Monday, 3 December 2012
"3D-printing” your own gadgets at home in the near future. The think tanks at the University have created a simple and inexpensive conductive plastic composite that can be used to produce electronic devices using the 3D printing process.
The material has been dubbed
“Carbomorph” and will allow printing of electronic tracks and sensors
right into the 3D printed object, in the process, allowing the printed
gadget to have touch-sensitive areas. The team has successfully managed
to print out game controllers with touch sensitive buttons and mugs that
can tell how full they are. What’s next is to take this process further
and “print” more complex designs, including wires requires to connect
devices to computers.
Dr. Simon Leigh, lead researcher at UW’s
Department of Engineering said: "It's always great seeing the complex
and intricate models of devices such as mobile phones or television
remote controls that can be produced with 3D printing,
but that's it, they are invariably models that don't really function.
We set about trying to find a way in which we could actually print out a
functioning electronic device from a 3D printer.”
