Microscopic 3D Printer Prints Weapons Smaller Than A Grain Of Sand

It seems like everyday there is a new 3D printer announced that can do things unlike any other. This one is especially interesting since this 3D printer prints weapons, spacecraft or anything else in a size smaller than a grain of sand and at a speed that is 100 times faster than an ordinary 3D printer. It can make things smaller than the width of a human hair, and it can do it faster than anyone ever thought possible (in less than one minute).

This 3D printer prints objects on a micrometer scale, which opens the door to a lot of new possibilities. It was created by Nanoscribe GmbH. They’ve fine-tuned the revolutionary laser lithography method for 3D printing, and when you watch the video below, it will blow your mind to see what this thing is capable of. Since this 3D printer prints super small, super fast and at a very high resolution, there are all kinds of applications this could be used for from medicine to defense.

The way this 3D printer prints and the speed at which it’s able to do it provides the kind of groundbreaking innovation that could open new doors for research in many areas which could enhance our lives. Although medicine (i.e. It could create biological tissue) and defense (i.e. It could provide new knowledge when it comes to defense strategies) are the most talked about applications at the moment, this printer is not limited to just those areas of course.

According to KIT, “This 3D printing method uses a direct laser writing technique, which is based on two-photon polymerization. It uses ultra-short laser pulses to polymerize photosensitive materials in the laser focus, just like paper ignites when exposed to sunlight focused through a magnifying glass.” You can read about how this 3D printer prints at such a fast speed, and all the other details about how this works on KIT’s website (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is the parent company of Nanoscribe GmbH).