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posted by martyb on Friday September 07 2018, @02:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the sounds-good-to-me! dept.

Printing with sound

Harvard University researchers have developed a new printing method that uses soundwaves to generate droplets from liquids with an unprecedented range of composition and viscosity. This technique could enable the manufacture of many new biopharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food, and expand the possibilities of optical and conductive materials. "By harnessing acoustic forces, we have created a new technology that enables myriad materials to be printed in a drop-on-demand manner," said Jennifer Lewis, the Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and
the senior author of the paper.

[...] Liquid droplets are used in many applications, from printing ink on paper to creating microcapsules for drug delivery. Inkjet printing is the most common technique used to pattern liquid droplets, but it's only suitable for liquids that are roughly 10 times more viscous than water. Yet many fluids of interest to researchers are far more viscous. For example, biopolymer and cell-laden solutions, which are vital for biopharmaceuticals and bioprinting, are at least 100 times more viscous than water. Some sugar-based biopolymers could be as viscous as honey, which is 25,000 times more viscous than water.

[...] The researchers built a subwavelength acoustic resonator that can generate a highly confined acoustic field resulting in a pulling force exceeding 100 times the normal gravitation forces (1 G) at the tip of the printer nozzle — that's more than four times the gravitational force on the surface of the sun. This controllable force pulls each droplet off of the nozzle when it reaches a specific size and ejects it toward the printing target. The higher the amplitude of the soundwaves, the smaller the droplet size, irrespective of the viscosity of the fluid.

Also at Engadget.

Acoustophoretic printing (open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat1659) (DX)


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday September 07 2018, @05:56AM (1 child)

    by Bot (3902) on Friday September 07 2018, @05:56AM (#731654) Journal

    my guess
    new printer $200
    new ink $2
    electric bill $200
    visit to the otorhino $20 outside the USA, $700 in the USA, insurance won't pay as it's not ruled an accident

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday September 07 2018, @10:43AM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday September 07 2018, @10:43AM (#731694) Journal

    "visit to the otorhino"

    Bless you!

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