News

WISCONSIN-MADISON SCIENTISTS 3D PRINT ARTERIES TO ENABLE REAL-TIME BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison University (UW-Madison) have 3D printed blood vessels that enable cardiac patients to monitor their blood pressure remotely. The research team’s implantable tubular structures emit piezoelectric pulses which act to alert patients …

UW-Madison Engineers Partner with Industry to Produce Supplies to Combat COVID19

MADISON — University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers are working with Madison-area manufacturers, the design consulting firm Delve, and campus colleagues on a product to help meet urgent and growing demand for medical face shields — key …

Focus on new faculty: Lianyi Chen, taking metal additive manufacturing to the next level

When it comes to producing metal parts with very complex geometries, additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing) beats conventional manufacturing methodshands down. And additive manufacturing offers the potential to create metallic parts with desirable …

Engineering for Improved Quality of Life

Alejandro Roldan-Alzate, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and radiology, is working to improve the quality of life of young patients with congenital heart defects, sometimes even before the patient is born. “There’s always a …

From Molecules to Systems: A New Era of Multidimensional 3D Printing

This project will revolutionize 3D printing by establishing an era of multidimensional synthesis that enables a broad spectrum of disparate, yet cooperative materials to be brought together into single, multifunctional parts. With this capability, scientists, …

Cheap, Fast 3D Printing is the Goal of Factory Envisioned by Madison Engineers

“There are lots of companies out there that aren’t able to easily prototype, before they get an idea of whether they’ll be able to make a lot of money in the market,” said Evan Wolfenden, …

UW-Madison Doctors 3D Print Nose for Foster Dog

Gemma is undergoing extensive treatment and is set to have bone, skin and fur replacement. Help will come from the University of Wisconsin – Madison Veterinary Care hospital, along with a fur donation from a …

Light provides control for 3D printing with multiple materials

UW-Madison researchers realized that a one-vat, multiple-component approach — similar to a chemist’s one-pot approach when synthesizing molecules — would be more practical than multiple reservoirs with different materials in 3D printing.  Read the full …

UW-Madison Students Design New Legs for Disabled Cat

A young cat gets a second chance, thanks to a group of UW-Madison engineering students. Read the full story HERE.

Advancing additive manufacturing by slashing support

With 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, a machine creates a part by adding material in layers, building the object from the ground up. Because each new layer needs to be supported by the …

WKOW: Groundbreaking UW-Madison research helping babies with heart defects

WKOW 27 reports on groundbreaking research from UW-Madison Department of Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Alejandro Roldán-Alzate’s lab that is enabling better treatments for babies with congenital heart defects. In a collaboration with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine …

Accelerating materials development to advance clean energy production

A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has received a $1.8 million grant to develop new materials for multiple uses, including the ability to withstand the corrosive environment within a molten salt nuclear reactor. The …

3D Printing: The Next Dimension

Remember when Captain Picard commanded the replicator on the Enterprise to make a cup of Earl Grey tea?“Well, we can’t make the tea, but we can [print] the cup,” Thoma says. The concept is simple enough, Thoma says. Conventional manufacturing methods …

Students use cool tools to solve local problems in summer Makerspace course

Walk by Union South and you might hear the faint buzz of power tools. It’s the hum of creativity in the UW Makerspace next door in Wendt Commons, where students design and build whatever they can …

Shiva Rudraraju Explores Materials to Make Metal 3D Printing a Reality in Manufacturing

In the global economy, manufacturing is a central pillar that drives innovation and competition. It’s a fast-growing sector and a vital source of opportunity, which has only increased since metal additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, …

3D Printed Bucky Badger

3D Printing Hearts for Kids Featured on Superhuman

Click on this link to watch a six minute documentary on how our engineering lab collaborated with a heart surgeon at the University of Wisconsin Hospital to help with Joseph’s complicated heart surgery!

UW Hospital surgeons use 3D printing to prepare for heart surgeries

Surgeons are teaming up with engineers to use 3D printed models of patients’ hearts to prepare for complicated pediatric heart surgeries. Click HERE to read about how why 3D printed models are helping doctors and their …

A New Dimension: 3D Printing Gives Orthopaedic Surgery at UW Veterinary Care a Leg Up

Click on this link to read about Elsa, the sweet Great Dane who had abnormal growth in her left front limb, making it difficult for her to walk and how UWVC used a 3D printer …

Engineers print the future of manufacturing

3D printing, or “additive manufacturing,” is the process of using a machine to “print” layers of material to ultimately create a 3D object. It’s an emerging interdisciplinary area with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds—only a handful …

Researchers bring 3D printing to a ‘cool’ industry

In 2015, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-e) program to develop 3D-printed heat exchangers for power plants. That grant allowed the researchers to design …

RAPID Conference Highlights 3D Printing Advances

This year, SME hosted the RAPID conference together with Rapid News Publications Ltd., and combined their nearly 30 years of insights and experience. It was the biggest showcase yet and the new machine highlights were the …

Additive Manufacturing Student Project Highlights

Students in Additive Manufacturing Spring 2017 give final presentations on their work. The students worked in groups of 5-6 on multiple 3D printing projects for about 8 weeks. To the left, you can see the …

Metal Powder Bed 3D Printing

This project allows UW–Madison to acquire an EOS M290 metal powder bed additive manufacturing system. The equipment will be housed at the Grainger Institute for Engineering’s manufacturing showcase facility where it will be accessible and …

Blue Sky Science: What’s the difference between types of 3D printer filaments?

3D printing is the process by which we make a piece layer by layer, and the various forms of 3D printing differ in how they make each layer. Extrusion-based printing, or fused deposition modeling, uses …

Fortune: Johnson & Johnson wants to use 3D printing to heal broken bones

The bone health-focused J&J unit has snapped up 3D printing tech from Tissue Regeneration Systems, Inc. (TRS). The platform is able to create implantable bone-like structures that have a special type of coating that helps …

3D printing technology acquired from company based on UW-Madison research

DePuy Synthes Products, part of Johnson & Johnson, has acquired 3D printing technology from Tissue Regeneration Systems, a Michigan company based in part on research from the lab of William Murphy of UW-Madison. Read the …

News from AMUG 2017 in Chicago

There are a lot of new technologies on display that either just came out or will be launched soon. Admatec, who is know for their ceramic printer is presenting their new metal printer: a slurry …

Additive Manufacturing @ IMTS2016

The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) – has partnered with Local Motors to offer the IMTS Ride Experience featuring the breakthrough technology in “Olli,” the first self-driving electric and 3D printed bus equipped with IBM …

How Does a 3D Printer Make Color?

3D printing involves making an object layer by layer. There are many 3D printing techniques, and they all differ in how each layer is constructed. Each type of printer has a different opportunity or mechanism …

Harnessing 3D printers to enhance engineering education

Starting fall 2015, students in ME 314: Manufacturing Fundamentals will have significantly more hands-on learning opportunities thanks to extensive lab equipment upgrades and a new instructional model. The course covers many aspects of the manufacturing process and, …

School Spotlight: Imagination is the limit for printable programming students

The course was designed by Krishnan Suresh, a mechanical engineering professor at UW-Madison, as a fun and tangible way to teach visual thinking, creative problem solving, programming and 3-D printing to students. The objective is …

3D-Printed Parts Could Be Hot New Technology for Keeping Power Plants Cool

Cooling systems in power plants require heat exchangers to carry low-grade energy away from the inner-workings of the electrical generation machinery—and improvements to heat exchanger technology aim to increase energy efficiency. Natalie Rudolph thinks the …

Dinners by Design: The Emerging Field of 3D-Printed Food”

3D printing is, at its most basic, a way of creating an object layer by layer. In contrast to the milling of a machine part where unnecessary material is removed during manufacture (“subtractive” manufacturing), 3D …

Developing 3D-printed sheet music for the blind

Click on this link to learn about how 3D printing is opening new possibilities in music education and accessibility- and why we are excited to be part of it.

Advanced 3D printer sparks unique collaborations across campus

When the UW-Madison Mechanical Engineering Department acquired an advanced 3D printer in 2012, it not only increased the lab’s research capabilities, but it also opened a door to new collaborations on campus. The 3D printer has …

Recycling Through 3D Printing

Check out this cool project from Student Organization, Garage Physics! They are recycling a plastic container by forming chips into filament and using a 3D printer to reuse the filament. Using research in turning photos …

3D Food Printing

Click HERE to check out this page from the Student Organization Garage Physics to learn about 3D Food Printing!  

Printing without boundaries: Transdisciplinary Partnerships Expand Uses for 3D Printers

When most people press “print,” it’s usually a paper document or poster. But when WID researchers hit the print button, it might be for a gel to aid in understanding cancer or a tiny tool …