TU Vienna Demonstrates World’s Fastest High-Precision 3D Printer

Some of us have seen images or videos of 3D printers before, but none quite like this one. The Vienna University of Technology, among the most successful technical universities in Europe and Austrias largest scientific, technical research and educational institution, is proud to show off the world’s fastest 3D nano-precision printer. According to Professor Jrgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna, The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second our device can do five meters in one second.

Using “two-photon lithography”, it can fabricate structures on a nanometer scale using liquid resin which is then hardened at precise locations by a focused laser beam. Chemists are hard at work developing bio-compatible resins for medical purposes, such as printing scaffolds from which human organs can be grown by attaching the appropriate cells, greatly reducing the time a patient spends awaiting a transplant. As an example of the precision of this 3D printer, pictured below is a racecar which measures only 285m (0.01122 inches) in length. The printing process took only 4 minutes.