3D Printers Print in Glass

A team of engineers and artists at the University of Washington has developed a way to create glass objects with a conventional 3D printer for the first time.

The team approach, which allows the procedure Vitraglyphic is monitoring the success of the Laboratory of pressure last spring with ceramics.

The 3D printing in the glass is supposed to be used in architecture and creating a whole new industry for artists.

Transparent is a good idea

Three-dimensional printers are used to build inexpensive and rapid prototypes. In a usual powder-based 3D printing system, a thin layer of powder is a platform and software required to distribute an inkjet printer to deposit ink droplets of binder solution as needed. However, glass powder doesn’t readily absorb liquid, so a new approach had to be developed.
Found by adjusting the ratio of powder to liquid in the team one way to build solid parts of the glass powder. Their successful formulation held together and fused when heated to the required temperature.
Ronald Rael, assistant professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington in its own 3D printer. Rael is working on new types of ceramic tiles that can be used for cooling by evaporation.

“3D printing in the glass is great potential for change in thinking about possible applications of glass in architecture,” said Rael. “So far there has been no good method of rapid prototyping ice, so that the test design was a costly long-term process.”