A startup hopes to develop not only graphene materials for 3D printers, but a 3D printer designed for graphene printing. But we’re not so sure.
But wait, what’s graphene, you ask? It’s a miracle substance: pure carbon arranged in sheets that are only one atom thick. This peculiar arrangement permits graphene to be incredibly strong for its weight as well as an excellent conductor of both heat and electricity. Should this material become 3D printable, it could theoretically enable printing of incredibly strong objects, even if they are very small and thin. You could also print electrical traces and heat sinks, for instance.
Announced late last year, Graphene Labs, a supplier of raw graphene to industry and academia, joined with Lomiko Metals to begin development of 3D printable graphene materials, which we suspect would begin by simply mixing graphene bits with standard 3D printable polymers and then moving on to more complex graphene products.
So far these products have not yet emerged, while it appears 3D Graphene Labs is positioning for major investments to develop them. We also saw some questionable evidence of an unusual corporate move that occurred earlier this year, whereby a “reverse merger” with an existing public company may have taken place to provide an immediate public stock listing.
On 3D Graphene Labs’ site as of this writing there doesn’t appear to be significant evidence of any graphene products for 3D printing. If you’re looking for a graphene 3D printer, perhaps you’d best look elsewhere for now.
Via 3D Graphene Lab and The Financial Post (Hat tip to Scott)