3-D printed structures tagged posts

A 3-D printer sketches out a schwarzite in a Rice University laboratory. The curved surface of a schwarzite repeats throughout the structure, which shows excellent strength and deformation characteristics. Credit: Brandon Martin/Rice University

3D Printers to turn century-old theory into complex Schwarzites. Rice University engineers are using 3D printers to turn structures that have until now existed primarily in theory into strong, light and durable materials with complex, repeating patterns. The porous structures called schwarzites are designed with computer algorithms, but Rice researchers found they could send data from the programs to printers and make macroscale, polymer models for testing...