The 3D printer uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer, just a few hundred nanometers wide. This high resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand. Until now, this technique used to be quite slow, says Professor Jrgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna. The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second our device can do five meters in one second. In two-photon lithography, this is a world record.
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The video shows the 3d-printing process in real time. Due to the very fast guiding of the laser beam, 100 layers, consisting of approximately 200 single lines each, are produced in four minutes.
A model of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. Credit: Klaus Cicha
The London Tower Bridge. Credit: Klaus Cicha
Because of the dramatically increased speed, much larger objects can now be created in a given period of time. This makes two-photon-lithography an interesting technique for industry. At the TU Vienna, scientists are now developing bio-compatible resins for medical applications. They can be used to create scaffolds to which living cells can attach themselves facilitating the systematic creation of biological tissues. The 3d printer could also be used to create tailor made construction parts for biomedical technology or nanotechnology.
Provided by Vienna University of Technology
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3D-printer with nano-precision
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