INSTANT OBJECTS

Printing holograms - in seconds

Dateline: 16 December 2020
Let's say you need a couple of shiny, glittery baubles for your festival tree, or maybe something to fix the garden hose. Now, if you can imagine it, it's there in seconds!
Back in 2017, scientists at MIT demonstrated that it was possible to print things in 3D resin, using lasers and a holographic image. Starting with a beaker full of photosensitive liquid polymer, they exposed the resin to a set of three intersecting lasers, which caused the liquid to harden, but only at the point of maximum exposure.
But let's rewind a bit. The first high-speed liquid printing was demonstrated by Carbon, who developed a system for hardening polymer resins using ultraviolet lasers, layer by tiny layer, until the 3D object was drawn from the puddle of goo, like Terminator.
Now the science has advanced to a whole new level, where objects can be designed in 3D, complete with colour mapping and textured surfaces. As long as you can project the hologram with sufficient resolution, you can create the solid shape from a bowl of transparent liquid.
That's where the magic lies. Nano molecules adopt colour and hardness depending on the frequency of laser light they are exposed to, so with the right software, and suitable goo, you can create almost any object you like.
And it only takes a few seconds.
Published: 21 December 2017
Links to related stories
1. Laser holograms create 3D-printed objects in seconds, no layering required - New Atlas, 11 December 2017
2. New Liquid-Based 3D Printer Takes Minutes, Not Hours - Popular Science, 17 March 2015
3. Start-up Developing Hologram-based 3D Printing Technology - 3D Printing, 22 February 2017
4. MindBullet: PHYSICAL NEEDS, DIGITAL SOLUTIONS (Dateline 3 November 2022, Published 2 November 2017)
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Comments

Doug Vining

Doug Vining 3D printing times 4-in-1

Perhaps it should be called 12D printing, but that would be trite. An experimental multi-manufacturing printer that uses four different printing methods in a single layer has been shown to be able to print complete electronic components. SO in the future, you could just download the latest smartphone and print it out, complete with battery, screen, internal electronics and speaker. All in one operation.
A FuturesForum post (titled: "3D printing times 4-in-1") refers to this MindBullet. The full FuturesForum post can be read here: http://www.futureworld.org/PublicZone/FuturesForum/BlogDetails.aspx?PostID=ea19e3e9-d3ef-46df-a3db-f1db05ab542f
Posted: 23 March 2018 at 13:32
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