A long sought after goal in 3D printing may now have been accomplished.

The patented NanoOp, or Nanoscale Offset Printing System, can print extremely thin layers of 20 nanometre thickness. This approximates to about 1/4000th the width of a human hair. Their unique printer uses a method called directed assembly.

A thin sheet of nanowires is used to coat a mould, which can attract a layer of very sensitive nanoparticles in the presence of an electric field. This is quite a departure from most 3D printers that use a combination of extrusion and UV light for hardening resin.

Professor Ahmed Busnaina, director of The Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing(CHN), suggests that this method has potential use for large object manufacture as well as sensors at the nanoscale level. It can perform nano-, micro- and macro-scale production simultaneously.

The potential of this technology is multi-fold. Since this method allows the production of micro-scale powerful electronics to be built up from layers, there is great potential for saving money and time in manyareas from iPhone assembly to the manufacture of sensors used in medicine. The nanoparticles can be made of different materials, and lead to novel ways of drug targeting, body monitoring, or environmental testing. The possibilities seem endless.

Lower costs could mean that sophisticated electronic products may become accessible to a far greater number of people than is possible at present. It is estimated that this technology may only require about one per cent of the resources used in traditional electronics manufacturing.

The templates can be used thousands of times with low energy use and low infrastructure costs. Professor Busnaina believes the benefits of this technology may be available to consumers in about two years.

Milara Inc. is collaborating with the research team to market the NanoOPS at an estimated price of between 1 and 1.5 million dollars.

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