Photo of the Week: Low-Temperature Additive Manufacturing of Glass

MIT Lincoln Laboratory's innovative approach to additive manufacturing of mulitmaterial glass items precludes the need for costly high-temperature processing to create stable structures. Requiring 250°C instead of the typical >1,000°C for curing, this technique holds promise for fabricating complex items now unattainable with traditional glass manufacturing and for facilitating adoption of 3D printing glass devices such as microfluidic systems, free-form optical lenses, and high-temperature electronic components. Custom inks from inorganic materials combined with a silicate solution provide optical, chemical, and electrical properties of a composite. The process is being refined to enable greater clarity in the glass.

Photo credit: Nicole Fandel, MIT Lincoln Laboratory