Recycled Material Printing, Bioprinted Cartilage, Workable Tungsten: 3 Exciting New 3D Printed Technologies to Keep an Eye On

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Lab recently collaborated with engineers from Cincinnati, Inc. to print large parts using recycled materials. Cincinnati is the company behind the Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) machine that can print parts 8-feet by 20 feet and lays about 80 pounds per hour, typically commodity pellet thermoplastics. A recent ORNL and Cincinnati demonstration showed the ability to print multiple materials through a single extruder and recycled composites in large-scale applications. The team installed a dual-feed system on the BAAM that allowed them to print with multiple materials using one extruder. They produced a 400-pound, 10-foot long mold out of recycled carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic and syntactic foam in seven hours. The mold replicated a single facet of a precast concrete tool.