In a significant breakthrough for 3D printing -- potentially revolutionizing the design and manufacture of all kinds of things, including prosthetics, lenses, and running shoes -- scientists at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a new method of printing custom 3D objects, called Computed Axial Lithography. The technique goes far beyond conventional methods by creating objects that are smoother and more complex, and printed nearly instantaneously. "In this, when you see something emerging out of nowhere, it's really magical ... it is fun to watch," says doctoral mechanical engineering student Hossein Heidari, a member of the team working with mechanical engineering professor Hayden Taylor, the study's senior author. "I think it might happen in the next decade that we may actually see a functional organ ready to be implanted or transplanted," Heidari added. Link to video. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.

Though we remain a long way away from being able to transmogrify matter into a chocolate sundae on command, a team of real-life researchers has created a 3-D printer that can create entire objects simultaneously instead of creating them one painstaking layer at a time like most printing techniques. So begins a story about a significant breakthrough for 3D printing -- potentially revolutionizing the design and manufacture of all kinds of things, including prosthetics, lenses, and running shoes -- made by scientists at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The new method of printing custom 3D objects is called Computed Axial Lithography, or CAL printing, and it creates objects that are smoother, more complex, and printed nearly instantaneously. Describing how it works, with video projections of a 3D object fed into a rotating cylinder filled with synthetic resin, assistant mechanical engineering professor Hayden Taylor, the study's senior author, says: "As the container rotates, the pattern that's projected changes, so over time the amount of light that each point receives can be controlled. ... Spots that receive a lot of light solidify, while those that do not remain liquid." Link to video. For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News. Stories on this topic have appeared in more than 100 sources around the world.

In a significant breakthrough for 3D printing -- potentially revolutionizing the design and manufacture of all kinds of things, including prosthetics, lenses, and running shoes -- scientists at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a new method of printing custom 3D objects, called Computed Axial Lithography. The technique goes far beyond conventional methods by creating objects that are smoother and more complex, and printed nearly instantaneously. "It's a new kind of 3D printing that creates objects all at once, rather than layer by layer. And they're non-symmetrical, with a lot of detail," says assistant mechanical engineering professor Hayden Taylor, the study's senior author. "I think this is a route to being able to mass-customize objects. ... I think it may change the way products are designed." For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News. Stories on this topic have appeared in dozens of sources around the world, including MIT Technology Review, The Guardian, CNET, Science Magazine, Nature, Science & Technology Research News, 3D Printing Industry, and Interesting Engineering.