Israel's first 3D and functional printing center opens

30 Dec 2015

Launched at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to offer teaching and commercialization potential.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has launched a 3D and Functional Printing Center, said to be Israel’s first center with a focus on research in 3D and functional printing. As part of the University’s Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Center will enable researchers to investigate this emerging field, while connecting with Israeli and international industry.

The new Center’s director, Prof. Shlomo Magdassi, commented that coupled with functional printing, which adds capabilities such as light emission or movement to a printed product, “the ever-expanding technology of 3D printing is enabling formation of new functional structures, such as printed robots, new plastic solar cells, military and medical equipment, radiation and light detectors, smart windows, sophisticated drug pills and even human organs.”

The 3D and Functional Printing Center will function as a central “printing lab” to give researchers access to the printing technologies and infrastructure needed to perform high-level research in this field. The Center’s equipment spans numerous technologies such as inkjet printing, digital light processing, fused deposition modeling, powder printing and laser sintering.

Prof. Magdassi added, “The 3D and Functional Printing Center will be an interdisciplinary hub catering to researchers and students from across the university's scientific disciplines. In addition to chemists and physicists who are already in the field, the Center will invite researchers from biology, medicine, agriculture and computer science to move into this sphere. By encouraging scientific collaborations between researchers from different disciplines, I expect we will see new breakthroughs based on their synergistic expertise.”

In his research as The Enrique Berman Chair at the Casali Center for Applied Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry and the Harvey M. Krueger Family Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Hebrew University, Prof. Magdassi focuses on materials science and nanotechnology. His licensed inventions include conductive inks composed of nanoparticles for printed circuit boards, glassjet inks for printing on windows, black coatings for solar energy harvesting and transparent conductors for printing touch screens.

”We hope to break new ground in various disciplines and integrate 3D and functional printing into various industrial manufacturing processes, such as in printed electronics, food, medical implants, vehicles, security, and even architecture and the construction of buildings.”

To date, research in this area at the Hebrew University has yielded many scientific papers and has led to the establishment of a number of companies in Israel. Technology commercialization activities are carried out by Yissum, the Research and Development Company of the Hebrew University.

These include a license agreement and research collaboration with Israel Chemicals, as well the companies Nano Dimension, which is developing a printer for multilayer printed circuit boards; Steam, which developed Ripples, a technology for printing high-resolution designs on lattes, cappuccinos, or any foam-topped drink; and Dip-Tech, a developer of digital glass printers and digital ceramic inks.