• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Departments
    • Aerospace Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Engineering Science
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Commencement
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • Advising & counseling
    • Programs
    • Academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Degree requirements
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > New 3D printer
ME grad student Hossein Heidari watches 3D printer creating a miniature of

New 3D printer

Spring 2019 cover: Shifting Gears
May 1, 2019
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Spring 2019
3D-printed miniature of Rodin’s “The Thinker” statue

Rodin’s “The Thinker” statue, as rendered in miniature by a light-based 3D resin printer.

A new 3D printer from the lab of Hayden Taylor, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has the potential to transform product design. Instead of building an object layer by layer, as other 3D printers do, this printer uses light to shape solid objects out of a viscous liquid in a matter of minutes.

Nicknamed “the replicator” by its inventors — after the Star Trek device that can materialize any object on demand — the 3D printer can create objects that are smoother, more flexible and more complex than what is possible with traditional 3D printers. It can also add new materials to an existing object, such as adding a handle to a metal screwdriver shaft, something current 3D printers have difficulty with.

To create an object, the researchers plug an off-the-shelf video projector into a laptop, which they use to project a series of computed images onto a rotating cylinder. The cylinder is filled with a printing resin that forms a solid when exposed to a certain threshold of light.

The resin is composed of liquid polymers mixed with photosensitive molecules and dissolved oxygen. Light activates the photosensitive compound, which depletes the oxygen. Only in those regions where all the oxygen has been used up do the polymers form the “cross-links” that transform the resin from a liquid to a solid. All uncured resin can be reused, so the technique generates almost no material waste.

  • Read more: New 3D printer uses rays of light to shape objects, transform product design
Topics: , Devices & inventionsMechanical engineering
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2023 UC Regents