Page 42 - Glass Machinery Plants & Accessories no. 4-2019

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Science and technology

The author
LISA MCDONALD

Lisa McDonald is science writer for The American Ceramic
Society. She has a master’s in science communication from
Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, and bachelor’s
in physics and communication from Coe College in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa.

melting the starting material so deposits droplets of binder solu- molten glass. Their project, called
it can be moulded into a desired tion on a thin layer of powder, G3DP (Glass 3D Printing), used
form. For polymers, only a cou- and the binder and powder react printed glass as both art and sci-
ple hundred degrees Celsius are to bind particles together and ence.
required to initiate material melt. create a 3D object.
But for glass, you need tem- Then in 2015, a start-up 3D ADVANCES IN 2017
peratures well over a thousand printing company based in Israel 2017 saw both Micron3DP
degrees Celsius for melting to called Micron3DP developed a and MIT improve on their 2015
take place. system for 3D printing molten technologies. First, in March,
In 2015, ACerS reported on glass. Using a process similar to Micron3DP completed installa-
some of the first groups to pre- conventional fused filament fabri- tion of its first fully operational
mier 3D-glass-printing techno- cation techniques – except much high-resolution glass 3D printers
logies. In the almost four years hotter – Micron3DP created 3D inside its Kfar-Saba facility – and
since then, what new advances objects using two types of glass: subsequently began negotiations
have been made in glass 3D soda lime and borosilicate. for external beta testing. Then,
printing? Not long after Micron3DP’s in April, MIT demonstrated the
announcement, scientists from results of G3DP2, its second
FROM POWDER TO MOLTEN the Massachusetts Institute of glass 3D printing project, during
GLASS Technology’s Mediated Matter Milan Design Week.
Prior to 2015, some groups group and MIT Glass Lab Yet despite the novelty of suc-
found success 3D printing using announced they too developed a cessfully 3D printing molten
glass powders. In these powder- method to heat glass to high tem- glass, this method of 3D print-
based systems, an inkjet printer peratures and then 3D print the ing has drawbacks – particularly

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