Tag: 3D Printing

A chipped tooth gets a crown. Custom-fitted by the dentist for optimal use. Prosthetic limbs help people walk or handle things again. But artificial body parts are often mass-produced, not tailor-made. A research team from Nottingham University is aiming to change that. Their new process allows prosthetics to be individually 3D printed. The best part? Both the flexibility and...

Joint braces, prosthetic legs for dogs, or stents to help us breathe. Additive manufacturing is used for making products in small numbers or for specific purposes. Now, a charitable organization has joined forces with an architect’s office in Madagascar to build something truly spectacular using this technique: a new building that will offer 30 children space to learn. The...

Venture outside during a storm. A strong gust of wind and your umbrella is blown inside out. A sophisticated mechanism prevents the same thing from happening to dragonflies in flight. Their filigree wings are interwoven with a honeycombed web of protein resin which provides flexible support. If the creature’s wings are overextended, further bending is prevented by the presence...

Most of us do it without thinking. Adults take up to 1,000 breaths per hour. When the trachea becomes constricted, however, help comes in the form of little pipes made from metal or silicon. These ‘stents’ ensure our airways are kept open, but until now they’ve never been geared towards individual patients’ needs. Metal stents require surgical removal, while...

Peace helps us to revitalize, especially if we are used to loud environments. Most materials used in soundproofing are difficult to recycle, however. Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute have turned to fungus for the answer, or rather its vegetative component, mycelium. Lab-developed mycelium is mixed with a substrate made of straw, wood fibers and waste from the food industry,...

They say a human’s best friend is hairy and four-legged. Dogs are loyal animals, and it breaks our hearts to see them lose the use of a paw. Using a 3D printer, two students at the University of Augsburg have developed a prototype for a prosthetic dog leg. Additive manufacturing makes it possible to gear the design of the...