Two PhD students have been awarded DKK 250,000 by the Paul V. Andersen Foundation to develop a 3D printer with the capacity to print in a resolution of 10 micrometres.
The two students, Rodrigo Pimentel from DTU Nanotech and Michael Mischkot from DTU Mechanical Engineering, are convinced that there is plenty of room for improvement in the sphere of 3D printers. The 3D printers commonly available today are ‘only’ able to print in a resolution of around 100 micrometres (1/1000 mm). This is not good enough for users researching in the field of biomedical technology, such as Rodrigo Pimentel.
“The ability to print in a higher resolution will make a big difference for the development of prostheses, for example, or when designing systems for lab experiments. There are, of course, many other areas where a printer of that accuracy would make a huge difference,” he says, adding that their work is sure to benefit immensely from the grant from the foundation.
“We have a number of ideas about how to tackle the problem. But it’s not certain—of course—that we’ll make the right choices straight away. So this grant is hugely important in the context of achieving our goal of constructing a printer that works just the way we want. At the same time, it will put us in a much stronger position once the machine is finished and ready for launching,” says Rodrigo Pimentel.
The DKK 250,000 to develop the printer comes from the Poul V. Andersens Foundation, where DTU President Anders Bjarklev, Director Hans Nørgaard Andersen from DTU Mechanical Engineering and Professor Knut Conradsen from DTU Compute are all members of the board. Knut Conradsen relates that through this grant, the foundation is looking to create new partnerships across traditional academic boundaries at DTU:
“The most interesting innovation often arises in the interface between different academic competencies. That is why we are prioritizing new and interdisciplinary—partnerships that involve high levels of innovation and willingness to take risks,” he says.
In future, the foundation will be distributing grants once a year.
Article in DTUavisen no. 2, February 2015.