00:033D printing has revolutionized myriad industries, letting individuals and companies print pretty much anything.
00:09However, researchers have now revolutionized that process as well, allowing the printing of complex mechanisms, including soft and hard materials.
00:18The process combines 3D printing and laser scanning, letting engineers use both fast and slow-curing plastics.
00:24That means they can print the rigid skeleton of, say, a robotic hand, and then print the soft tissues like
00:29tendons and ligaments on top of that.
00:31What is eventually produced is a fully functioning robotic hand, or heart, or basically whatever you want.
00:36And it's all done inside a casing of wax, which is then easily melted away after the whole process is
00:41complete.
00:42The team who developed it at ETH Zurich say slow-curing polymers were key to the whole concept, as they
00:47were able to bend and return to their original shape much more easily.
00:50Laser scanning lets them monitor those slow-curing polymers as they cure, allowing any irregularities to be compensated for and
00:57adjusted as subsequent layers are printed.
00:59It's all in the name of soft robotics, which experts say is the future, as those types of devices pose
01:05less of an injury threat to humans and are better for handling fragile objects.
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