Editor’s Note: I’ve been interested, on the sidelines, in 3 D printing. I’ve viewed minimal, less-than-instructional news reports, wondering what I’d like to tackle myself if I got hold of one of these wonder machines. Think back to the dress made by Iris van Herpen’s spring for her 2015 show in Paris we’re illustrating this post with below. Think about those shoes you could design and make rather than mortgaging your future on a store-bought version. But now it seems that there are more complex and ever-improving machines being devised in startups, garages a-la-Hewlett-Packard, and the proverbial kitchen table.
Photo: 3d Systems worked on this almost-transparent ice-like dress on view for a 2015 fashion show of Iris van Herpen’s.
A 3D printing technology developed by Silicon Valley startup, Carbon3D Inc., enables objects to rise from a liquid media continuously rather than being built layer by layer as they have been for the past 25 years, representing a fundamentally new approach to 3D printing. The technology, appearing as the cover article in the March 20 print issue of Science, allows ready-to-use products to be made 25 to 100 times faster than other methods and creates previously un-achievable geometries that open opportunities for innovation not only in health care and medicine, but also in other major industries such as automotive and aviation.
Joseph M. DeSimone, professor of chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill and of chemical engineering at N.C. State, is currently CEO of Carbon3D where he co-invented the method with colleagues Alex Ermoshkin, chief technology officer at Carbon 3D and Edward T. Samulski, also professor of chemistry at UNC. Currently on sabbatical from the University, DeSimone has focused on bringing the technology to market, while also creating new opportunities for graduate students to use the technique for research in materials science and drug delivery at UNC and NCSU.
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