/ News
New 3D printing techniques raise potential of free-standing metal structures
3D printing has started to involve everything from custom plastic casts toduck's feet. Now, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a 3D printing technique that can create a variety of stable free-standing structures from liquid metal at room temperature.
While 3D printing of plastic objects has become almost commonplace, creating 3D structures out of metal is still a rarity. NASA has demonstrated a technique using “selective laser melting“ to produce intricate metal parts such as rocket engine components, but this requires the use of a high energy laser.
As Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State, explains, it is difficult to create structures from liquids, as they have a tendency to bead. "We’ve found that a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium reacts to the oxygen in the air at room temperature to form a ‘skin’ that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes."
Unlike processes that pattern metal "in plane," – or on one level – the team has developed multiple techniques that allow the creation of liquid metal structures that reach up or down, which is valuable in the connection of electrical components in three dimensions.
A thin (about 1 nm thick), passivating oxide skin forms rapidly on the surface of the liquid metal and stabilizes the microstructures despite the low viscosity and large surface energy of the liquid. Because the structures have a liquid center retained by only a thin film, the shape tends to be fragile while free-standing.
"They won't fall apart on their own weight (which is what makes this cool), but if you touched them or shook them with enough vigor, they would break," says Dickey.
One of the techniques to print these metal structures involves stacking droplets of liquid metal on top of each other, like "stacking oranges at the supermarket," according to the researchers. In this way, the droplets retain their shape as they adhere to each other.
Another method injects the liquid metal into a polymer template and the metal forms take that specific shape. Once injected, the template is dissolved, leaving the liquid metal in the molded shape.
The team is developing similar techniques for creating liquid metal wires, which retain their shape even when held perpendicular to the substrate. There is even potential to use them in various electronics applications and in conjunction with established 3D printing technologies.
The researchers are exploring how the new techniques could be used in conjunction with established 3D printing technologies and attempting to utilize these new structures for embedding in electronics. "For any practical device, they would need to be embedded in some other material," Dickey explains. "In our paper, we show that you can print a wire (in this case, that connects two LEDs) and embed it in elastomer (polymer) to make stretchable electrical connections."
The team's paper appears online in Advanced Materials.
The video below demonstrates the stacking technique.
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/tiny-3d-structures-created-from-liquid-metal/28217/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru