Engineers Developing Methods to Construct Blood Vessels Using 3D Printing Technology

From time to time new and interesting news about 3D printing technology in the field of health arise. In the near future, this technology will allow fabrics to be created on demand to repair any organ affected by an illness. There are a lot of medical advances commencing day to day and 3D printing technology is one among them which is really an astonishing factor in the field of medical science.

However, in spite of the promising of these and other advances, to date, it has only been possible to create fine tissues of living cells in the laboratory using 3D printing technology. When we tried to create tissues with a thickness greater than several layers of cells, those in the intermediate layers died from lack of oxygen and the impossibility of eliminating their residues.

They did not have a network of blood vessels to transmit oxygen and nutrients to each cell. Therefore the challenge was served because if a network of blood vessels were artificially created for this purpose using 3D printing technology, larger and more complex cell tissues could be developed.

To solve this problem, the team led by Professor Changxue Xu of Industrial, Manufacturing and system engineering and with his colleague Edward. E. Whitacre Junior college of Engineering has used a 3D printing technology specially adapted for this purpose with three different types of bio-inks. The first head extrudes a biotin of the extracellular compound, the biological material that binds the cells in the tissue. The second extrude a type of biotin which contains extracellular tissue and living cells.

An alternative to more complex installations

The creation of model blood vessels to aid in the study of diseases, such as strokes, can be complicated and costly in addition to consuming a lot of time. And the results can not always be truly representative of a human vessel. Changxue Xu's research has designed a new method to create models of veins and arteries using 3D printing technology that is more efficient, less expensive and more accurate. Changxue Xu and his team have created vascular channels using 3D printing technology.

An important advance is the ability to establish multiple layers of cells in the channels. Normally, when these microfluidic vascular chips are made, they only have one layer of cells. But the blood vessels within the body are composed of three to four different types of cells. The innermost cells, the endothelial cells, are those that come into contact with the blood, but the other layers of the cells help the internal cells. If there is an injury or a blood clot, there is an entire reaction that takes place between these cells.

3D printing technology has now made a difference in manufacturing. "We can use 3D printing technology to create the mold and use that mold to inject any gel and cells in whatever shape we want," says Changxue Xu. The difficulty so far was that much of the work has usually been done in "clean rooms," rooms that are environmentally controlled to prevent contamination and ultra-disinfected. Changxue Xu has a room like that, so the work has to be done at other universities.

3 D Printing – The Futuristic Technology in Printing Techniques

3 D printing technology is the new and latest manufacturing technology where one can print their digital designs or models into a three dimensional solid object. First introduced in the 80s, in recent years this technology has been fast evolving into a more efficient method of production. There are different technologies and materials for 3D printing but all work on the same principle of printing where layer by layer, material is added and a solid object is printed.

How does it work? 

For 3D printing an object, its digital design or digital model is required. The digital file is transmitted to the 3D printer after it has been split into thin layers. This is the basic principle on which various 3D printing technologies work. After this, the printing technologies differ in terms of materials such as plastic, rubber, sandstone, metals to name a few and are used according to the printer type. In addition to this, more and more materials are being introduced in the market every year for 3D printing technology.

History of 3D Printing

The futuristic technology of 3D printing was first introduced 30 years ago and since then this has evolved to what it is today. 3D printing process was first invented by Chuck Hull in 1983 and he initially used liquids which were light and curable. However, he later realized this process could be expanded to other materials also which were capable of taking any shape and not just liquids. With this, Hull laid the foundation for 3D printing which is also known as Additive Manufacturing (AM) today.

Uses of 3D printing 

3D printing technology has opened avenues for many possibilities in varied fields. Initially, the use of this modern technology was limited to only the industrial sector but over the year’s 3D printing found its way into Engineering, Architecture and even in the Medical field. Designers, Engineers and Architects use this technology to create an initial model of their designs. Surgeons and highly qualified medical specialists create body parts to study them before surgeries that are complex to perform.Orthopedic surgeons 3D print bone grafts for their patients with bone injuries and deformities. Currently, researchers in this field are looking for a way to print small but vital internal body parts using organic materials that will help medical specialists to not only help patients recover from their injuries but also help them save lives.

Cost Effective

This modern and innovative technology has proven to be cost effective by cutting down on the manpower and utilized for manufacturing a product. Where large scale production is required, 3D printing helps in production on a larger scale in the same time and in a single and efficient process. Also, with this process, the product quality is consistent and uniform throughout. Additive Manufacturing process requires input at just one initial level after which the output process is completely automatic, which cuts down labor cost to almost zero.

Because of its efficiency and accuracy, it won’t be long before this technology replaces traditional methods of production as it helps produce a design in lesser time on a larger scale.

3D Bioprinter Which Can Print Functional Human Skin

Aging is a natural process; as we are aware that every living animal, plant etc. is not immortal, whatever born has to die or destroyed, according to the law of nature. The human race is not an exception and some aging signs use to take place with the growing age, which is quite annoying for the person concerned, as nobody wants to admit the decaying of age and its symptoms.

To get rid of the aging problems, such as; wrinkles, fine lines, sagging, dark circles around the eye region are some of the most annoying signs, which have the potential of destroying the youthful look to a great extent and people use to try lots of means of various natures, including surgery.

The massive growth in the science and technology have paved the way for some of the most interesting and innovative solutions for arresting these disturbing symptoms, with an intention to get back the younger look.

Recently some scientists in Spain have invented a magical solution, by developing one of the most promising prototypes for the 3D bioprinter, which has the capability of producing some human skin with entire functionality.

Issues to be noted

It can be noted that the decayed skin texture can soon be rectified by replacing the affected area with the printed skins, which have all the functional characters and elements to provide maximum support for the user. The patching up of this mechanically printed skin can be of great support in reducing the aging signs on visible areas and helps the concerned person to get the comparatively younger appearance.

Skin is considered as the biggest organ of the human body and it is almost entirely exposed to the environment and sunlight, which potentially damage the skin texture and aggravate the untimely aging symptoms to be occurred in different regions, especially on the facial area. This unique and innovative scientific development has opened up the scopes of various uses of this artificially created skin, which can be used for various research purposes, testing of cosmetics and most importantly transplanting onto the human or other species.

It is the first of this kind of development that produces artificial, printed skin, by using the bioprinter, which will be introduced to the marketplace very soon for commercial and medical uses.

Conclusion

This innovative bio-printed skin is the result of the collaboration between extremely experienced scientists at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the BioDan Group, a famous bioengineering company, who have the long history and specialization in the field of regenerative medicine, especially focused on the skin texture.

The most important part of this printed skin is; the material of this skin is having the qualities of the skin structure, wherein the inner part is having the fibroblast, which produces collagen; the most crucial protein element that provides the elasticity, as well as, enhances the mechanical strength of the skin. This mechanically bio-printed skin is being processed and generated in the automated and standardized way, which is less expensive than the manual process.

Bioprinting Bones and Muscles the Future of Transplants

3D Printer – Human Tissue

Fourteen years back most of the businesses had not even heard of 3D printing or had not even experimented with printing objects in material like plastic or metal. However, one research institute had been laying the foundation of building its own 3D printer for a complete intricate material, the human tissue.

Transplants of tissue and organs have been utilised in medicine for years in assisting patients with damaged or diseased tissue, skin grafts for burns. For instance, a piece of patellar tendon was used for replacing a ruptured ligament.

Usually these tend to come from donors or are taken from a healthy area of a patient’s body to a damaged part, though scientist from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine – WFIRM seemed to have developed a prototype printer which could be utilised someday, to print tissue sections designed to fit into a person’s unique disorder.

WFIRM researchers, to begin with, starting working on constructing human tissue from cells by hand and the first cells were removed from the patients through biopsies where a tiny sample of tissue tend to be explanted in order to assist physicians with the diagnoses, which is cultured to multiply in numbers.

Utilised Printers in Making of Tissue

The cells are placed on a scaffold, positioned into an incubator and when the tissue develops into the desired build, is returned to a patient. It is said to be a labour intensive process, one which yielded tissue that has not been adequately strong enough to be utilised in human patients. Dr Anthony Atala, heading the research at WFIRM had informed ZDNet that they had been working on tissues and organs for patients for the purpose of implantation and had already put a pair in patients.

They recognised that it was OK to create them by hand, if one were creating a few for clinical trial. However if one was to create it for hundreds of thousands of patients, you would require to scale it up. It was at this point of time that they began looking at how they could scale up the technology.

The researchers at WFIRM had hit on the idea of utilising printers in the making of tissue few years thereafter, but with commercial 3D printing yet very much at the initial level; the researchers had been experimenting with more widespread technology, adopting the prevailing desktop inkjet printers.

Cells through Hydrogel

The cells were placed in the inkwells of the printer and thereafter outputted in a specific manner in the creation of the desired tissue build. Although the commercial 3D printers seems to be more widespread over the years that followed, WFIRM researchers had to develop their own hardware depending on the inkjet system owing to the unique nature of tissue of the humans.

Atala informed that they began utilising the inkjet printer for experiments to find out how they could make it work. They could get the cells through the hydrogel though they could not get the accuracy with regards to where they had laid down the cells and the constructions did not have the structural integrity essential to be surgically implanted. They began looking for more sophisticated printing which they could achieve and began doing the same by basically constructing their own printing devices.

Chinese Funeral Home 3D Prints Body Parts For Damaged Corpses

3D Printing Body Parts – To Repair Disfigured/Damaged Bodies

According to Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Radio International, a 3D printing body parts has been started by a funeral home in Shanghai in an effort to repair disfigured or damaged bodies. Chinese state-funded news site The Paper noted that the Funeral Parlor, the 3D printing repair service in Longhua comprises of building various layers of material over each other in order to construct a three-dimensional product. The outlet has informed that with the combination of 3D printing, makeup and hair implants it would be capable of reconstructing faces similar at least by 95%.

The Paper noted that destroyed bone structure and damaged body parts could be the consequences of deaths from natural disasters, industrial and traffic accidents. The director of Shanghai’s funeral services centre, Liu Gengming, informed Shanghai Daily that `it would be difficult for relatives to see incomplete faces or bodies of their loved ones when they attend memorial services and makeup does not always repair them adequately. He added that people could utilise the technique in making the corpses of their dear one seem younger or better in looks.

Mend Damaged Bodies with Wax & Sludge

The Paper mentioned that Chinese funeral homes, usually mend disfigured or damaged bodies with materials like wax and sludge. Liu states that while these materials helped in reconstructing the shape of the faces of the bodies, they seem to fail in recreating accurately, the texture of their skin and hair. According to China Radio International, a facial reconstruction would be costing $620 to $776. Hundreds of people in China, in recent years, had died resulting in industrial accidents, several of which were the outcome of negligent enforcement and regulations.

An artificial landslide of accumulated construction waste had collapsed in Shenzhen, southern China, in December, killing around 60 people. Longhua’s venture, assumed to be the first time that a Chinese funeral home has provided 3D printing services as part of Shanghai’s implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, of China according to The Paper. The plan, which had been approved last October calls for more improvement in science and technology. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the country had also issued a plan demarcating goals to develop the 3D printing industry of the country, in February 2015.

Opening Avenues in Solving Issues of Disabilities/Shortage of Donor Organ

The new service of Longhua adds to a developing list of methods which scientists seem to be using 3D technology on the human body. A group of scientists and researchers, last month had announced that they achieved a 3D print an organ which could work on humans for the first time, thus opening avenues in solving the issue of disabilities or shortages of donor organ.

 Today, 3D printers have been transforming medicine by constructing replacement of bones, fingers, skin and ears for patients and accident affected victims. 3D printed human tissue, on the cutting edge of this area is known as `bio-printing and is created by utilising modified printer cartridges and extracted cells which have been obtained from the biopsies of the patient. They are grown by using standard techniques which are cultured in a growth medium in dishes, enabling them to increase. The cells can then be loaded in cartridges and printed into layers that tend to fuse together, maturing into tissues.

3D Knitting Machines will be in Every Home

Knitting had once been the domain of grannies in bygone days, but now it has gone high tech and will soon be the next big thing in the maker world. 3D knitting as known as the tech version had been inspired by the 3D printing revolution, aiming a goal to be the one piece of manufacturing technology in all homes. It makes clothes and not objects and has a great advantage over 3D printing since it has several uses.

Everyone seems to wear clothes and is always on the look for changes and updates moving with the latest trend. Another advantage of 3D printing is that it is reusable. For coarser knits, garments could be un-knitted if one does not like the ways it may look or if one is just bored with it, leaving you with the option of turning it into some other alternative.

Three dimensional knitting machines are made available and seem to be on the rise. One such example is the OpenKnit which can be built from a kit and is a part of a manufacturing ecosystem which comprises of a software interface together with digital hub to share designs. OpenKnit already seems to be having a huge global community increasing the platform and restating the hardware as well as software.

Open Source Approach to Wearable Technology

As in the cases of all successful open source projects, this too will progress and issue new and unexpected version in 2015. For over 20 years, commercial 3D knitting machines have been operative, though they are created for established mass production.

The open source knitting community, in contrast would be changing the way clothes will be designed and made, creating new types of clothing especially by assimilating various types of fibres in the knitting. These would be by way of electrically conducting threads. On doing so, the technology would be kick-starting an open source approach to a wearable technology, with embedded sensors together with improved function, which commercially had been slow in taking off.

 In order to comprehend the capabilities of home 3D knitting machines, one needs to consider how the sewing machine that was presented in the 19th century had changed completely the way clothes were designed, made and repaired. This reduced the price of clothing, creating inventions in garment making and fashion. Ultimately small business gave way to the mass-produced clothes manufacturers which tend to control the present markets.

Inexpensive Modified Garments Designed to Fit

The 3D knitting machine tends to now promise another way of commotion. Since each one of us tends to be of different shape and size, 3D knitting provides something which the commercial clothes manufacturers do not offer, inexpensive modified garments designed to fit a person.

This is possible with the help of digital scanning technologies and design software which can resize the clothing designs to fit an individual. Since these garments are created at home, one could instantly try them on and if any alteration is needed, they can be redone.

Besides this, due to the power of social media, one has the opportunity of sharing the patterns and designs easily and readily where the potential of 3D knitting technology tend to become clear.

How a 3 D Printer Changed a 4-Year Old's Heart and Life

Mia’s Malformation Treated With 3-D Printer

Mia Gonzalez who had been suffering from malformation in her aorta, the vessel that pumps blood from the heart, had to spend the first three and a half years of her life missing on most of the activities in life. She had to miss out on day care as well as dance classes due to the condition of colds and pneumonia.

When she was unable to go out and play, she was easily breathless and had to take multiple asthma medication to aid in the breathing. After around 10 hospital stay she had been diagnosed of this ailment. This four year old was in need of an operation to block off the part of her aorta which was putting pressure on her windpipe, making it hard to breathe, swallow and get rid of phlegm whenever she got a cold.

Mia’s mother, Katherine Gonzalez informed that they got out, thinking that she had asthma only to be told that she needed to undergo open heart surgery. However, her malformations seemed to be complicating. The surgeons at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, treating Mia would have been apprehensive regarding the process if it was not for the new technology, the 3-D printer

Printer Use Images From MRI/CT Scan Images as Templates

The hospital had obtained a 3-D printer, earlier in the year, which makes the exact models of organs which the doctors could use to plan surgery as well as practice operations. The printer then to use images from patients’ MRI or CT scan images as template and lays down layers of rubber or plastic.

The director of paediatric cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Dr Redmond Burke, considered the model of Mia’s heart for couple of weeks and showed it to his colleagues for their contribution regarding the same. He even carried it in his gym bag for quick reference.

He finally had the right insight and instead of making an incision on the left side of this kind of heart defect, known as double aortic arch, he cut into Mia’s chest from the right. Burke informed that without the model he would have been less certain about Mia’s operation and that would have led him in making a larger incision which would cause more pain with longer recovery time. He added that using the model there was no room for doubt and surgeons dislike doubts.

Model Saved Team/Patient – 2 Hours in Operation Theatre

He points that the model saved the team as well as the patient about two hours in the operation theatre since he was capable of having a clearer plan in performing the surgery. Though 3-D printers had been clinically utilised for the last 20 or 25 years in making prototypes for surgical tools as well as other usages, it only began with simulated organs in the last few years, according to Rader.

 Surgeons had utilised the simulated organs for preparing all types of complicated surgeries like the surgery to remove a brain tumour or to correct a severe cleft palate, informs Rader. He further adds that, doctors could operate on them with regular surgical tools again and again till they found the optimal way of doing the surgery.

 For Mia, four months thereafter, her mother informed that the surgery seemed like ancient history to her and she had forgotten all about the surgical scar and had little pain. Though she had some minor colds, none had given her reason to be in the hospital and a month later she was also in a position to participate in her dance performance

In a First, Drug Using 3D Printing Technology Gets FDA Nod

Photo: AFP Relaxnews

3D printing right from the start was a revolutionary idea i.e. to recreate the exact replicas of existing objects from a template by using the material of your choice. And as days pass by, you can see all sorts of things being done from weapons to vehicles to even whole buildings – all printed. Drugs are now no stranger to this either as a 3D printed drug for the first time has been approved by U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration.

The first of 3D printed drug

Well, while it was inevitable, what it does is even more powerful. Drug synthesis generally follows the “one-fits-all” philosophy to cater to as large a diversity as possible and in the process make it less effective with more side-effects. But the 3D printed drug is specific to the patient’s bodily systems and is thus way more effective.

The drug was made by Aprecia Pharmaceuticals Co., and was approved for oral ingestion as a prescribed medicine for adjunctive therapy. It is being used in the treatment of epilepsy. Spritam, as the drug goes by, uses a special “ZipDose” technology which is nothing but a delivery system whereby measured dozes are ingested and they break down in mouth with a sip of the liquid.

What it means?

The approval is a significant step forward in the field of personalized treatment where instead of general drugs, specific drugs are created, synthesized and prescribed leading to more effective treatment with minimal side effects. Until now, most uses of 3D printing in medical field was for the creation of body parts like prosthetic arms and legs, and dental implants and some of the advanced works in creation of whole organs by 3D printing. Even bone replacement are also being carried out with the help of 3D printing. But this creation of the 3D printed drug gives it a new direction.

Personalized treatment has many in th proverbial sense, a “holy-grail” of medicine and with this technology, that might just come true. Especially so with the first successful trials and approval, there is more incentive now to offer such services and more research into it.

The future

One can already envision a future of medical care where medicines are created on labs and then synthesized in 3D printers based on each individual’s characteristics. Also, there are ongoing research in UK regarding recreation of cancerous parts of the body to replace them for patients suffering from so.

Such advancement with technological augmentation means that a more safer future where most diseases are either eradicated or can be treated with relative ease. But predictions are hard to make and especially so about the future. However with a good amount of research and ingenuity, human kind can finally conquer all diseases where none of them are lethal and treatment takes a short amount of time, less chemicals and in general is more effective.

One can only hope that further use and research of 3D printing in pharmaceuticals will bring in more effective drugs with less side-effects!

3D Printing Could Resurrect Custom Car Making

The world was introduced to Blade on Thursday, and this is a 3D-printed supercar which has been designed by the leading automobile company as the proof of designing concept based on 3D. It aims at establishing the new technology among the micro automakers as well as to reshape the automobile industry.

The company is hoping that the micro automakers get the same evolution as it has been seen in the world of microbreweries across the United States of America. The aim is to establish democracy in the auto industry and start the new goal for the dematerialized vehicles.

The 3D-printing technologies can easily turn out the auto manufacturing very affordable for the players to enter the industry and build vehicles according to their taste and drive the era forwards. Through this technology the micro automakers will be able to deliver cars ranging upto 10000 every year. It has designed the 3D printed blade for attracting the attention of the prospective players of the auto sector.

The cutting edge product "the Blade"

It is a bi-fuel vehicle which will be able to run on CNG as well as gasoline. It will be able to hit 60mph in less than 2 seconds since it comes with a 700-horsepower engine as well as 1,400-lb ultra light build. It has been based on the node technology of the company.

This is the technology will be allow the small auto players to develop cars on higher scale. The other benefit of the technology is the reduction in the environment impact from the auto making process. This technology will allow cars to be built out of literally any material and the emission will be about one third of the total emission released during the manufacturing of the electric vehicle.

They  kept on thinking about working and manufacturing cars in affordable range and in lower volume. It is about bringing out a world which allows small yet profitable custom car makers globally.

The Auto Industry democratized

Despite the wait it might take to get the new node technology to be understood by the auto makers, we can always see a bright future for the 3D printing especially in the auto industry. Already vehicles are being made by means of fabricated manufacturing. Companies have already started exploring the application of this technology and already show some of the good uses of this printing technology.

Now what needs to be check is the cost of components to that of the quality as well as the price of the printing. It might become cheaper in some materials and others might cost more. There are no special tools required for 3D printing.

Despite the amount of effort is being put in this cost cutting manufacturing technology, it is quite clear that the vehicles will be available to the customers who are on the top of the line and it might be a long wait for the customers (average) to get their hands on it.

Local Motors' 3D-printed car meets the Detroit Auto Show

Recently, Local Motors have showcased their 3D-Printed Car at the Auto Show. This is world’s first 3D-printed car and known as Strati, it is two-seater car, which is made up of plastic components and can reach the speed of 25 miles/hour.

Printing Process: 

This made in Detroit, Strati is two-seater car and it takes only 44 hours to print it. Crowdsources, a Phoenix-based company designs its cars, which look like the oddball Rally Fighter. Local Motors is responsible to build the Strati and brings on the floor of the North American International Auto Show, which is going to held in Detroit with all printing and routing equipment, which is here just for the occasion. The printing of this car takes only 44 hours, which in about two full working days after which all components including rough ones routed and polished to complete the final finishing look. According to Local Motors CEO Jay Rogers, first of three vehicles of Local Motors are ready to hit the market, whereas; each Strati will have the price range of $18,000 and $30,000. This two Seater car is made up of plastic components and it can hit the road with the speed up to 25 miles per hour.

About Local Motors Strati: 

The whole manufacturing and assembling process can be done in "micro-factory," of Local Motors, which is 40,000-square-foot space, containing everything needed to print, design, build, or sell a car. The company is planning to inaugurate its two micro-factories in 2015, one in near Washington, DC in National Harbor and another in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is expected that the DC location will breaks ground in the third quarter of 2015 where first fleet of 3D-printed cars will be sold. Factories are still looking for the approval because they need a local zoning law changes as per the Washington Post. As per few reports, the Strati is not yet legal for highway, and it can take few months to one year.

According to company officials, “We have arrived with small platform, but after setting up the winding course at Detroit’s Cobo Center, we have produced the passenger seats for the two-seater electric roadster. The two-seater Strati is powered up-by a Renault Twizy–sourced EV power-train which is fitted in to the 3D-printed body of car. Soon the company will test the car on modern tracks where the speed will vary between 10 to 25 mph with the comfortable conversation with the driver, but the car driver stated that car could made-up to 50 mph per hour and the car represent perfect golf car status.

This car were first showcased in September 2014, which was mostly constructed through 3D printing, which sounds like future-minded and gutsy as the part of a young ambitious company. According to reports, no one has done such things publicly till date. To actualize the process of 3D printed car, Local Motors had made a partnership with National Laboratory in Tennessee, where it has take four months to unveil, the Strati.

3-D-Printing Bio-Electronic Parts

Print Functioning Circuitry from Semiconductors

With 3D printer making a prototype or spare part out of metal or polymer, researchers at Princeton University have taken a step in expanding the technology’s capabilities by creating a way in print functioning electronic circuitry out of semiconductors as well as other materials.

They are also trying ways of combining electronics with biocompatible materials and even living tissues that can pave the way for new implants. According to Michael McAlpine, assistant professor at Princeton states that with cartridges that are full of semiconductor `inks’, it can be possible to print circuits of all types of tasks and to demonstrate it, the researcher printed a light emitting diode within a contact lens.

The display circuitry and processors in computers do not have the provision to 3-D printing since they need several complex components fabricated on the nanoscale though it could be utilised in making medical devices or implants incorporating electronics.

 For instance, researchers could print a scaffold for growing nerve tissue according to McAlpine and suggests that if they could print LEDs with circuits within the scaffold, the light could stimulate the nerves where the electronics could be used to interface with prosthetic arm

3-D Printing – Bio-Electronic Ear

McAlpine had used 3-D printing last year, to make a `bio-electronic’ ear which was made from living cells together with supportive matrix of gooey hydrogel and had conductive ink which was made from a suspension of silver nanoparticles that formed an electrical coil and could receive radio signals.

Thereafter his group worked to expand 3-D printing to semiconducting materials which enables a printed device to process incoming sounds. Semiconductors seem to be the key ingredient of information processing circuits which can be used to detect as well as emit light.

McAlphine’s team, to broaden the 3-D printing palette, built its own printer and several of them in the market presently, are only designed to print plastic The bionic ear, for example had features on the millimetre scale. In order to make LEDs they had to go to the micrometre sale.

Quantum dots were taken to make the LED by the Princeton researcher, semiconducting nanoparticles which emitted bright light in response to electrical current. Besides this, two types of metal were also used to make electrical leads and contacts for the device together with polymers and silicone matrix in order to hold it together.

3-D Printing - Various Development 

While printing with so many inks, the challenge was that they bled into each other and hence the researchers had to ensure to suspend each material in a solvent which would not mix with either of them. His team had made a cube of eight green and orange LEDs which were stacked 2 x 2 x 2 and printed the LEDs on contact lens after they were scanned in order to make the shape of the printed devices matching to the curvature of the lens surface.

McAlpines’ team are not the only ones working in expanding the possibilities of 3-D printing. Chemical engineer, Michael Dickey from North Carolina State University in Raleigh who was not involved with McAlpines’ work, states that `most 3-D printing is like a glorified hot glue gun just printing polymers.

His group developed a liquid metal which can be printed into stretchable, self-healing wires while a professor of biologically inspired engineering at Harvard, Jennifer Lewis has developed 3-D printing for tissue engineering on combining various cell types in complex patterns including blood vessels.

3D Printers Can Copy Your Loved One's Head - As a Cremation Urn

3D technology has come along a long way from being able to create a 3 dimensional image of the fetus to using the 3D technology in the 3D printers. These printers are being used for a variety of the reasons like printing of shoe burgers to printing the cars according to the requirements of the customer.

The extent or the reach of 3D technology can be felt now when we can easily add the features and the shapes of your loved ones on the cremation urns. It might sound off or may have come as a surprise for many people, but believe it or not, Vermont-based Cremation Solutions are now offering 3D printed cremation urns which hare custom made according to the request. This cremation urn will have the image of the people you love. However, mind you, this imaging is not restricted to the people you love; you can get the image of your favorite celebrity or even Obama, the president of the United States of America.

What difference will it make? 

Vermont-based Cremation Solutions have come up with a unique solution for the people who are looking to honor their loved ones in a unique way and not going through the traditional metal or wooden urns, meant for storing the ashes. According to the information available on the company’s website, they are using the most modern technology to develop the urn, which will have the closest possible resemblance to the deceased one. This will be carried out by using photographs and other facial recognition software’s, which are meant to transform the 2D image into a 3D sculpture and that too with finesse. Adding to this advantage, the company also offers “erase blemishes”, to present your loved ones in the best possible look ever.

Cremation Urn

According to the Company, the urn will come in two different sizes. The first size is 6-inches, meant for storing only a portion of the remains of the deceased, but the second urn comes in a size of 11 inches with the potential of holding all the remains or ashes of a deceased person.

The 6-inch urn has been given the name of keepsake sized personal urn. By this time, we can clearly understand that these urns will not be easy on the pockets. The smallest size of the urn has been priced at $600 while the largest one can go up to $2600. On the downside, the hair of the person has not been included but the company has stated that they can add artificial hair to give the urns a more realistic look.

While it might sound strange, but a 3D printed urn clearly shows the growth in the technology. It has already been said that the world will change due to 3D technology and there will be a rise in business as more companies are focusing on matching the needs of the customers with their service.

The Company has also stated that they are offering the service for not only the deceased ones, but also for a person who can make their own urns as well. People always plan their cremation to take the burden away from their family and nothing will add to their memories than the urn reminding them about you.

3D LED Printer Makes a Contact Lens Display Possible

3D Printed Contact Lenses 

According to researchers, 3D printed contact lenses can now be used like Google Glass or head up display showing the wearers’ data as well as monitor their health. 3D printer build up metallic or polymer material to form objects when instructed by computer code that conveys to the machine the desired dimension together with the appearance of the product, though this machine is more complex.

Researchers have started constructing prototypes for contact lens displays, and their biggest impediment was parts of fabrication which on a theoretical level is not difficult to build display in a contact lens but building and placing the tiny interrelated parts on a tiny polymer disk is a difficult task.

The 3D LED printer is a 3D quantum dot LED printer which on breaking the concept of an LED to its most basic form, researchers envisaged that they need not think of LEDs like small plastic light bulbs but stacks of interacting substance.

The printer on its part could lay down an LED with a sandwich type of a structure which is not unlike a single pixel in a display of OLED and get emissive layer which is nanoparticles of cadmium selenide that is referred to as quantum dots.

Active Approach

The quantum dots or nano sized crystals of certain substance exhibit unique or particular useful electronic properties. These are sandwiched between one layer which can donate electrons and one layer that accepts them and the entire process can be fused to a surface due to the bottom adhesive layer that is activated with the help of UV light.

Moreover, the printed LEDs are ultra-thin, almost transparent as well as flexible. The transfer of electrons through quantum dot layer causes the dots to produce photons of light and the main advantage of it is that they can be made to emit light at very specific wavelength or colours.

It means that the quantum dot screens can display more recreations of colour accurately but it would not be the first priority for contact lens display which will get static, sensible image in the user’s eye.The pixel on the other hand in a contact lens display could take one of two forms and the active approach uses individual pixel as a light source and emits photons in the eye, creating an image directly.

Passive Approach 

The passive approach on the other hand uses less power though it would be more difficult using individual pixel to bend the incoming light from the environment to portray a new picture on the retina. The issue with active approach is that it needs a good amount of power to go on and wireless power collection relies partially on physical size of the collecting antenna.

When the antenna must be physically fitted in a contact lens, it creates a hard upper limit on power supply. It is unlikely to start printing smartphone screens pixel by pixel since manufacturing in bulk would be quicker and cheaper and while doing so, things like putting LEDs in circular area of contact lens less than 2 mm, it could be helpful. The cost of the prototype print cost about $20,000 to create though there is a possibility in reduction of cost in the near future.

3D Printing Can Create Human Tissue To Heal Wounds

3D printers are able to manufacture spare parts for satellites, food and even human organs. Today, the world of fashion began to use 3D printing and designs luxurious rooms also. 3D printing is diversified more. This is explained by the improvement of materials incorporating different metals and materials such as plastic, wood or nylon. Jewelry and accessories 3D printed are already marketed. An Atlanta entrepreneur currently testing a printer that allows you to create unique garments from fabrics polymer material based on carbon.3D printers never cease to amaze us!

After the ability to print food, dentures or even houses, a new stage has been reached, that of bio-printing In other words, the creation of human tissues in 3D. The bio-printing is a matter of well-known research for the scientists and functional technology is already exists with pre-established patterns. The latter is however very demanding and allows no margin of error or modified during printing.

The apparatus used consists of two tanks containing stem cells bathed in culture medium. This method may be about to be replaced by another discovery by laboratories of Carnegie Mellon and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. It is based on the micro -robot capable of assembling different materials, in order to repair human tissues. Researchers led by Savas Tasoglu and Utkan Demirciont developed a hydrogel material a liquid portion and a solid portion similar to contact lenses which are found in living cells.

It is then necessary to control micro- robot remotely using magnetic fields capable of moving between different hydrogels to build cell structures. It is very difficult to realize that human tissue is composed of many types of cells operation. Scientists have still managed to catalog several materials they need to print in 3D to develop these structures such as copper rods, polystyrene beads, silicon chips and the famous hydrogels. The whole is dipped in a liquid to maintain the cells to be alive.

This approach is more accurate than the old method used previously when it comes to print components. It also makes it possible combining flexible and rigid materials together, all at a scale of the order of tens of microns of size, which is adjustable by the micro- robot. Metin Sitti, the professor of Mechanical engineering head of the Laboratory Nanrobitcs Carnegie Mellon told that their work will revolutionize the precision assembly of blocks of complex and heterogeneous tissues in three dimensions and facilitate the understanding of tissue engineering systems.

The encoding method and manipulation developed here may find wide applications in areas such as diagnostics, regenerative medicine, engineering micro physiological systems, pharmaceutical and biological research, and manufacture microscopic according to Utkan Demirci.

 The micro- robot can analyze cells, manipulate eliminate targets or change direction on a scale that we could not reach before and it can be regarded as a microscopic clamp capable of gripping and moving individual cells or groups in a 3D environment.