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Entries in electronics (2)

Wednesday
Nov112009

Get Ready for Printed Electronics

DateWednesday, November 11, 2009 |



We were all quite impressed when the RepRap printer managed to reproduce itself some months ago. But in fact the reproduction was only of its structural members, whereas the metal bits and electronics were not actually reproduced. No worries, it will eventually happen. Metal printing has emerged in several 3D print services, but what about the electronics? It's hard to do because conductive material typically has very high melting points - so high that it would burn or melt surrounding 3D printed material if you tried to print the wiring.

Recently a big step towards electronics printing occurred. Xerox has invented a new type of "Silver Ink", purportedly for 2D inkjet-style printing. However, we suspect this might also be ideal for 3D printers. Imagine an Objet printer (capable of handling two different print materials simultaneously) loaded with plastic and "silver ink". You could theoretically print objects with embedded (albeit simple) electronics. Well, wiring at least.

Via PhysOrg (Hat tip to Micah)

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Friday
Jul172009

Battery Printing

DateFriday, July 17, 2009 |

 
Leslie Gordon of Machine Design.com writes on the possibilities of printing electronics, and specifically batteries.

We all know that 3D printers can easily create cases for electronics, but what about the electronics themselves? This is difficult to achieve on traditional one-material-at-a-time 3D commercial printers, but experiments being undertaken by the fab kit makers is beginning to yield some results. According to Gordon, it's now possible to print a battery:

Researchers developed a battery with zinc as the anode and air as the cathode because of the design’s simplicity.

First came development of a zinc-powder suspension that did not clog the syringe nozzle. Next came designing the separation layer between the anode and cathode. In commercial batteries, this layer is often paper. In contrast, the layer in the zinc-air battery is made from ceramic slurry or a synthetic resin.


These 3D printed batteries are apparently only half the capacity of commercial equivalents, but it's definitely a great start. We think the most interesting aspect would be the ability to print batteries of any shape - suitable to include within designs with limited volume.

Via Machine Design.com

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