Scientists have created a new method that allows them to 3-D print optically transparent glass objects.
In the past researchers have attempted to 3-D print glass objects, but the high temperatures required to manipulate the material proved to be a major roadblock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported. Previous printing methods that melded together tiny particles at low temperatures produced cloudy materials, but this new high-temperature technique creates objects that are both strong and transparent.
In the new system, molten glass created in glassblowing kiln is placed into a hopper at the top of the device, and the completed product is then cut away from a moving platform on which it was assembled. The hopper and nozzle used to squeeze the molten glass are kept at temperatures of a scorching 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit.
"We can [now] design and print components with variable thicknesses and complex inner features - unlike glassblowing, where the inner features reflect the outer shape," said Neri Oxman, an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab. "We can control solar transmittance. ... Unlike a pressed or blown-glass part, which necessarily has a smooth internal surface, a printed part can have complex surface features on the inside as well as the outside, and such features could act as optical lenses."
The researchers hope that in the future, the method could be used to produce large glass structures that could revolutionize modern construction.
"Could we surpass the modern architectural tradition of discrete formal and functional partitions, and generate an all-in-one building skin that is at once structural and transparent?" Oxman asked. "Because glass is at once structural and transparent, it is relatively easy to consider the integration of structural and environmental building performance within a single integrated skin."
The breakthrough was published in a recent edition of the Journal of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.
