World’s Smallest & Cheapest 3D Printer From Vienna University of Technology

Markus Hatzenbichler and Klaus Stadlmann, from the University of Vienna, proudly endorsed a 3D printer in the university’s press release today. The printer the team has made is said to be the world’s smallest 3D printer and also the cheapest one.

It’s been years that the printers which can even produce three dimensional objects are available out there. However at Vienna University, people from various scientific fields came together to produce world’s smallest 3D printer. The research team includes Professor Jürgen Stampfl and Professor Robert Liska who is a chemical researcher. The press release says that with this small printer anyone will be able to produce small taylor made 3D objects at home from the building plans. This will help to reduce the cost incurred on expensive custom-built spare parts.The basic principle of working of a 3D printer is easy to understand. It makes use of a special type of resin which has a property of hardening on incidence of intense light upon it. So the object to be printed can be made out of a chunk of a tub of resin. The resin is hardened layer by layer by incidence of intense light beam just at the correct spots and then such hardened layers are attached one upon another to form the object.

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The new 3D printer is not however made for use in bulk production scheme because there are other cheaper alternatives. This printer focuses on cheap production of special and custom objects. The printer is small in size and weighs 1.5(Kg) which makes it quite portable. The cost for one printer is just 1200 Euros. Along with these features, the printer has a high resolution. The minimum thickness of the hardened layers can be as small as one twentieth of a millimeter. This is because unlike traditional printers, this one uses LEDs which emit highly intense light with maximum perfection. It enables its’ use in construction of high precision objects such as hearing aids.

The new printer also shows great versatility, and can produce anything right from medical spare part or self designed jewellery or special motor spare parts. Thus much complex 3D devices with specified mechanical, optical and thermal properties can be built at a cheaper rate.

The researcher group is also working on synthesis of new cheap material that can be used to form objects. The traditional costly polymers can also be replaces with eco friendly and bio degradable substances. The release also claims that objects produced with this printer out of proper materials could very well act as collars to support natural growth of bones inc case of a fracture or so.
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