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Share 3D-printed “superalloy” could make power plants more efficient...Credit: kinwun / Adobe Stock Anew high-performance metal alloy, called a superalloy, could help boost the efficiency of the turbines used in power plants and the aerospace and automotive industries. Created using a 3D printer, the superalloy is composed of a blend of six elements that altogether form a material that’s both lighter and stronger than the standard materials used in conventional turbine machinery. The strong superalloy could help industries cut both costs and carbon emissions — if the approach can be successfully scaled up. The challenge: In the world of materials...

Scientists from Osaka University used stem cells isolated from Wagyu cows to 3D-print a meat alternative containing muscle, fat, and blood vessels arranged to closely resemble conventional steaks. This work may help usher in a more sustainable future with widely available cultured meat. Wagyu can be literally translated into “Japanese cow,” and is famous around the globe for its high content of intramuscular fat, known as marbling or sashi. This marbling provides the beef its rich flavors and distinctive texture. However, the way cattle are raised today is often considered to be unsustainable in light of its outsized contribution to...

Thursday morning, the massive piece of technology used concrete to help build a 1,550-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two baths. ”It’s a home where your wall are made out of concrete instead of wood that’s it,” said Zachary Manngeimer, CEO of Alquist, a 3D printing construction firm from Iowa City. “It’s mixed in a mixing bowl and from there it goes through a tube into a printer head and that printer head is programmed to go around and print the wall system,” said Chris Thompson, Director of Virginia Housing. The process to build the walls takes about 15 hours...

A young man from Zimbabwe has been convicted in London of making and possessing two guns with a 3D printer. The gun parts were discovered during a raid searching for marijuana. From independent.co.uk: A second raid of his home in February 2018 led to the discovery of further components of another 3D printed gun.Acting Detective Sergeant Jonathan Roberts, who led the investigation, said: “We know that Muswere was planning to line the printed firearms with steel tubes in order to make a barrel capable of firing.“This conviction, which I believe is the first of its kind relating to the...

Wired UK reported on a new wave of 3D-printed gun enthusiasts sharing plans for firearms on places like Discord and online gun control forums. These would-be gunsmiths are sharing plans for everything from Glock 17 handguns to AR-15s with a renewed enthusiasm for the lawless dissemination of digital firearms blueprints. They call their group Deterrence Dispensed, which is an obvious reference to Defense Distributed, the organization that started the 3D-printed gun debate in the United States So it sounds like a like game, but it’s a game that revolves around the creation and dissemination of 3D-printed gun blueprints. The actual...

If you want a piece of 3D-printed sushi from a Japanese company exhibiting at SXSW, first they want a piece of you... A company representative explained the process. When you make a reservation, the restaurant sends you what it calls a "health test kit." You send back a biological sample -- saliva, urine, stool -- and they analyze what kinds of nutrients your body needs. "Then we add those specific nutrients to your food to 3D print out those sushi for you," the representative explained. Using a combination of proteins, vitamins, minerals and other elements, the restaurant then prints each...

3D printed organ transplants have been in the cards for a while, but deep tissue printing has proved problematic. Now a team of scientists in Korea think they have cracked the code for producing functional liver tissue by printing functional mouse liver cells. Simply put, we need more livers than we currently have as hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer are increasingly prevalent. The donor system, meanwhile, is inherently flawed. Patients face agonising treatment while they wait for a suitable liver. There is simply no guarantee they will get a matching organ in time and even if they do, there can...

Schaedler and colleagues at HRL invented a resin formulation that can be 3-D printed into parts of virtually any shape and size. The printed resin can then be fired, converting it into a high strength, fully dense ceramic. The resulting material can withstand ultrahigh temperatures in excess of 1,700 degrees Celsius (3,092 Fahrenheit) and is 10 times stronger than similar materials. Ceramics are much more difficult to work with than plastics or metals because they cannot be cast or machined easily, according to Schaedler, who is an author on the new study appearing today in the journal Science. But Schaedler's...

Shortage of organs for transplantation has been one of the most challenging endeavor that patients, families and health care providers face today. But now, a possible novel answer to organ shortage has arrived: 3D printing of substitute organs. Numerous measures have been implemented to widen the pool of organ donors all across the U.S. Interventions to address the problem of organ shortage include national programs to heighten deceased donor donation, paired donor exchanges and split organ donation, among many others. Actions to hasten public awareness, enhance efficiency of donation mechanism and standardize donation policies have resulted in remarkable rates of...

Last week, NASA announced the top 30 finalists for their 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. ... ...Sfero Bubble House design... Construction of the habitat would be begin with a long pole that would drill into the ground and from which two robotic arms would extend. One arm would suck up and sort material from the surface, while the other one would use the material to construct a dome overhead. Printed from Martian soil, the home is partially buried underground so that only the top floor is on the surface. In this space, the astronauts could maintain an indoor garden and workspace. The...

Laura Bosworth wants to 3D print breast nipples on demand. The CEO of the Texas startup TeVido Biodevices is betting on a future in which survivors of breast cancer who have undergone mastectomies will be able to order up new breasts printed from their own living cells. “Everyone,” she says, “knows a woman who has had breast cancer.” Right now their options are limited. Reconstructed nipples using state-of-the-art plastic surgery techniques, she says, “tend to flatten and fade and don’t last very long.” A living nipple built from the patient’s own fat cells, and reconstructed to the precise specification of...

Harvard scientists have developed a new bioprinting method that can create intricately patterned 3-D tissue constructs with multiple types of cells and tiny blood vessels. The work is a major step toward creating human tissue constructs realistic enough to test drug safety and effectiveness, researchers said. The method will also help bring closer the building of fully functional replacements for injured or diseased tissue that can be designed from CAT scan data using computer-aided design (CAD), printed in 3D at the push of a button. "This is the foundational step toward creating 3D living tissue," said Jennifer Lewis, senior author...

We shoot a few 3D printed 12 gauge slugs (bullets)

 A homemade submachine gun Obtaining a gun without a background check in the United States (and much of the world) is a fairly easy process, and is becoming easier all the time.  Here are some of the common methods of obtaining a gun without a background check. 1. Have someone who can pass the background check buy it for you.  This is illegal to do for someone who is forbidden from possessing guns.  It is known as a straw purchase.  The BATFE says that it is the most common method for criminals to obtain guns.   In most states it...

Recently weÂ’ve been featuring occasional prints of the Liberator (and will also have other 3D printed guns soon-ish). One of the Liberators we showed you was printed on the 3D Systems Cube in blue plastic. We didnÂ’t name the guy who did it, but heÂ’s Travis Lerol. The website Mashable did a nice mini-documentary in which they interview the media-happy Cody Wilson, and accompany Lerol to the first attempted live fire of his Liberator. Travis, an Air Force vet, comes across as an engaging geek (along with the Liberator and several AR-15 lower iterations, heÂ’s printed a scale-model TARDIS, from...

"Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns," warns the bulletin compiled by the Joint Regional Intelligence Center. The bulletin refers specifically to Defense Distributed, a nonprofit company started by a University of Texas law student, which has successfully made and fired a 3D gun whose only metal parts are the bullets and a small firing pin. Some 100,000 plans for a gun called "The Liberator" were downloaded in just...

3D Printer-extraordinaire WarFairy has expanded his P90-styled Charon printable AR-15 lower from a single design into an entire line of printable rifle and pistol lowers.The original Charon receiver design has been upgraded to version 0.2. The updated model features a thicker magazine well with a finger hook (I am sure someone more knowledgable than I can explain in the comments below what finger hooks are for … ).The most exciting new addition to the Charon line is the Carbine, Adjustable Stock. The stock on this model slides out from under the buffer tube to adjust the length of pull. The length of pull is adjustable...

Image from Defense Distributed The DEFCAD community has released an upgraded version of the Defense Distributed Liberator 3D printed pistol. As they are individuals on the Internet and not an organization, they have never received a letter from any government entity asking them not to distribute computer files.Improvements include barrels for the .25 ACP cartridge and for the .45 ACP cartridge. No information was supplied to determine if any test firing of these cartridges has been done. I suspect that the .25 ACP version would work, but I have doubts about the .45 ACP barrel. While the working pressures are...

Image from Defense DistributedAustralian police in New South Wales have printed out two versions of the liberator 3D printed pistol and tested them to destruction. No technical details of the testing were released, just videos of the guns blowing up. The video does not show any cartridges used, nor does it detail the type of plastic used. These are critical elements for anyone trying to actually understand what happened. Without this information, the video is just political theater, propaganda designed to frighten timid people away from this technology. Compare the test fire shown in the New South Wales video with...

This video was found at Defense Distributed. It shows the test firing of the Lulz Liberator, a $25 3D printed pistol. It is only 30 seconds long, so it has been edited to only show the firing. The video loads quickly. Defense Distributed labels it as "For Australia". Link to Gun Watch and Video