3D printing is a cool and multi-purpose technology that has countless applications. However, so far, it has been limited by one thing, and that is the size of the 3D printer.

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That may soon change.

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A team from UC San Diego has developed a foam that can expand to up to 40 times its original size.

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“In modern manufacturing, it is a widely accepted limitation that the parts patterned by an additive or subtractive manufacturing process (i.e., a lathe, mill, or 3D printer) must be smaller than the machine itself that produced them. Once such parts are manufactured, they can be postprocessed, fastened together, welded, or adhesively bonded to form larger structures.” reads the study ‘s abstract. “We have developed a foaming prepolymer resin for lithographic additive manufacturing, which can be expanded after printing to produce parts up to 40× larger than their original volume. This allows for the […]

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