3D printing in glass

The Solheim Rapid Prototyping Lab at the University of Washington was in the news last March for developing a new 3D printing process that uses ceramic powder as an inexpensive alternative to the pricier substrates that are currently the de facto standard for powder-bed processes. Well they’ve done it again, this time with glass powder, which is formed into an object by layerwise application of a liquid binder. When the part is complete, it can be sintered in a kiln to produce a continuous glass object. The official UW online press release includes a telling quote from lab co-director Mark Ganter: “It became clear that if we could get a material into powder form at about 20 microns we could print just about anything.”