CRAFT technology transforms one material into a multi-layer structure with different properties without assembling it from individual parts.
Conventional 3D printing long operated according to a simple rule: the part was uniform across its entire thickness, without any "character" or internal differences. A group of American researchers decided to break this pattern and taught the printer to change the properties of the plastic directly during the printing process. The new method was called CRAFT, and light unexpectedly became the primary control tool.
The technology was developed by specialists at Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, along with partners from universities and other national laboratories. The idea is that during printing, the scientists vary the light intensity, thereby forcing the polymers to align differently at the molecular level. As a result, the same material can behave completely differently in different areas of the same part.
Previously, a plastic bracket would be equally rigid at the top and bottom, while a printed glove would maintain equal flexibility across its entire surface. CRAFT changes the manufacturing logic. Brighter light can make a section almost bone-hard, while lowering the intensity transforms the next layer of the same liquid resin into a soft and pliable material, more like skin.
Project leader Sam Legisamon says this level of control over such materials has never been achieved before. According to the researcher, controlling how polymers are formed during printing opens up new possibilities not only for manufacturing but for polymer science as a whole.
The team tested the approach using real-world examples. Using CRAFT, the scientists printed a soft turtle model, with different sections having varying flexibility and physical properties. Later, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin went further and created a detailed model of a human hand in a single print run. Typically, a realistic medical model requires assembling dozens of individual components, but the new method made it possible to do so in a single continuous print and with a single material. The finished model combined rigid internal "bones," elastic "ligaments," and soft external "skin."
The authors of the study emphasize that similar structural changes in materials were previously achieved using aggressive chemicals or intense heat. CRAFT made it possible to achieve similarly complex structural transitions using light alone, without unnecessary and more arduous processing steps. The researchers monitored changes in transparency and confirmed that adjusting the illumination indeed alters the material's internal structure.
The laboratory believes this new approach changes the very concept of plastic parts production. Now, engineers can not simply accept the material as it comes out of the printer, but instead pre-program the required properties for a specific task during the printing process.
The practical applications appear to be very broad. The aerospace industry could create parts where one zone can withstand high temperatures while another dampens vibrations. The energy industry could use the new method for complex systems designed for high loads, including nuclear safety solutions. Biomedicine could achieve more realistic prosthetics and anatomical models that more accurately reproduce the varying densities of bones and soft tissues. If the technology reaches mass production, 3D printing will cease to be a means of simply making plastic molds and become a tool for creating parts with predetermined "behavior" within a single product.
Conventional 3D printing long operated according to a simple rule: the part was uniform across its entire thickness, without any "character" or internal differences. A group of American researchers decided to break this pattern and taught the printer to change the properties of the plastic directly during the printing process. The new method was called CRAFT, and light unexpectedly became the primary control tool.
The technology was developed by specialists at Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, along with partners from universities and other national laboratories. The idea is that during printing, the scientists vary the light intensity, thereby forcing the polymers to align differently at the molecular level. As a result, the same material can behave completely differently in different areas of the same part.
Previously, a plastic bracket would be equally rigid at the top and bottom, while a printed glove would maintain equal flexibility across its entire surface. CRAFT changes the manufacturing logic. Brighter light can make a section almost bone-hard, while lowering the intensity transforms the next layer of the same liquid resin into a soft and pliable material, more like skin.
Project leader Sam Legisamon says this level of control over such materials has never been achieved before. According to the researcher, controlling how polymers are formed during printing opens up new possibilities not only for manufacturing but for polymer science as a whole.
The team tested the approach using real-world examples. Using CRAFT, the scientists printed a soft turtle model, with different sections having varying flexibility and physical properties. Later, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin went further and created a detailed model of a human hand in a single print run. Typically, a realistic medical model requires assembling dozens of individual components, but the new method made it possible to do so in a single continuous print and with a single material. The finished model combined rigid internal "bones," elastic "ligaments," and soft external "skin."
The authors of the study emphasize that similar structural changes in materials were previously achieved using aggressive chemicals or intense heat. CRAFT made it possible to achieve similarly complex structural transitions using light alone, without unnecessary and more arduous processing steps. The researchers monitored changes in transparency and confirmed that adjusting the illumination indeed alters the material's internal structure.
The laboratory believes this new approach changes the very concept of plastic parts production. Now, engineers can not simply accept the material as it comes out of the printer, but instead pre-program the required properties for a specific task during the printing process.
The practical applications appear to be very broad. The aerospace industry could create parts where one zone can withstand high temperatures while another dampens vibrations. The energy industry could use the new method for complex systems designed for high loads, including nuclear safety solutions. Biomedicine could achieve more realistic prosthetics and anatomical models that more accurately reproduce the varying densities of bones and soft tissues. If the technology reaches mass production, 3D printing will cease to be a means of simply making plastic molds and become a tool for creating parts with predetermined "behavior" within a single product.
