Phd in 3d printing

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Centre for Doctoral Training PhD 2023

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Research overview

Led by the University of Nottingham and working with the universities of Loughborough, Newcastle and Liverpool, this four-year PhD programme will produce research leaders in Additive Manufacturing and 3D printing.

Students will acquire the knowledge and skills to fully utilise and improve the use of advanced manufacturing, and use it to tackle major scientific and engineering challenges.

The programme includes:

specific training in advanced manufacturing and 3D printing methods and techniques
opportunities to attend international study tours
a student cohort encouraging collaboration and team work in multi-disciplinary groups
working with industrial sponsors (subject to agreement)
a minimum three-month industrial internship (subject to agreement)

For full details, see the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Additive Manufacturing.

Entry requirements

All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements below apply to 2023 entry.

Degree

First or 2:1 honours degree or MSc with distinction in physics, chemistry, engineering, biological sciences or a related discipline.

Additional information

We encourage you to get in touch with a member of academic staff about your research proposal before submitting an application. They may be able to help you with your proposal and offer support to find funding opportunities in your area.

Engineering supervisors, including their research interests and contact details, can be found on our find a PhD supervisor page. Details of research supervisors at the University can also be found on our research A to Z.

Degree	First or 2:1 honours degree or MSc with distinction in physics, chemistry, engineering, biological sciences or a related discipline.
International and EU equivalents	We accept a wide range of qualifications from all over the world. For information on entry requirements from your country, see our country pages.
Additional information	We encourage you to get in touch with a member of academic staff about your research proposal before submitting an application. They may be able to help you with your proposal and offer support to find funding opportunities in your area. Engineering supervisors, including their research interests and contact details, can be found on our find a PhD supervisor page. Details of research supervisors at the University can also be found on our research A to Z.
IELTS	6.0 (no less than 5.5 in each element)
English language requirements	As well as IELTS (listed above), we also accept other English language qualifications. This includes TOEFL iBT, Pearson PTE, GCSE, IB and O level English.

Meeting our English language requirements

If you need support to meet the required level, you may be able to attend a presessional English course. Presessional courses teach you academic skills in addition to English language. Our Centre for English Language Education is accredited by the British Council for the teaching of English in the UK.

If you successfully complete your presessional course to the required level, you can then progress to your degree course. This means that you won't need to retake IELTS or equivalent.

For on-campus presessional English courses, you must take IELTS for UKVI to meet visa regulations. For online presessional courses, see our CELE webpages for guidance.

Visa restrictions

International students must have valid UK immigration permissions for any courses or study period where teaching takes place in the UK. Student route visas can be issued for eligible students studying full-time courses. International fees: £20,500 for social sciences based or £27,200 for science based.

Additional information for international students

If you are a student from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you may be asked to complete a fee status questionnaire and your answers will be assessed using guidance issued by the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).

These fees are for full-time study. If you are studying part-time, you will be charged a proportion of this fee each year (subject to inflation).

Funding

There are many ways to fund your research degree, from scholarships to government loans.

Check our guide to find out more about funding your postgraduate degree.

Postgraduate funding

Support

Researcher training and development

The Researcher Academy is the network for researchers, and staff who support them. We work together to promote a healthy research culture, to cultivate researcher excellence, and develop creative partnerships that enable researchers to flourish.

Postgraduate researchers at Nottingham have access to our online Members’ area, which includes a wealth of resources, access to training courses and award-winning postgraduate placements.

Graduate centres

Our graduate centres are dedicated community spaces on campus for postgraduates.

Each space has areas for:

studying
socialising
computer work
seminars
kitchen facilities

Student support

You will have access to a range of support services, including:

academic and disability support
childcare services
counselling service
faith support
financial support
mental health and wellbeing support
visa and immigration advice
welfare support

Students' Union

Our Students' Union represents all students. You can join the Postgraduate Students’ Network or contact the dedicated Postgraduate Officer.

There are also a range of support networks, including groups for:

international students
black and minority ethnic students
students who identify as women
students with disabilities
LGBT+ students

SU Advice provides free, independent and confidential advice on issues such as accommodation, financial and academic difficulties.

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Where you will learn

Jubilee Campus

Jubilee Campus has eco-friendly buildings, alongside green spaces, wildlife and a lake.

This campus is home to our business, education and computer science schools, as well as a sports centre and student accommodation.

You can walk to University Park Campus in around 20 minutes or catch a free hopper bus. Nottingham city centre is 20 minutes away by public bus.

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Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering - Postgraduate Research

Discover our research within Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

Research Excellence Framework

We are ranked 7th in the UK for research power (2021), according to analysis by Times Higher Education. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a national assessment of the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

90%* of our research is classed as 'world-leading' (4*) or 'internationally excellent' (3*)
100%* of our research is recognised internationally
51% of our research is assessed as 'world-leading' (4*) for its impact**

*According to analysis by Times Higher Education ** According to our own analysis.

This content was last updated on 25 November 2022. Every effort has been made to ensure that this information is accurate, but changes are likely to occur between the date of publishing and course start date. It is therefore very important to check this website for any updates before you apply.

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3D Printing PhD Research | CREATE Education Project

Research Question:

How can traditional textile processes be rethought through 3D printing?

Aim of Research;

The aim of the research is to rethink and develop traditional textile processes and structures, such as knit, weave and print and consider how these could be interpreted through 3D printing while preserving the original aesthetics traditional textiles lend themselves to.

3D printing could reinvent our relationship with clothing and textiles, challenging production in terms of ecology, sustainability, consumption, fast fashion and mass production, and will be considered as a key development towards democratic manufacturing and design. By enabling the “printing” of clothes to order, manufacturing could be reconfigured. At the moment such products do not stand up to the design and quality that required for commercially viability, although materials are being developed at a rapid pace. Could the 3D printer eventually be as important as the domestic sewing machine?

I will examine the potential of current 3D desktop printing through the lens of a textile designer. Using my skills as a textile design practitioner with experience in the creation of high fashion fabrics I will reinvent and develop new iterations of traditional textile processes using 3D desktop printers, such as lacemaking, embroidery and surface pattern, etc. Modifications of both the machine and the materials are envisaged and the specification of these will contribute to a democratised desktop manufacturing model with clear implications for the circular economy.

I propose to address these questions through studio-based and thesis study. In research and collaborations with other designers, I intend to develop my own 3D printed textiles and interrogate the issues surrounding the challenges of 3D printing in textiles.

The first year of research would investigate innovations in 3D printed textiles, materials and technology. This will create a new knowledge of textiles in this area and develop an original research direction. This research will be implemented through collaborations, visiting design studios, manufacturers, libraries, conferences, exhibitions, trade fairs, museums and other institutions at the key developmental stage of 3D printing in textiles.

In the wider context of 3D printing, new technological uses of materials have potential for an immense impact on our quality of life, as well as on ethical and ecological concerns. The research will particularly consider the possibility of developing bioplastic or recycled materials into filaments for 3D printed textiles. 3D printing can be a key development towards democratic manufacturing and design in producing new textiles and challenging traditional production methods.

Loughborough University and the garment company ‘Yeh’ are developing fabrics for 3D printing, experimenting with sustainable finishers, dyeing, and construction. Design engineer Bradley Rothenberg has created new meshes with properties of opacity, flexibility and stretch, using materials like thermoplastic elastomer and polyurethane, with custom fabrics grown around shapes such as 3D body scans.

RCA graduate Oluwaseyi Sosanya created a loom that can weave in three dimensions and used it to create a shoe sole. Gerard Rubio, a knitwear designer for OpenKnit, created an open source robotic loom capable of knitting entire seamless garments, setting up Kniterate to produce an affordable 3D knit machine. Creative director Jessica Rosenkrantz and scientist Jesse Louis-Rosenberg of Nervous System collaborated with 3D print company Shapeways to develop cutting-edge software for Google.

In 2016 I began a 2-year Masters at the RCA in Material Textiles print, spending my first year researching and experimenting with 3D printing, along with a dissertation on the development of smart fabrics and 3D printing. As a designer, I concentrate on bringing traditional textiles and technology together. My current research includes experimenting with new flexi filaments of TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) and material structures from a small desktop 3D printer. My practical research in my final year combines traditional techniques such as silk screen printing, digital sublimation and dying with 3D printing to develop different and new aesthetic techniques for print, using traditional textile processes such as lace, knit and weave as inspiration.

I have worked in the luxury fashion and textiles industry for over 15 years selling collections to high profile stores worldwide, participating in international shows and collaborating with key design labels. This experience has taught me that although being creative is key, the development of technology, manufacturing and their impact on natural resources must be paramount to the sustainable future of the industry.

I would like to undertake research through a combination of studio-based and thesis study. The development of my experimental practical research in 3D printed textiles will involve testing of materials for filaments, construction and design aesthetics. The thesis will document, reflect upon and contextualize the challenges and outcomes of my practice, as well as examining the relationship between theoretical and practical perspectives.

The development of 3D printing in textiles is currently being researched mainly from a design technology material, science, or engineering perspective. To build on this research from a textile fashion design orientated perspective would be my contribution, to explore how we can reinterpret traditional textiles using 3D printing. With the knowledge of the clothing industry and the challenges it currently faces, I intend to create textiles that might be produced from a cross-pollination of traditional textiles and 3D printing, creating opportunities that can ignite innovation through collaboration.

William McDonough, designer and author of Cradle to Cradle (2002), claims: ‘The sustainable impact on the world, starts with design if we can change the design process, we can positively impact on the circular economy”. China has announced that it will no longer be shipping UK plastic waste for disposal. We will soon be forced to find alternative uses for plastics; these could be recycled to make filaments for 3D printing, helping to reduce landfill.

Through sponsorship from the open source CREATE Education Project with the loan of a desktop Ultimaker 3D printer, I will collaborate with the designers and manufacturers of the machine, furthering knowledge of advancements in the 3D printing industry. I will document the use of the Ultimaker 2+ desktop printer in material textile developments through a blog and Instagram. CREATE Education have also appointed me as an Ambassador connecting me to the desktop 3D printing online community. This will enable me to analyze how the community engages and responds to my 3D printed textile research and help me contribute to the evolution of personalized manufacturing.

I will examine the use of bio–plastics and their development for 3D printed textiles, collaborating with practitioners who are developing bio-plastics and other recycled materials for 3D printers. I intend to modify desktop 3D printers to achieve new textiles for ease of use, documenting findings through experiments with filament and structures and using CAD software such as Illustrator and Rhino to design and re-invent traditional processes like lacemaking and embroidery.

I will be researching Future 3D technical centres being set up worldwide to provide communities with technical training, like the Fab Lab in Germany, and analyzing how people design and produce solutions through small-scale high tech DIY business incubation. This represents the future democratization that makes 3D printing widely accessible, bringing our relationship with the making process into a more meaningful context.

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5 Innovative Medical Applications for 3D Printing

Personalized and precise medical solutions are gaining popularity. New tools and advanced technologies bring doctors closer to patients by providing treatments and devices that meet the needs of each individual.

The expansion of 3D printing technology in healthcare has made a huge contribution to improving the quality of medical services. With new tools and treatment approaches developed using 3D printing, patients feel that their treatment becomes more comfortable and personal. For physicians, the new technology available allows them to better analyze complex cases and provides new tools that can ultimately raise standards of care.

Later in this article, you'll learn about five areas, from models for surgical planning to vascular systems and bioreactors, in which 3D printing is used in healthcare, and why many healthcare professionals see great potential in this technology.

In today's medical practice, 3D printed anatomical models based on patient body scans are becoming more indispensable tools, as they provide more personalized and accurate treatment. As cases become more complex and standard case times become more important, visual and tactile anatomical models are helping surgeons to better understand their task, communicate more effectively, and communicate with patients more easily.

Medical professionals, hospitals and research institutions around the world use 3D printed anatomical models as a reference tool for preoperative planning, intraoperative imaging, and for sizing medical instruments or presetting equipment for both standard and very complex procedures, which is reflected in hundreds of scientific publications.

3D printing makes 3D printing affordable and easy to create customized patient anatomical models based on CT and MRI data. The peer-reviewed scientific literature demonstrates that they help clinicians better prepare for surgery, resulting in significant cost and time savings. At the same time, patient satisfaction is also increased through reduced anxiety and reduced recovery time.

Physicians can use individual patient anatomical models to explain the procedure to the patient, making it easier to obtain patient consent and reduce patient anxiety.

Preparation for surgery using preoperative models can also affect the effectiveness of the treatment. The experience of Dr. Michael Ames confirms this. After obtaining bone replications from the young patient's forearm, Dr. Ames realized that the injury was different from what he expected.

Based on this information, Dr. Ames chose a new soft tissue procedure that was much less invasive, reduced downtime, and resulted in much less scarring. Using imprinted bone replication, Dr. Ames explained the procedure to the young patient and his parents and obtained their consent.

Physicians can use patient-specific surgical models to explain the procedure beforehand, improving patient consent and lowering anxiety.

Result? The operation lasted less than 30 minutes instead of the originally planned three hours. With this reduction in operating time, the hospital avoided a cost of about $5,500 and the patient recovered faster.

According to Dr. Alexis Dang, Orthopedic Surgeon at UC San Francisco and Veterans Affairs Medical Center San Francisco: “All of our full-time orthopedic surgeons and nearly all of our full-time surgeons part-time, used 3D printed models to treat patients at a Veterans Medical Center in San Francisco. We could all see that 3D printing improves the efficiency of our work.”

The advent of new biocompatible medical polymers for 3D printing has opened up opportunities for the development of new surgical instruments and techniques to further improve clinical operating procedures. These include sterilizable trays, contoured surgical guides, and implant models that can be used to determine the size of an implant prior to surgery, helping surgeons reduce time and improve accuracy in complex procedures.

Anatomical model of a hand with elastic resin skin for 3D printing.

Todd Goldstein, PhD, lecturer at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, is unequivocal about the importance of 3D printing technology to the work of his department. He estimates that if Northwell used 3D-printed models 10-15% of the time, it could save $1,750,000 a year.

“Whether it's prototyping medical devices, complex anatomical models for our children's hospital, designing training systems, or making surgical templates for dental clinics, [3D printing technology] has increased our capabilities and reduced our costs in a variety of areas. In doing so, we were able to produce instruments for treating patients that would be almost impossible to recreate without our sought-after stereolithography 3D printer,” says Goldstein.

3D printing has become virtually synonymous with rapid prototyping. The ease of use and low cost of 3D printing in-house has also revolutionized product development, with many medical instrument manufacturers adapting the technology to produce entirely new medical devices and surgical instruments.

Over 90 percent of the top 50 medical device companies use 3D printing to create accurate medical device prototypes and fixtures and fittings to simplify testing.

According to Alex Drew, Principal Mechanical Engineer at DJO Surgical, an international medical device supplier, “Before DJO Surgical purchased [Formlabs' 3D printer], we printed nearly all of our prototypes outsourced. Today we are working with four Formlabs printers and are very pleased with the results. The speed of 3D printing has doubled, the cost has been reduced by 70%, and the level of detail allows you to effectively coordinate designs with orthopedic surgeons.

Medical companies such as Coalesce are using 3D printing to create accurate medical device prototypes.

3D printing helps speed up the design process by allowing complex designs to be iterated over in days instead of weeks. When Coalesce was tasked with building an inhaler device that could digitally evaluate an asthma patient's inspiratory flow profile, outsourcing would result in a significant increase in production time for each prototype. Before sending the project files to a third party company for the physical implementation of the project, they would have to be carefully developed and carried through various iterations.

Instead, desktop stereolithographic 3D printing allowed Coalesce to handle the entire prototyping process in-house. The prototypes were suitable for use in clinical trials and looked just like the finished product. Moreover, when the company demonstrated the device, its customers mistook the prototype for the final product.

Overall, the introduction of in-house manufacturing resulted in an exceptional reduction in prototyping time by 80–90%. In addition, the models took only eight hours to print and were finished and painted in a matter of days, while outsourcing the same process would take a week or two.

Hundreds of thousands of people lose limbs every year, but only a fraction of them are able to restore limb function with a prosthesis.

Conventional dentures are only available in a few sizes, so patients must adjust to what fits best. On the other hand, custom bionic prostheses that mimic the movements and grips of a real limb based on the impulses of the surviving limb muscles are so expensive that they can only be used by patients living in developed countries with the best medical insurance. In the case of children's prostheses, the situation is aggravated even more. Children grow up and inevitably outgrow their prostheses, which, as a result, require costly modifications.

The difficulty lies in the lack of manufacturing processes that would allow for individual orders at an affordable price. But increasingly, prosthetists are looking to reduce these high financial barriers to rehabilitation with the flexible design capabilities of 3D printing.

Initiatives like e-NABLE allow people around the world to learn about the possibilities of 3D printed prostheses. They are driving an independent movement in the prosthesis industry by offering information and free open source projects so that patients can get a custom-designed prosthesis for as little as $50.

Other inventors, such as Lyman Connor, go even further. With only a small fleet of four desktop 3D printers, Lyman was able to fabricate and customize his first mass-produced prostheses. His ultimate goal? Create a customizable fully bionic arm that will cost incomparably less than similar prostheses that retail for tens of thousands of dollars.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also found that 3D printing is the best method for making more comfortable prosthetic sockets.

In addition, the low cost of manufacturing these prostheses, as well as the freedom that comes with being able to design custom designs, speak for themselves. 3D printed prostheses have a lead time of just two weeks, and then they can be tried and serviced at a much lower cost than traditional counterparts.

As costs continue to fall and material properties improve, the role of 3D printing in healthcare will no doubt become more important.

The same high financial barriers that are seen in prosthetics are common in orthoses and insoles. Like many other patient-specific medical devices, custom-made orthoses are often not available due to their high cost and take weeks or months to manufacture. 3D printing solves this problem.

Confirmation is the example of Matej and his son Nick. Nick was born in 2011. Complications during preterm birth led to the fact that he developed cerebral palsy, a pathology that affects nearly twenty million people worldwide. Matei was delighted with how determined his son was to overcome the limitations of his illness, but he was faced with a choice between a standard, off-the-shelf orthosis that would be uncomfortable for his son, or an expensive custom solution that would take weeks or months to manufacture and ship. , and from which the child would quickly grow.

He decided to take matters into his own hands and began to look for new ways to achieve his goal. Thanks to the opportunities provided by digital technologies, in particular 3D scanning and 3D printing, Matei and Nika's physiotherapists were able to develop a completely new innovative workflow for the manufacture of ankle orthoses through experiments.

The resulting 3D-printed, custom-fit orthosis that provides support, comfort, and motion correction helped Nick take his first steps on his own. This non-standard orthopedic device reproduced the functionality of the highest-class orthopedic products, at the same time it cost many times less and did not require any additional settings.

Professionals around the world are using 3D printing as a new method of manufacturing custom insoles and orthoses for patients and clients, as well as a range of other physiotherapy tools. In the past, undergoing a course of physiotherapy with the use of individual physiotherapy instruments carried many difficulties. Often there was a situation when patients had to wait a long time for a finished product, which at the same time did not provide proper comfort. 3D printing is step by step changing this status quo. Data confirms that 3D printed insoles and orthoses offer a more precise fit and lead to better therapeutic outcomes, which means greater comfort and benefit for patients.

The usual treatments for patients with severe organ damage today are autografts, transplantation of tissue from one area of the body to another, or transplantation of a donor organ. Researchers in bioprinting and tissue engineering hope to expand this list soon with on-demand fabrication of tissues, blood vessels, and organs.

3D bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process that uses materials known as bioink (a combination of living cells and a compatible substrate) to create tissue-like structures that can be used in medicine. Tissue engineering combines new technologies, including bioprinting, which make it possible to grow replacement tissues and organs in the laboratory for use in the treatment of injuries and diseases.

Using high-precision 3D printing, researchers such as Dr. Sam Pashne-Tala from the University of Sheffield are opening up new possibilities for tissue engineering.

In order to direct cell growth to form the necessary tissue, Dr. Pashne-Tala grows living cells on a laboratory scaffold that provides a template of the required shape, size and geometry. For example, to create a blood vessel for a patient with cardiovascular disease, a tubular structure is needed. The cells will multiply and cover the scaffold, taking on its shape. Then the scaffold is gradually destroyed, and the living cells take the form of the target tissue, which is cultured in a bioreactor - a chamber that contains the cultured tissue and can reproduce the internal environment of the body so that the cultured tissue acquires the mechanical and biological characteristics of organic tissue.

3D printed bioreactor chamber with tissue engineered aorta miniature inside. The tissue is cultured in a bioreactor to acquire the mechanical and biological characteristics of the organic tissue.

This will allow scientists to design patient-specific vascular grafts, expand surgical care, and provide a unique platform for testing new vascular medical devices for people suffering from cardiovascular disease, which is currently the leading cause of death worldwide. The ultimate goal is to create blood vessels that are ready for implantation in patients. Since tissue engineering uses cells taken from a patient in need of treatment, this eliminates the possibility of rejection by the immune system, which is the main problem of modern transplantology.

3D printing has proven its ability to solve the problems that exist in the production of synthetic blood vessels, in particular, the difficulty of recreating the required accuracy of the shape, size and geometry of the vessel. The ability of printed solutions to clearly reflect the specific characteristics of patients was a step forward.

According to Dr. Pashne-Tal: “[Creating blood vessels using 3D printing] makes it possible to expand the possibilities of surgical care and even create designs of blood vessels for a specific patient. Without the existence of high-precision affordable 3D printing, the creation of such forms would not be possible.”

We are witnessing significant advances in the development of biological materials that can be used in 3D printers. Scientists are developing new hydrogel materials that have the same consistency as organ tissues present in the human brain and lungs, which can be used in a range of 3D printing processes. Scientists hope that they will be able to implant them into the body as a "scaffold" for cell growth.

Although bioprinting of fully functional internal organs such as the heart, kidneys and liver still looks futuristic, hybrid 3D printing at very high speed opens up more and more new horizons.

It is expected that sooner or later the creation of biological matter on laboratory printers will lead to the generation of new, fully functional 3D printed organs. In April 2019, scientists at Tel Aviv University 3D-printed the first heart using biological tissue from a patient. A tiny copy was created using the patient's own biological tissues, which made it possible to fully match the immunological, cellular, biochemical and anatomical profile of the patient.

“At this stage, the heart we printed is small, about the size of a rabbit heart, but normal-sized human hearts require the same technology,” says Prof. Tal Dvir.

The first 3D bioprinted heart created at Tel Aviv University.

Precise and affordable 3D printing processes, such as desktop stereolithography, are democratizing access to technology, enabling healthcare professionals to develop new clinical solutions and quickly produce medical devices with individual characteristics, and doctors around the world to offer new types of therapy.

As 3D printing technologies and materials improve, it will continue to expand personalized treatment and deliver high performance medical devices.

Learn more about the use of 3D printing in healthcare

Stanford scientists have developed a method for high-speed 3D printing from different materials simultaneously

Stanford University scientists have proposed a new 3D printing technique that allows you to use several types of raw materials in one product

Stanford University has created a 3D printing process that is 5 to 10 times faster than the fastest high-resolution printer currently on the market. At the same time, a variety of types of polymer resins can be used to create one object. Researchers print models of famous buildings around the world in the colors of that country's flag

The results, published in Science Advances on September 28, show that the new process is much faster than the fastest high-resolution printing method currently available. In addition, the new technology will allow researchers to use denser resins with better mechanical and electrical characteristics.

"New technology will help realize the full potential of 3D printing," says Joseph DeSimone, Professor of Translational Medicine Sanjeev Sam Gambhir, Professor of Radiology and Chemical Engineering at Stanford and Corresponding Author of the article.

"This will allow us to print much faster, which will help usher in a new era of digital manufacturing, as well as allow us to produce complex objects from many different materials in one step."

3D printer. serts/iStock

New design improves continuous production of liquid interface, or CLIP, a 3D printing method developed by DeSimone and colleagues in 2015.

In a process known as CLIP printing technology, an elevating platform carefully removes an object that appears fully formed from the thin resin reservoir. The layer of oxygen prevents polymerization at the bottom of the tank and creates a "dead zone" where the resin remains in a liquid state. Then, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation passing through the tank, the resin hardens and takes on the desired shape.

The secret of CLIP speed lies in the "dead zone". Typically, such a system works like this: liquid resin fills the space behind the solid product as it increases in volume, providing a smooth and continuous print. However, this is not always the case, especially if the resin is very sticky or the object rises too quickly.

In order to add additional resin at strategic locations, the researchers installed syringe pumps on an elevating platform using a new technique called injectable CLIP, or iCLIP.

"Resin flow in a CLIP is a very passive process - you just pull the object up and hope the suction gets the material to the right place," says Gabriel Lipkowitz, Ph. D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford and project leader. "With this new method, we are actively injecting resin into areas of the printer where it is needed."

With iCLIP you can print different types of resins at different stages of the printing process by injecting the required amount of resin individually. Each resin requires a separate syringe.

To test the printer, the researchers used three separate syringes, each filled with a different color of resin. They managed to print models of the famous buildings of various states in the colors of the flag of this country.

"The ability to create objects from different materials and with different mechanical properties is the holy grail of 3D printing," says Lipkowitz. "Applications range from highly efficient energy-absorbing structures to objects with different optical properties and advanced sensors.