Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs. Until now, the stumbling block in tissue engineering has been supplying artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved that problem using 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerization. read more at link above...
Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer
Carol- Admin
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What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night, the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol
Carol- Admin
- Posts : 32044
Join date : 2010-04-07
Location : Hawaii
As Christmas fast approaches, millions will opt to spare themselves the crowded high street and instead settle down in front of the computer and do their shopping there.
Yet buying online has always had one key disadvantage: you have to wait. Not only that, but the inability to touch a product, try it on, feel how heavy it is or do anything else you would do on your typical high street excursion prevents online shopping being the perfect experience.
But technology is now coming online that could allow you to receive your goods straight away.
As the cost of 3D printing hardware begins to drop, bespoke, printable products may be about to hit the market.
Fashion potential
Freedom of Creation is a design and research company exploring the capabilities of what, in the industry, is known as rapid prototyping.
Janne Kyttanen is the company's founder and creative director.
"Imagine the potential of this for the fashion industry," he told Digital Planet on the BBC World Service.
"I can measure your body, in 3D, and I can make you perfectly fitting garments in the future without any sewing and stitching, making the needle and the thread obsolete."
His company is now producing products for companies including Asics, Tommy Hilfiger and Hyundai.
Away from the fashion world, 3D printing has many applications for the developing world.
The ability to produce specially designed objects from a computer offers exciting possibilities for making vital tools in poorer, hard to reach areas.
One scheme that is looking to capitalise in the technology is RepRap, short for Replicating Rapid Prototyping, which offers a cheap way of replicating objects - including the printer itself.
"It's a 3D printer that prints out a kit of parts for another 3D printer," explained Dr Adrian Bowyer from the University of Bath.
"It doesn't print every last single part. There are some which, at the moment, are a little bit difficult for the machine to manage - so things like electric motors and the electronics circuitry the machine can't do for itself - but it prints out a lot of the rest."
Technological disruption
In contrast to early 3-D printing machines which cost around £20,000, Dr Bowyer says a RepRap machine comes in at just £300.
And the software and hardware specifications are all open source - meaning the machine can be duplicated freely.
This low barrier to entry has piqued the interest of many entrepreneurs, keen to see how the technology can be effectively deployed.
read more at link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11834044
Yet buying online has always had one key disadvantage: you have to wait. Not only that, but the inability to touch a product, try it on, feel how heavy it is or do anything else you would do on your typical high street excursion prevents online shopping being the perfect experience.
But technology is now coming online that could allow you to receive your goods straight away.
As the cost of 3D printing hardware begins to drop, bespoke, printable products may be about to hit the market.
Fashion potential
Freedom of Creation is a design and research company exploring the capabilities of what, in the industry, is known as rapid prototyping.
Janne Kyttanen is the company's founder and creative director.
"Imagine the potential of this for the fashion industry," he told Digital Planet on the BBC World Service.
"I can measure your body, in 3D, and I can make you perfectly fitting garments in the future without any sewing and stitching, making the needle and the thread obsolete."
His company is now producing products for companies including Asics, Tommy Hilfiger and Hyundai.
Away from the fashion world, 3D printing has many applications for the developing world.
The ability to produce specially designed objects from a computer offers exciting possibilities for making vital tools in poorer, hard to reach areas.
One scheme that is looking to capitalise in the technology is RepRap, short for Replicating Rapid Prototyping, which offers a cheap way of replicating objects - including the printer itself.
"It's a 3D printer that prints out a kit of parts for another 3D printer," explained Dr Adrian Bowyer from the University of Bath.
"It doesn't print every last single part. There are some which, at the moment, are a little bit difficult for the machine to manage - so things like electric motors and the electronics circuitry the machine can't do for itself - but it prints out a lot of the rest."
Technological disruption
In contrast to early 3-D printing machines which cost around £20,000, Dr Bowyer says a RepRap machine comes in at just £300.
And the software and hardware specifications are all open source - meaning the machine can be duplicated freely.
This low barrier to entry has piqued the interest of many entrepreneurs, keen to see how the technology can be effectively deployed.
read more at link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11834044
_________________
What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night, the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
With deepest respect ~ Aloha & Mahalo, Carol
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