{"id":911,"date":"2017-04-18T09:47:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T09:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=911"},"modified":"2017-08-29T13:57:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T13:57:39","slug":"cytosurge-interview180420174","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/cytosurge-interview180420174\/","title":{"rendered":"Cytosurge, 3D metal printing on a microscale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Direct 3D printing of metals with submicron resolution is a promising additive manufacturing technique for\u00a0a wide range of sectors. The FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter from Cytosurge is the world\u2019s first 3D printer capable of delivering such resolution in direct metal printing, while at the same time offering\u00a0scalability and excellent\u00a0prospects in both production costs and speed. Cytosurge AG has\u00a0a new business unit for 3D printing at ETH Zurich and is leading the way with their FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter. To find out more about Cytosurge and their\u00a0FludiFM technology, we met with Cytosurge’s Business Developer, Edgar Hepp.<\/p>\n

3DN: Could you tell us a little bit more about Cytosurge?<\/h3>\n

Cytosurge was founded some years ago as a high-tech spin-off company from the ETH Zurich, a\u00a0university that specializes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Our team is a passionate group of\u00a0specialists with training in various disciplines such\u00a0as business, engineering, biology and computer science; we have developed and commercialized the FluidFM technology. This technology enables an immense range of applications from\u00a0science and biology to\u00a0physics. At Cytosurge, we strive to provide tools for new possibilities and applications at the forefront of nanotechnology, particularly in medicine, life sciences and material science.<\/p>\n

The FluidFM\u00a0\u00b53Dprinter is a brand new development that builds on the FluidFM core technology, but ventures into a completely different\u00a0application space that is namely that of printing metals on a micrometer\u00a0scale.<\/p>

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\"cytosurge\"<\/a>

Edgar Hepp<\/p><\/div>\n

3DN: How does the FluidFM 3D technology work?<\/h3>\n

The FluidFm\u00a0\u00b53Dprinter uses a combination of fluidic scanning probe microscopy and 3D printing. Using force sensitive pipettes that are called FluidFM iontips<\/em>, they use closed microscopic channels to accurately dispense\u00a0femtoliters of liquid into a 3D space.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: An Illustration of Metallic ions leaving the pipette at the tip.<\/p><\/div>\n

In figure 1, you can see the micropipette that distributes the liquid which includes metal ions. The ions will then quickly deposit as a solid atom, thanks to an electrolytic process.<\/p>\n

The FluidFM iontips have an aperture size at\u00a0a few hundreds of a nanometer, about 200 times smaller than the diameter of a hair. This reduced size\u00a0allows flow rates as small as femtoliters per second; a million times less than what the best sensitive flow sensors can detect.<\/p>\n

With a laser beam, we monitor the motion of the cantilevered micropipette, which can be triggered by piconewtons of force, as can be seen in figure 2. With this kind of sensitivity, the force feedback can be monitored in the 3D printing process in situ<\/em><\/p>\n

Currently, thanks\u00a0to FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter, different metals can be printed such as copper, silver and\u00a0gold.<\/p>\n

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Figure 2: The cantilevered micropipette of the FluidFM Iontip<\/p><\/div>\n

3DN: What makes your product special?<\/h3>\n

The FluidFM technology opens the door to a new world of metal object manufacturing, enabling new research opportunities in fields such as: microelectronics, semiconductors, surface modification, microbots, sensors, material science and many other fields. With a simple and intuitive operating interface, as well as our combination of functional instrument designs (as seen in figure 3), the FluidFM technology ensures that it is easy to use and ready for any application.\u00a0The FluidFM\u00a0\u00b53Dprinter enables the direct printing of complex 3D metal objects on a micrometer scale. By printing using a voxel-based process, virtually any design can be offered to the system, including overhanging structures with 90\u00b0 angles. The\u00a0\u00b53Dprinter’s high-precision surface and modification processes can also be used to print ultra-thin or structured objects by depositing various metals on your target surface.<\/p>\n

\"cytosurge\"<\/a>

Figure 3: The FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter and its controller. The printer is driven by intuitively operated software.<\/p><\/div>\n

3DN: What do you see as the future for 3D metal printing?<\/h3>\n

We see a continuous effort to miniaturize components, customize mass production and reduce development and production cycles to provide a favorable environment for our 3D micro-printing technology. With our\u00a0new\u00a0technology, our printer can\u00a0offer a multitude of possibilities that range from the printing of custom designs and rapid prototyping to mass production and volume production. Our newly developed micro metal 3D printing technology came at the\u00a0perfect time,\u00a0as we are currently in an accelerated technology\u00a0driven marketplace where\u00a0the right tools are essential to continue moving forward.<\/p>\n

\"cytosure\"<\/a>

Another printing possibility: printed metal pillars<\/p><\/div>\n

3DN: What are Cytosurge\u2019s future plans?<\/h3>\n

Our FluidFM printer allows you to print the smallest objects directly out of a solution\u00a0without the need of a template with a free printing process, and does not require post treatment or curing.\u00a0As I\u00a0stated previously, the FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter can already print\u00a0copper, silver or gold. For the future, we are currently investigating\u00a0the possibilities of printing with\u00a0aqua\u00a0ions Cd, Cr, Fe, In, Zn and Pt.<\/p>\n

There is no other technology that is printing metal in a more direct way!<\/p>\n

\"cytosurge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3DN: Any last words for our readers?<\/h3>\n

The FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter provides you with an\u00a0entrance into this new field of technology and the scalability of the process. Through our machines’ excellent \u00a0prospects in both production costs and speed, it will enable entirely new application fields to open. It is therefore important to\u00a0keep an eye on this technology to see what other great things we create by following us on twitter<\/a>\u00a0and LinkedIn<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\"cytosurge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information about Cytosurge and their FluidFM technology, check out their website\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you think that Cytosurge will\u00a0revolutionize the manufacturing of microscopic metal parts? Share your opinion below in a comment or on our Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> page!<\/p>\n

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Direct 3D printing of metals with submicron resolution is a promising additive manufacturing technique for\u00a0a wide range of sectors. The FluidFM \u00b53Dprinter from Cytosurge is the world\u2019s first 3D printer capable of delivering such resolution in direct metal printing, while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6051,"featured_media":912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":938,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions\/938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}