Sub-second volumetric 3D printing by synthesis of holographic light fields
nature.com43 points by zdw 4 days ago
43 points by zdw 4 days ago
Figure 5g: not that impressive a Benchy. But printed much faster, presumably.
For lazy folks like me https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10114-5/figures/5
> not that impressive
Until you see the scale bar
They're printing 12 μm features (fig 4h). For high speed mass production of more or less arbitrary geometry with no need to retool it's seriously impressive.
ELI5?
Is this a Star Trek replicator or what?
I believe this happens inside a liquid substrate that cures (hardens) when exposed to light. Instead of building up a shape by exposing a series of flat layers (stacked on top of eachother) one at a time, this exposes the entire 3d shape at once, using holograms.
That replicator involved arbitrary chemistry, so except for fans of polymer flavored “chicken” nuggets, no. :)
But if they can scale up dimensions it is a big opportunity.
Or scale down dimensions.
Or scale up resolution.
Or scale up the throughput for manufacturing small complex parts. Not just one part at a time but many parts in proximity at a time, a bit like chip production.
All four seem likely now that the principle has been proven.