On 28 December 2015, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, launched a new research institute, the 3D and Functional Printing Center, designed to help researchers “explore scientific and technological avenues” in additive manufacturing. The new institute, part of the university’s larger Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, is looking to push forward a high-level research agenda that can lead to new breakthroughs—and new opportunities for commercialization and technology transfer.
According to a press release on the initiative, additive-manufacturing research at the university has already “yielded many scientific papers and … led to the establishment of a number of companies,” particularly through the university’s technology-transfer arm, Yissum. The new center could expand those activities by creating, in the words of its director, Shlomo Magdassi, an “interdisciplinary hub” that will encourage synergistic collaboration across the spectrum of sciences touched by additive manufacturing.
The new center will bring to bear a variety of equipment and technologies toward that end, including optical ones such as digital light monitoring and laser sintering, as well as inkjet printing, fused depositional modeling and powder printing. Optics could be a particular target of the center’s research output as well: the center cites products such as plastic solar cells, radiation and light detectors and smart windows as possible or realized applications of 3-D printing, as well as other structures such as printed robots, next-gen drugs and even printed human organs.
“We hope to break new ground in various disciplines,” said Magdassi, “and integrate 3D and functional printing into various industrial manufacturing processes.”