3D Printing With Sugar

University Of Huntsville (UAH) Student Experiments With 3D Printed Sugar

Devon Bane and Tanner Carden are two college students who have collaborated to develop their own 3D Printer they call the CarMal Extruder (Carbohyrdate Anhydrous Rapid Manufacturing Aluminum

Extruder). If the name makes it sound like a big deal, it’s because it is! The CarMal is able to 3D Print cell structures using sugar molecules; the CarMal opens up many possibilities for medical research and application. The CarMal reminds us most of the Plaster-based (PP) 3D Printing process except with the CarMal, the desired shape is made first and then placed into the grid rather than made within the grid. The shapes/structures desired are made and placed into the various sections of the grid and a sugar solution is added to continue the Printing process. After that, the CarMal’s process takes more of its own identity. The cells that are suspended are left behind when the sugar solution is washed away with Nitrogen, leaving the semi-hollow structures similar to the intricate semi-hollow structures created with the Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) process. These structures represent the blood vessels of a human tissue or organ.

source | uah.edu/news and blog.al.com