One of the biggest advantages of ABS is its ability to be smoothed with acetone, an organic solvent. But how does the smoothing process work and how can you do it safely?
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Electrochromic technology enables layers that can change color or become transparent using an electrical current. Compared to other color-changing technologies such as photochromism and thermochromism, electrochromic devices can be perfectly controlled to achieve the desired transparency at any time. While the technology has been discovered almost 50 years ago, only recently have commercial applications emerged, mainly in electrochromic glass for automotive rearview mirrors and airplane windows.
5 minutes read
NanoXplore has been a pioneer in commercialising graphene. Many know it for its ambitious activities in breaking down the cost and availability barrier of graphene by massively scaling up a well-engineered production process. This is a prerequisite for market development but is not sufficient.
Computer simulation methods from NIST help speed up the search for carbon capture materials.
When you ask people to name a few cutting-edge technologies, they’ll probably mention artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles, perhaps synthetic biology… but probably not welding.
3 minutes read
Inspired by the way termites build their nests, researchers at Caltech have developed a framework to design new materials that mimic the fundamental rules hidden in nature's growth patterns.
4 minutes read
Gas turbines are widely used for power generation and aircraft propulsion. According to the laws of thermodynamics, the higher the temperature of an engine, the higher the efficiency. Because of these laws, there is an emerging interest in increasing turbines’ operating temperature.
Meet companies and researchers working on making steel with renewable energy and fewer emissions.
6 minutes read
Canadian researchers have discovered that they can stick hydrogel plasters to the skin very effectively using ultrasound. Outi Supponen has now explained the underlying mechanism: imploding bubbles that form within the adhesive located between the plaster and the skin anchor the one on the other.
2 minutes read
A future-proof plastics industry will include biobased products and a closed loop of production and product recycling.
Magnetism is a force exerted by charged particles in motion that allows them to attract/repel other moving charged particles. The universal phenomenon is responsible for shaping the world as we know it.
Carnegie Mellon engineering researchers develop a groundbreaking process to 3D print tiny microscale ice structures for applications in biomedical engineering, advanced manufacturing, and possibly in art.
4 minutes read
Stereolithography is an excellent choice for rapid prototyping and project designs that require the production of very accurate and finely detailed parts. It also offers a broad range of different materials with a range of tensile strengths, flexibility and elongation to break point.
4 minutes read
Polymateria are British innovators and inventors of the world’s first self-destructing plastic technology. The company approached Protolabs for digital manufacturing support in raising awareness of the issue and their ground-breaking technology that could ultimately help solve it.
7 minutes read
Advancements in 3D printing have helped to lower the cost of robotics innovation by more than 40,000x! This article explains how that happened and highlights 5 categories of end-use robotics components that can be made on-demand with additive manufacturing today.
5 minutes read
