In this week’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ll discuss some materials news: a reference material for standardizing photopolymer manufacturing, metallic alloys that help reduce energy loss in electric motors, a biodegradable nanomaterial for bone regrowth, and 3D printed plant-based meat.We’ll end with a 3D printed rock avalanche model.NIST & PAMA Standardizing Photopolymer Manufacturing The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA) collaborated on an expansive interlaboratory study to develop a standardized photoactive resin that could enhance accuracy, quality control, and reproducibility of photopolymer manufacturing.
Now, they’ve officially announced the commercial availability of Reference Material (RM) 8047, which provides a reliable baseline to eliminate measurement variance and optimize photopolymerization AM.Over the years, commercial scaling of this technology has slowed due to discrepancies in how laboratories measure light penetration depth, and exposure energy.To make sure that the liquid resin in photopolymer 3D printing cures deeply enough for every layer to chemically bond, but without degrading or over-exposing the material, you need a “working curve.” The new RM 8047 serves this purpose, acting as a uniform benchmarking baseline.
“The deployment of RM 8047 represents a major milestone for the work of NIST and the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA).This initiative united over 30 cross-sector stakeholders to faciliate the interlaboratory coordination necessary to establish these standard test methodologies, accelerating open-source data infrastructure, publishing peer-reviewed research, and establishing safety protocols to advance the entire 3D-printing market,” said Callie Higgins, NIST Additive Manufacturing Program Coordinator and incoming PAMA Executive Chair.Available for purchase here, each unit of RM 8047 has one 20 gram bottle of carefully formulated photoactive resin, integrated with a photoabsorber and precise amounts of photoinitiator, and an official reference material information sheet.
3D Printed Metallic Glass Alloy Could Reduce Energy Loss in Electric Motors Under the framework of the European AM2SoftMag project, a consortium of researchers developed an iron-based metallic alloy for 3D printing of electric motor components that could reduce energy losses.Iron-based metallic glasses have great soft magnetic properties, but when printed with LPBF technology, there’s often unwanted crystallization because of repeated heating and cooling cycles.Researchers at Saarland University (UdS) developed the alloy, which is made up of iron, silicon, boron, niobium, and nickel, and shows greater resistance to devitrification (crystallization in a formerly crystal-free glass).
Researchers at IMDEA Materials Institute confirmed that the chemical elements in the alloy are distributed randomly to ensure homogenous mechanical and magnetic properties, and optimized the printing parameters for the material.Using a double laser scanning strategy, paired with controlled time delays, the alloy can print components in a fully amorphous state with a density over 92%, giving it excellent magnetic properties.“This new alloy design and its optimised processing through 3D printing allow us to avoid crystallisation during manufacturing.
The result is a material with excellent magnetic behaviour that could, in the future, make a significant contribution to improving the efficiency of electric motors, substantially reducing overall energy waste,” said Prof.María Teresa Pérez Prado, one of the authors of the paper and Principal Investigator at IMDEA Materials.Next, UdS and IMDEA Materials will work with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRIM), and Technical University of Berlin to scale up the manufacturing process, eliminate defects, and evaluate material performance in real electric motor rotor and stator prototypes.
University of Sydney’s Biodegradable Material Could Improve Bone Regrowth The study is the first to demonstrate a single nanomaterial platform that combines rapid blood clotting, activation of the body’s own latent growth factors, recruitment of bone-forming stem cells and enhanced bone regeneration.Image: Stef Zingsheim/University of Sydney When parts of the upper lip or roof of the mouth don’t fully fuse during pregnancy, it results in a birth defect called cleft lip and palate.Kids often have to wait until they are older for bone graft surgery to repair the gaps in their jawbone, and even then, the complex treatment can have lifelong impacts on their breathing, speech, and self-confidence.
Researchers at the University of Sydney and University of Queensland developed a biodegradable nanomaterial, or “nanobone,” that enables the human body to regrow bone by using its own healing powers, and could eventually result in less invasive bone graft procedures.The calcium-aluminosilicate nanomaterial activates latent Transforming Growth Factor β1 (TGF-β1), a naturally occurring growth factor in the human body.Once it’s activated, TGF-β1 attracts bone-forming stem cells and encourages growth into bone-producing cells, eventually replacing the material with the body’s tissue.
In the team’s study, they detail how their nanomaterial generated about 80% more new bone in a preclinical bone model than a material control after eight weeks, as well as promoted blood clotting within 30 seconds to stabilize the injury site, and activated an important bone repair growth factor with 10 times the level of conventional methods.“Our body already contains many of the signals needed for tissue repair,” explained lead researcher Associate Professor Chun Xu, a Sydney Horizon Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine and Health.“We’ve developed a material that can help activate those signals at the right place and time.
Instead of supplying external growth factors, we’re encouraging the body to use its own healing potential.“The material activates dormant repair signals in the body, triggering a cascade of healing processes that attract bone-forming stem cells and stimulate new bone growth.” Steakholder Foods Announces Retail Launch of Perfecta in Northeastern U.S.Israeli company Steakholder Foods, specializing in 3D printing plant-based meat, recently announced the launch of its Perfecta Premium Plant-Based Meat at retail outlets across the Northeastern United States.
The rollout, supported by U.S.natural and specialty food distributor KeHE Distributors, marks the brand’s first placement in U.S.stores.
The Perfecta product line addresses the most common consumer challenges for plant-based eating: texture, taste, and the overall sensory experience of enjoying a whole cut of meat.It pairs the company’s proprietary 3D printing technology with premium ingredients to replicate the experience of eating real meat.The U.S.
retail rollout includes Perfecta’s plant-based marbled steak, filet mignon, chicken breast, salmon patties, and whitefish patties, which have fibrous textures and marbling characteristics to improve their juiciness and flavor.Steakholder’s launch strategy for Perfecta is about building awareness throughout Northeastern U.S., while also building a foundation to expand across other regions in the future.“Our launch in the Northeastern United States represents an exciting step forward as Perfecta begins reaching consumers through retail shelves for the first time.
We believe the plant-based category is ready for a new generation of products that deliver on taste and eating experience without compromise,” said Steakholder Foods CEO Arik Kaufman.“We are on track with our launch, and the Northeast is just the beginning of our commercial journey, and we intend to expand both our retail footprint and our distribution network as consumer demand grows.” Understanding How Avalanches & Rockslides Occur with a 3D Printed Model A model of the area around Blatten: due to spatial constraints, the researchers had to assemble their model as a mirror image.The village lies in the right half of the plain.
Deposition: the white lines indicate how far the rock masses actually travelled.Photos: Roman Oester/SLF In 2025, the Birch Glacier in Switzerland collapsed, causing a rock avalanche that nearly destroyed and buried the village of Blatten.Researchers from ETH Zurich and the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF are investigating exactly what happens when mass amounts of water, ice, and rock crash down mountains into a valley, to assess where infrastructure and settlements are most at risk with these natural disasters.
The team is developing virtual models on computers to show scenarios that can happen during mass movements in the Swiss Alps, but they also created a 5.4 x 4.5 m topographic model of the valley around Blatten, featuring 56 3D printed parts.They used special software to break the landform down into small sections, and printed 50 x 50 cm terrain segment pieces.The model, at a scale of 1:577, was assembled, coated, and painted, and has a hatch at the top that lets loose a mixture of sand, water, and clay to trigger the miniature disaster.
The team uses cameras, lasers, a force plat, pore pressure sensors, and a 3D scanner to measure the parameters, including impact dynamics, speed, depth of runoff, and runout distance.In the future, they will be able to mount other landforms and areas onto the substructure to conduct other projects.“This is a long-term investment in research, not a short-term experiment,” explained Johan Gaume, Professor of Alpine Mass Movements at ETH Zurich and head of the research group of the same name at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF.
“At the moment, we’re especially interested in the influence of terrain curvature on flow dynamics.” Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.Print Services Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.Powered by FacFox Powered by 3D Systems Powered by Craftcloud Powered by First Mold Powered by Xometry 3DPrinting Business Directory 3DPrinting Business Directory
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