STEM in pictures: Nano 3D Printing

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Dear All,
this castle was 3D-printed on the tip of a pencil!

The Austrian startup Upnano is specialized in doing fast and affordable high-resolution 3D prints down to the nanometer range! The troughput is up to 200 mm³ per hour. Bioprinting is also possible in the presence of living cells. A proprietary software is included, so it is a one-stop shop to produce extremely delicate 3D prints. I was not aware that 3D printing was that advanced. I had a basic course on this subject app. 2 years ago, but all was quite complicated and the open-code software seemed not particularly user-friendly.

Upnano uses 2-photon polymerization (2PP) for 3D printing vs. the classical 1-photon based processes (such as stereolithography). The 2-photon absorption (2PA) probability significantly reduces beyond the focus point, thus also the fluorescent volume is lowered, resulting in higher spatial resolution. While 1-photon based processes are produced layer by layer, the 2PP parts can be produced in a predefined volume with a resolution of less than 1 µm.
The throughput is further increased by the Upnano adaptive resolution technology which classifies the selected structures in high and low-resolution areas and adapts the laser voxel size accordingly.

Since at this size any dust particle can harm, their printers create a sterile environment within the printing chamber, but otherwise work in normal office condition.

What else can they print apart from castles?

E.g. microporous filter elements with a pore size as small as 5 µm...
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or fully functioning roller bearing cores consisting of ten freely movable rollers (fabricated in one single print job):
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I only recently learned about this small company which was founded in 2018 as a Spin-Off from the Technical University of Vienna.

A wide (and increasing ) range of applications uses nano 3D printing, but existing solutions are limited and expensive. Material engineering, package industry (nano labelling), microoptics, microfluidics, electronic, biomedical and cell research among others, are potential areas of use.

Upnano is not yet listed on an exchange, so look out for the IPO! With their breakthrough technology I think they are also a good investment opportunity (hence the #leofinance tag).

Anybody here experienced in 3D printing? What do you think about this?

Sources:
https://factorynet.at/a/nano-3d-druck-klein-kleiner-upnano (German)
https://www.upnano.at/

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9 comments
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2 words: 3D NAND. Printing the future of computer memory?

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It would be neat to see it in action, how long did that take to make the rollers? I didn't know they could do that, it's been so long since I looked at the technology.

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The roller bearing core in total took less than 2 hours according to the description:
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Schon abgefahren wenn man sieht was mittlerweile so möglich ist! Schade das es aber irgendwie nach wie vor keinen vernünftigen Tag für 3D Druck gibt, oder ich habe ihn einfach noch nicht gefunden 🤔

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Ein tag darf nicht mit einer Zahl beginnen, daher scheidet das naheliegende #3d... aus. Ziemlich dumm, diese Regel.

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Es gab aber eine Zeit da was das möglich, ich glaube noch bei Steem... Naja printing ist auch okay

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It's fantastic but frightening as well at the same time. As long as we do not interfere with living organisms (plant, animal, human) and use it for peaceful purposes, there is no problem. If this nano-stuff gets into a living organism, it will have unpredictable consequences! I do not want a transhumanist future!

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