Hasta La Gadget!

We all know by now that 3D printing is the future of manufacturing—even the president says so. The march of progress doesn’t always move as quickly as we’d like, however, especially when the military-industrial complex is involved. While 3D printing machines are becoming steadily cheaper and the possibilities incredibly sophisticated, the disparate branches of the U.S. armed forces tend to move slowly, weighed down by procedure and convention. However, there’s plenty of evidence to believe that’s changing when 3D printing is concerned.

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The U.S. Army Research Office has just thrown some money the way of 4D printing—but what, exactly, is all the fuss about? This beautiful video goes a long way to showing us why the technology is so exciting.

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A materials scientist from Harvard University named Jennifer Lewis and her team have invented a new ink and printing process that allows or the manufacture of 3D printed batteries at room temperature. The scientists say that the tech is still at an early stage, but shows promise. The ink created for printing battery anodes uses nanoparticles of lithium-ion titanium extruded by a commercial 3D printer.

The material is added to a vial of deionized water and ethylene glycol. Ceramic balls are then added to help mix the solution and it’s put on a spinner for 24 hours. The resulting ink is a solid when left alone, but can be forced out of tiny openings in needles under high pressure. As soon as the material is extruded through the tiny opening in the 3D printer needle, it become solid again.

The team thinks that the technology will make it easier to 3D print electronics with their battery as one seamless piece. The lithium-ion batteries that the team is printing are as small as one square millimeter, but perform as well as commercial batteries. The tools the scientists are designing are meant to be used in manufacturing, but it’s possible they could someday produce a low-end printer for hobbyists.

[via MIT Technology Review]

3D printing has been used for all sorts of research projects over the years to make things like prototype parts and more. Scientists from Harvard have now devised a new ink and tools that allow them to 3D print lithium-ion battery components. The same process can also be used to print other electronic components using […]

3D printing has certainly taken off over the past couple of years as we’ve seen some amazing products created only using 3D printing. As impressed as we’ve been in the past over 3D printed goods, being able to 3D print batteries has just completely blown our minds.

In the past, 3D printing batteries has caused way too many issues to actually be implemented, but new inks and tools are now making the possibility of printing a 3D lithium ion battery a reality. Technology Review recently visited Harvard materials scientist Jennifer Lewis to see how her work in 3D printed batteries is coming along, and even though it’s in its early stages, it seems it won’t be too long until we are able to print out a pair of batteries. (more…)

3D-Printed Batteries May Come Sooner Than You Think original content from Ubergizmo.