Glass 3D printing method developed by MIT

Most printers just aren’t properly equipped to print regular ol’ glass.

“Initial efforts are being conducted to test how the technology could be utilized to manufacture an architectural system from printed glass components”, Mediated Matter told ArchDaily.

Meanwhile, more details about this particular glass manufacturing technology are available at the source links, in case you want to start 3D printing your glass ashtrays and vases.

The MIT team says that it all works together to create the “first of its kind optically transparent glass printing” that can be used in “numerous potential applications”.

The researchers said the technique allows tuning the transparency, colour, as well as light transmission, reflection and refraction of the glass, allowing multiple geometrical and optical variations.

The process has been dubbed G3DP, or Glass 3D Printing, and was developed with the help of MIT’s Medical Engineering Department, the Wyss Institute and MIT’s Glass Lab.

It essentially uses a molten form of the glass material and layers it by modulating and varying the thickness of the print. The process is an additive manufacturing platform performed with dual heated chambers, with the top chamber called the Kiln Cartridge that has been heated to a whopping 1,900F. The lower chamber, meanwhile, functions to anneal the 3D printed structures. Below that sits an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle, which can programmed to make the same intricate moves in X-, Y-, and Z-space familiar to anyone who has seen a 3D printer in action.

A selection of Glass pieces will appear in an exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in 2016.