get a 3D printed model of your brain” »

BARCELONA: In a bid to take the 3D printing industry to an entirely new level, global printing and PC major HP Inc has announced that its 3D metal printing solutions are set to enter the market later this year, thus giving the $12 trillion global manufacturing opportunity a new push.

HP, which entered the Additive Manufacturing (AM) field in 2016, currently has industrial-grade Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) 3D printing solutions that produce polymer (plastic)-based products.

“We will do an announcement on metal printing later this year and unveil to the world what kind of technology we will use. There are several metal technologies out there and we will share which we have zeroed in on to move forward and invest further,” Ramon Pastor, Vice President and General Manager of Multi Jet Fusion, HP, told IANS.

Continue reading “HP set to unveil game-changing 3D metal printers” »

Sugar, that amazingly sweet treat some of us just can’t get enough of, has long been the fascination of children (and those with a child-like sweet tooth).

Its ability to be melted down into a glass-like substance enables confectionery artists to create tasty displays worthy of museums, or being served as a 3D printed dessert.

In fact, the same properties which make sugar so wonderful for cooking and designing also make it great for science.

Continue reading “This 3D Printer Can Help Grow Organs With Scaffolding Made Out of Sugar” »

When history’s pilgrims and pioneers arrived in a new territory, they used the land’s natural resources to build their settlements. Space colonists, on the other hand, will have to bring materials from Earth and assemble them on Mars. Andrew Rush, president and CEO of space-based manufacturing firm Made In Space, believes the process of creating off-world infrastructure will be similar to building IKEA furniture. Only the parts will be made with an advanced 3D printer and put together by an autonomous robot.

“We think the future of in-space operation is one of manufacturing and assembly, just like how you built the table you’re sitting on right now,” Rush says. “That table is a multi-material object, and its pieces were all manufactured in different ways. I don’t think space colonies are going to take a different approach.”

A new space race is in the works, thanks to 3D printing. This time around, it’s not about large government agencies vying to blast human astronauts into uncharted territory. Instead, today’s competitors are aerospace startups like Rocket Lab and Relativity Space that are trying to launch satellites into orbit.

After two years in development, Project MELT (Manufacturing of Experimental Layer Technology) has resurfaced with a prototype microgravity 3D printer.

Made for the European Space Agency (ESA) the Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) breadboard machine is designed to 3D print high performance polymers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and other off-world locations.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=e2N1i7_13QM

Engineering.com lists some of the most exciting companies that are using 3D printing to take humans into space.

The VULCAN system from Made In Space combines metal deposition with machining to create metal parts.