3D Printing News
Note: we are now including articles on plant-based foods in the field of vegan nutrition.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created 3D printed robots powered by compressed gas rather than electronics. The new models are durable and inexpensive, since they use off-the-shelf printing materials. They also are efficient in extreme environments where electronics usually fail.

Cybosense BV and SenseGlove have developed 3D printed self-healing bioelectronic and biosensing gloves. The material can sense biological, chemical, and physical signals in real time in response to gestures and environmental pressures. The haptic glove technology is used in VR training, augmented reality research, and "mission critical" tasks. The human-machine interaction provides performance monitoring in extreme environments.

3D printed tennis balls called POINT balls are composed of high resilience PLA made from cornstarch. The single material construction does away with the environmental burden of dealing with the 300 million tennis balls that get manufactured every year, each of which takes 400 years to break down when thrown away and ends up rotting in landfills. Months of research were spent to produce a tennis ball with the bounce and strength of regular balls. The International Tennis Federation is reviewing the balls and thinking about rule changes to allow their use in professional play.

3D printing is being reviewed in cancer care as a way to offer personalized therapeutic methodologies. Techniques like FDM (fused deposition modeling), SLA (stereolithography), and semisolid extrusion seem a promising avenue for making complex patient-specific structures with biological properties. These technologies produce anatomical models that improve drug delivery systems with controlled release, and aid in surgical planning. The new techniques are being applied to several types of cancer including lung, breast, colorectal and ovarian cancers.

More than 5,000 pounds of supplies have been delivered to the International Space Station by SpaceX's 33rd resupply trips. Delivered were materials for medical implants to treat nerve damage, bio-printed liver tissue to study blood vessels in microgravity, and supplies to 3D print metal cubes in space. Another theory being tested involves blocking a protein known to affect bone loss or bone health. The restocking also brought coffee, tea, and tortillas.

We return to watchmaking with the world's first 3D printed titanium watch. Based in London, Apiar's new watch aims to seamlessly integrate advanced technologies. Their Gen 1.0 uses a light-weight grade 5 and 23 titanium that is hypoallergenic and resistant to corrosion. They describe the dial as "algorithmic and skeletonized", set in a sapphire case.

NASA has come up with a 3D-printable superalloy that is durable and heat-resistant. Called GRX-810, the alloy is 1,000 times more durable at extreme temperatures than existing materials. These temperatures are found inside of jet and rocket engines. The engineers used a new technique called "resonant acoustic mixing" to coat powdered metal particles like nickel, cobalt, and chromium with nano-oxide particles which act as strengtheners. The new material, which was patented by NASA, is being produced by a Colorado-based company called Elementum 3D.

Engineers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden have devised a transparent wood that is stronger than glass. Their method removes lignin, a polymer that blocks light and gives wood its brown color, and replaces it with a transparent polymer like epoxy or acrylic. The new material fractures less than plexiglas and is about 10 times stronger than glass. It provides insulation and reduces glare. It can also change color when voltage is applied.

El Cosmico is the name given to the world's first 3D printed hotel. Now under construction in Marfa, Texas, the complex will cover 60 acres near Big Bend National Park. It will offer guest rooms, privately owned "Sunday Homes", and shared community areas. The entire project will be printed with local soil and sand to reflect the surrounding landscape.

Also from Sweden, engineers have created a "skin in a syringe" which heals burns without scarring. Their innovative method mixes fibroblast cells on gelatin beads with a hyaluronic acid gel, held together by "click chemistry". The goal is to make new skin that becomes a functioning dermis rather than scar tissue.

Reaearchers at the University of Waterloo have produced magnetic microrobots that dissolve kidney stones. The device is mounted on a robotic arm with ultrasound imaging that allows doctors to precisely guide it and hopefully avoid surgery.

Desalination plants are frequently used to turn seawater into clean drinking water. These plants, however, use a great deal of energy, making them costly and unsustainable. Engineers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed a new process with a 3D printed aerogel that requires only sunlight. They produced an aerogel from cellulose nanofibers and carbon nanotubes, shaping the gel with "frozen 3D printing". Their next step is to test the method in real life.

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed an injectible bioactive healing gel using yogurt. In mice models, the gel boosted blood vessel formation and tissue repair without any added chemicals. The hope is that they can one day produce food-derived biotechnology for human healing.

As you can see from the above controversies, many companies are using high-tech and confusing language to disguise the fact that plastics are part of their product or their process, especially in the food industry. Buyer beware. Demand an easy-to-understand explanation before you eat or buy.

We review many hundreds of articles each month, culling the most significant for you. We also welcome suggestions from our viewers for products and processes that we may have missed.

c.Corinne Whitaker 2025