Sep.24, 2013
MSc Smart Design student Susanne Bruijnzeels is looking to take 3D printing to the next level.
The 22-year-old - who is studying at Nottingham Trent University's School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment - is undertaking research which will help shape the future of how tailor-made medical products are printed.
The project – which is among the first of its kind - aims to enable the printers to create a seamless finish by allowing them to rotate products while spray printing them, rather than printing them statically in layers.
In particular, Susanne's research has the specific aim of spray printing a smart component for a medical device to help heart disease victims, which is part of a wider research project by the university led by PhD student Fergal Coulter. But Susanne's research could be applied to a variety of other products as well.
Susanne said: "If we can develop this technology successfully, it will bring a fourth controllable parameter to 3D printing.
"To rotate a product while it is being spray printed is at the forefront of the technology and my aim is that, by doing this, a seamless finish to the product could be achieved.
"This is very important, for instance, in the manufacture of devices which are designed to be implanted into a person's body."
Susanne's research, which is being undertaken as part of a one-year course, and which will be continued next academic year by PhD student Francesco Siena, will go on show alongside that of 140 postgraduate Art & Design students on MSc and MA courses at Nottingham Trent University.
The exposition, which is open to the public and free admission, will take place at the university's city site between 23 September and 4 October - excluding the Sunday - between 11am and 4pm.
Susanne aims to exhibit a part for the medical device – a tubular dielectric elastomer – which has been created using her prototype rotational 3D printer.
Dr Philip Breedon, a reader in Smart Design at the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, who is overseeing the project, said: "3D printing is at the cutting edge of product design technology and Susanne's research may help shape the future of how we print tailor-made medical products and other items.
"Only by pushing the boundaries of technology like this will we be able to manufacture better products, some of which are designed to help save people's lives. I'm really hopeful that Susanne's work could lead to an important step forward in this area."
Source: Nottingham Trent University
Posted in 3D Printing Technology
Maybe you also like:
- Consumers not ready for 3D printing wave (Reuters video)
- NIST awards $7.4 Million to fund Additive Manufacturing Research
- Credit Suisse: 3D printing market will be much bigger than what industry consultants estimate
- European Commission seeks 'Capital of Innovation' to stimulate 3D printing and digital design
- NASA funds research to create stronger materials using 3D printing
- When will 3D printers print 3D printers?
- Autodesk Infographic: how 3D printers are impacting small business
- NTU in Singapore building $30 million 3D printing research centre
- 3-D Printing: The $3B Job-Creating Industry
- Analysis reveals fastest growing online jobs are in design and 3D printing
- Gartner's 2013 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies features Humans and Machines
- MTU Study: 3D printers may soon be in every home
- NASA awards $100,000 to initial analysis of 3D printing of biomaterials
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
