Originally shared by Giovanni Totaro (Vanni)
3D-Printing with Liquid Metal at Room Temperature #cool
Video on YouTube
Article on CNET by @Amanda_Kooser
«Researchers took a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium at room temperature and made (…) a 3D figure. (…) The researchers have spent years developing a method of 3D-printing liquid metal at room temperature. (…) The process uses a syringe needle to dollop tiny spheres of metal together. A thin oxide skin holds it all together and prevents the printed structures from just collapsing into metal blobs. (…) The extruded wires are both flexible and stretchable, opening up possibilities for 3D-printing connections between electronic components (…) and even applications like headphone wires where flexibility and the ability to self-heal could improve durability.»
Source: CNET.
Article on NewScientist by @Jacob_Aron
Full (free) Paper
“3D Printing of Free Standing Liquid Metal Microstructures”
by Collin Ladd, Ju-Hee So, John Muth, and Michael D. Dickey
researchers at North Carolina State University
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201301400/pdf
One of the researchers on Reddit
“I spent four freaking years not being able to show this project to the public: 3-D liquid metal printing”
#science #3dprinting #metals
