While visiting the Hamlin Center at Imperial College in London, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, were amazed to see 3D micro-printing for the first time on a NanoScribe 3D printer.
German-based 3D printing company NanoScribe GmbH, which specializes in nano- and micro- 3D printing, has engineered the Photonic Professional GT to allow micro-printing objects that are sometimes visible to the human eye. are too small for.
Professor Yang was able to impress President Xi Jinping and Prince Andrew with this successful 3D printing technology, which uses a process called two-photon polymerization and incorporates a pulsed laser that works layer by layer like other 3D printers. The layer connects molecules to form objects. except at the nano level.
The result of this process is an incredibly detailed nano-print, which can be used in the medical field for anything from making tiny trinkets to saving lives.
For the incoming Chinese president, the team at Imperial College London 3D printed a modeled section of the Great Wall of China, which measured only 100 micrometers (the width of a human hair), while Prince Andrew was given an even smaller panda print. received, measured. Amazingly small 50 micrometers.
“The height of a panda is about 50 micrometers, or half the width of a human hair”, said Maura Power, a PhD student at Imperial College London, who is using this advanced printing technology under the supervision of Professor Guang-zhong Yang.
With this technology, finely detailed prints can be made as small as 150 nanometers, and the Nanoscribe printer is certainly capable of creating much more substantial objects beyond small gifts and relics.
As thoughtful and unique as these nano-printed gifts may be, the potential implications of nanoscribing’s photonic professional GT point to a development much more important than micro-replication artifacts and figures.
This printing technology is being used to develop advanced medical methods that can replace previously difficult processes such as delivering drugs via micro-robots, targeting specific cancer cells, and even It will help in assisting with the operation of the eyes.
But as surprising and serious as the potential of the Photonic Professional GT 3D nano-printer can be, sometimes a playful print of a microscopic panda or the Great Wall of China is all that is needed to showcase the Nanoscribe’s true innovative spirit.
Researchers at the Hamlin Center showed the president the size of 3D objects narrower than a human hair. She and the Duke of York, who were also visiting the college, were presented with small gifts showcasing the outstanding capabilities of high-tech 3D printers.
While Xi Jingping could have taken home a section of the Chinese Great Wall on the micrometer scale, Prince Andrew found a panda leaping over a bamboo that was printed on the tip of a needle. “The height of a panda is about 50μm, or half the width of a human hair,” explained Maura Power, a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Yang at the Hamlin Center.
The cutting edge technology underlying this 3D printing process is called two-photon polymerization (2PP). This allows Hamlin Center researchers to develop previously impossible medical treatments and devices, such as swimming microrobots for targeted drug delivery as well as ultra-small devices for microsurgery.