The idea of creating a physical object from a digital file is fascinating. It conjures memories of the replicators in Star Trek that can create everything from clothes to starship components to different foods. Today’s 3D printing is making impressive strides in that direction, to the great interest of many manufacturers. It is now possible to print the components for sophisticated electronic devices with fairly simple equipment, for instance – as my research team has just shown by producing what we believe to be the first 3D-printed microphone.
It has become possible to 3D print with quite a range of different materials, including the likes of wood and silver. Most machines are restricted to synthetics, however, such as plastics, rubbery polymers and nylons. Machines usually only print one material at a time, or swap between a palette of two or three materials. But that still leaves plenty of potential, particularly by giving materials different properties. You do this by mixing in nanoparticles of another material that has the properties you are looking for.
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