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Long term, the goal of 3D bioprinting is to be able to 3D print fully functioning organs which can be used to replace the failing biological organs of humans in need of a transplant. That may still be years off, but Chicago-based biotech startup Biolife4D this week announced a major new milestone: Its ability to bioprint human cardiac tissue. The scientific landmark followed shortly after the company opened a new research facility in Houston. It involved the printing of a human cardiac patch, containing multiple cell types which make up the human heart. It could one day be used to...

As a growing manufacturing industry, 3D printing is ripe with new job opportunities from enthusiastic and applied individuals. In this latest 3D Printing Jobs update, we have open positions in both the U.S. and Europe, including vacancies in metal 3D printing, software development and design engineering. Sign up to 3D Printing Jobs now to make the most of current and upcoming positions. If you’re an employer looking to fulfil a new role, you can also post a job on our specialist site here. Happy job hunting! Design engineer / mechanical systems designer, CEL, UK CEL is a British design firm...

The southern Dutch city of Eindhoven plans to unveil the world's first 3D-printed housing complex next year, which its inventors believe could revolutionise the building industry by speeding up and customising construction. Printed in concrete by a robotic arm, the project backed by the city council, Eindhoven Technical University and several construction companies aims to see its first three-bedroomed home go up by June 2019. Known as Project Milestone, a housing complex of five homes of various shapes and sizes will be built over the next three to five years, financed by private investors, said Rudy van Gurp, one of...

A French family of five has just become the first to ever move into a fully 3D printed house. Constructed in just 54 hours, the inhabitable structure is 1,022 square feet large, and includes four bedrooms and a central living area. A French family recently became the first in the world to move into a fully 3D printed house. The spectacularly sized family home was built as a part of a project that aims to use additive manufacturing to construct buildings in a quick and affordable manner. This 3D printed home was constructed in a collaborative effort involving the University...

The housing crisis is a multi-faceted issue, based on problems such as the lack of land space, rising housing costs, and the fact not enough houses are being built. Yet, there could be a solution to the last one in the form of 3D printed homes. A city in the Netherlands, Einhoven, will be the first place in the world to have houses made by a 3D printer. Developed by the Dutch construction company Van Wijnen, in collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology, Project Milestone as it is called will see five homes built in total. These will be a...

Clinical trials are tentatively scheduled for 2020 at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's new Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine, where researchers are making miniature livers and pancreases, called organoids. Associate Director Takanori Takebe, MD, calls organoids a "complex recipe" of proteins, small molecules, amino acids and nutrients that enable him and his staff in the U.S. and Japan to make the organs using pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), or so-called "master cells." Takebe sees two roles for the manmade organs: drug testing and transplantation. "It's pretty much like science fiction, but we are trying to create the miniature version...

Late April saw the entrance of a heavyweight amid the handful of much smaller companies staking out the new territory of industrial additive manufacturing. Jabil, a $19-billion global enterprise with around 180,000 employees and over 100 facilities in 29 countries, announced the launch of the Jabil Additive Manufacturing Network as a “digital thread” to connect its additive manufacturing operations around the world, including those at its subsidiaries Nypro and Jabil Green Point, while aligning with Jabil’s software and services for supply-chain management, product development, and engineering/design. Jabil, which operates 15,000 CNC mills along with thousands of injection machines and hundreds...

A 3D printing company is using technology to bring fast, flexible and affordable housing to Englewood. The company called 3D Build Systems plans to start printing homes by the summer of 2019. The printing process can assemble a home in a matter of hours. “It simplifies in many ways the way we construct a wall, but we can do it very quickly and with a pattern that can’t be done manually,” said Don Musilli, the CEO of 3D Build Systems. The building process would require a robot to sit in the center of the home and pour concrete or other...

Erik Gatenholm first saw a 3D bioprinter in early 2015. His father, Paul, a professor in chemistry and biopolymer technology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, had bought one for his department. It cost somewhere in the region of $200,000. “My father was like, ‘This thing can print human organs,’” Gatenholm recalls, still awestruck. “I said, ‘Bulls#*+!’ Then it printed a little piece of cartilage. It wasn’t cartilage, but it was like, this could be cartilage. That was the moment when it was like, ‘This is frickin’ cool!’” Gatenholm, who had long owned a regular 3D printer, decided then...

Australian company Titomic has unveiled what it claims is the world's largest metal 3D printer at its fully automated Melbourne facility. Utilizing a patented process co-developed with Australian federal scientific research agency the CSIRO, the 3D metal printer boasts a build area 9 m long, 3 m wide and 1.5 m high (29.5 x 9.8 x 4.9 ft), however the printing process isn't constrained to this booth size, meaning it could be used to print even larger objects. The unit prints layer by layer like existing 3D printers, but rather than relying on metal powders that are fused using extreme...

EXPERTS say 3D-printed houses will be "mainstream by 2025", and could put an end to Britain's housing crisis. A new report details how Brits are less than a decade away from enjoying lower house prices thanks to a robot revolution in the construction of homes. 3D printing, or "additive manufacturing", is a process of layering up a material to build complicated structures. It works just like regular home printers – but instead of ink, a 3D printer will use materials like plastic or metal. Using giant 3D printers, it's been proven possible to quickly and cheaply build homes. Sadly the...

Imagine a world where anyone with access to a simple and affordable piece technology could produce their own deadly weapons on demand. This hypothetical future is the focus of a new report from the RAND Corporation think tank, which looks at the potential threats to personal, national and global security posed by the proliferation of 3D printing—also known as additive manufacturing (AM). Additive manufacturing is a term used to describe various technologies which produce three-dimensional objects by “printing” layer-upon-layer of a given material, while following a digital blueprint. Although the technology is currently fairly limited in some respects, it is...

If you build it, they will come. And if you 3D-print it, they will come faster, cheaper and more sustainably. We live in an era of overpopulation and mass housing shortages. Yet we also live in a time of phenomenal digital innovation. On the one hand we have major crises affecting the health, liberty and happiness of billions of people. But look at the other hand, where we have potential for life-changing technological breakthroughs at a rate never before seen on this planet. Our challenges are vast, but our capabilities to produce solutions are even greater. In the future, we...

Aether, the biotechnology company behind the multi-tool Aether 1 3D bioprinter, is developing an artificially intelligent (AI) program for 3D printing organ models. Described as the “missing piece” in the wider, 3D bioprinting puzzle, Aether’s Automatic Segmentation and Reconstruction (ASAR) process will be capable of identifying different tissues in CT Scan data and converting the results into a mutlimaterial, 3D printable file.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)According to Aether CEO Ryan Franks, “AI is the only way bioprinting can reach its full potential.” With AI, the file preparation process is automated, bringing 3D printing closer to the “click of a button” usability which is essential...

3D printing technology has been used multiple times to help create drug delivery and release systems, from programmable release capsules and cancer drug-emitting implants to micro-rockets that deliver drugs inside the body and even a biomaterial sleeve that can reduce the risk of infection after a body piercing. Some researchers are working to develop 3D printed pills and vaccines that will combine multiple medications into one, and an Israeli drug delivery company will soon seek FDA approval for its 3D printed medical marijuana inhaler, which can control the doses a person inhales. But I would bet you $20 that none...

On Wednesday morning, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation banning bump fire stocks — accessories that transform semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Already 20 Senate Democrats have co-sponsored the bill and even some wayward Republicans have promised to consider it. If successful, the bill could land on President Trump's desk, and it could become the first new gun control law in decades. And, more than likely, it could be obsolete. Bump fire stocks are made from relatively cheap polymers that can be 3-D printed. Hobbyists have posted videos of their homemade stocks in action, at least one manufacturer has actually...

Markforged, a 3D printer manufacturer based in Boston, has just announced two new models — the X3 and the X5. Both of these printers are designed to create carbon fiber-infused objects using a standard filament printing system and both can produce items that can replace or are stronger than steel objects. Both printers have auto-leveling and scanning systems to ensure each printed object is exactly like every other. Further, the printers use Markforged’s special thermoplastic fiber filament, while the X5 can add a “strand of continuous fiberglass” to create objects “19X stronger and 10X stiffer than traditional plastics.” This means...

Desktop Metal – remember the name. This Massachussetts company is preparing to turn manufacturing on its head, with a 3D metal printing system that's so much faster, safer and cheaper than existing systems that it's going to compete with traditional mass manufacturing processes. We've been hearing for years now about 3D printing and how it's going to revolutionize manufacturing. As yet, though, it's still on the periphery. Plenty of design studios and even home users run desktop printers, but the only affordable printing materials are cheap ABS plastics. And at the other end of the market, while organizations like NASA...

Hampton Creek, a plant-based food startup headquartered in San Francisco, recently announced that it will be moving into the lab-grown meat industry, and plans to have its clean meat products on shelves as soon as 2018. According to Spanish tech site ABC.es, Hampton Creek is considering using 3D printing to realize this goal. Since its founding in 2011 by Josh Balk and Joshua Tetrick (the company’s current CEO), Hampton Creek has gained a lot of attention for its plant-based food products—both good and bad. On the good side, the company has been recognized as a unicorn startup and has done...

Norsk Titanium has become a huge source of pride for people in Plattsburgh. It's a Norwegian aerospace company that makes airplane parts using high-tech, industrial, 3-D printing machines. The plant opened last year, and recently Norsk delivered its first federally approved parts for Boeing commercial airplanes. The 3-D printing technology is at the cutting edge in the aerospace industry. Business leaders have called this the next industrial revolution. We visited the company's research and testing facility to see how it works. The 3-D printers looked like long, supersized computer towers. A mechanical arm with little torches on the end shot...