Jul 10, 2023 12:00:00

Micron-level glass 3D printing technology that produces the world's smallest glass wine glasses is expected to be used in the medical and networking fields

A research team at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden succeeded in creating the world's smallest quartz glass wine glass. A new method of 3D printing technology is used to create wine glasses, and it can be applied to the development of medical equipment, network equipment, and extremely small robots.

Three-dimensional printing of silica glass with sub-micrometer resolution | Nature Communications

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38996-3

Researcher 3D prints world's smallest wineglass with new method | KTH
https://www.kth.se/en/om/nyheter/centrala-nyheter/1.1263296

Below is a picture of the world's smallest wine glass taken with an electron microscope. The black bar in the bottom right of the photo is the scale bar of 1 micrometer. The rim of a wine glass is thinner than the width of a human hair and is barely visible to the naked eye.

The world's smallest wine glass is made by 3D printing quartz glass. 3D printing technology for quartz glass has existed so far, but the existing technology requires a process of sintering at 1200 degrees after printing the material, and ``significant shrinkage occurs during sintering.'' There was a problem that 'the material of the print destination is limited'.

The research team developed a technology for 3D printing quartz glass by `` irradiating hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) with a subpicosecond pulse laser and removing the unexposed part with an aqueous potassium hydroxide solution ''. This made it possible to create objects such as wine glasses without the need for a sintering process.

The research team is creating not only wine glasses but also ``optical resonators for optical fibers''.

Christine Galfason, a member of the research team, said, ``The Internet has a glass optical fiber as its backbone.The technology we developed has made it possible to manufacture the various filters and couplers required for optical fibers. 'This technology opens up a lot of new possibilities.'

In addition, Frank Nicholas , a member of the research team, said that the 3D printing technology developed this time is ``medical lenses for minimally invasive surgery,'' ``microrobots that operate in extreme environments,'' and ``filters and couplers for optical fibers.'' It is said that it can be used for other purposes.