First 3D pen

The world’s ‘first 3D pen’ or just a toy?

6 September 2013 Last updated at 15:47 BST,

The creator of 3Doodler claims that the device is the “world’s first 3D drawing pen”.

The pen, according to Mac Bogue, can provide an “introduction” or “companion” to 3D printing.

Mr Bogue demonstrated the pen to Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones at Berlin’s IFA trade show.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23990597]

As long as the resolution can be increased, should be a fast fabrication tool for making polymer devices.

Atoms star in ‘world’s smallest movie’ – BBC

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22358861]

1 May 2013 Last updated at 09:42

A film using single atoms to animate a boy playing with a ball, dancing, and bouncing on a trampoline, has become the world’s smallest stop-motion movie.

The 90-second film, made by IBM, is so small it can only be seen when magnified 100 million times.

The ability to move single atoms is vital for research into data storage at the atomic level – something researchers say could increase the amount of information storable on a device by tens of thousands of times.

Video courtesy of IBM research

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22358861

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfjWNFwP-HA

Typical silica fiber fabrication process

Typical silica fiber fabrication process

Basically, fiber manufacturers use two methods to fabricate multimode and single mode glass fibers. One method is vapor phase oxidation, and the other method is direct-melt process. In vapor phase oxidation, gaseous metal halide compounds, dopant material, and oxygen are oxidized (burned) to form a white silica powder (SiO₂). Manufacturers call SiO₂ the soot.

Manufacturers deposit the soot on the surface of a glass substrate (mandrel) or inside a hollow tube by one of the following three methods:

• Outside Vapor Phase Oxidation (OVPO).
• Inside Vapor Phase Oxidation (IVPO).
• Vapor Phase Axial Deposition (VAD).

The soot forms the core and cladding material of the preform. The refractive index of each layer of soot is changed by varying the amount of dopant material being oxidized. Figures 1-3 illustrate the different vapor phase oxidation preform preparation methods.

Figure 1. – OVPO preform preparation.

Figure 2. – IVPO preform preparation.

Figure 3. – VAD preform preparation.

During vapor phase oxidation, the mandrel or tube continuously moves from side to side and rotates while soot particles are deposited on the surface. This process forms cylindrical layers of soot on the surface of the mandrel or inside the hollow tube. This deposited material is transformed into a solid glass preform by heating the porous material (without melting).

The solid preform is then drawn or pulled into an optical fiber by a process called fiber drawing.

The fiber drawing process begins by feeding the glass preform into the drawing furnace. The drawing furnace softens the end of the preform to the melting point. Manufacturers then pull the softened preform into a thin glass filament (glass fiber). To protect the bare fiber from contaminants, manufacturers add an acrylate coating in the draw process. The coating protects the bare fiber from contaminants such as atmospheric dust and water vapor. Figure 4 illustrates the process of drawing an optical fiber from the preform.

Figure 4. – Fiber drawing process.

To fabricate compound glasses (or sometimes called soft glasses) fibers, direct-melt process, can be used. Multicomponent glass rods form the fiber structure. Rods of multicomponent glass combine in a molten state to form the fiber core and cladding. The double-crucible method is the most common direct-melt process. The double-crucible method combines the molten rods into a single preform using two concentric crucibles.

Optical fibers are drawn from this molten glass using a similar fiber drawing process as in vapor phase oxidation. Figure 5 illustrates the double-crucible drawing process. The drawback of this measure is hard to obtained low loss fibers; this is because melton materials are likely to be contaminated from the inner surface of the crucibles.

Figure 5. – Double-crucible fiber drawing process.

[RP photonics Encyclopedia; http://www.rp-photonics.com/fiber_fabrication.html%5D

Dual suspended core optical fibre for sensing application

Dual suspended core optical fibre

Dual suspended core optical fibre was fabricated and demonstrated by researchers at the Optoelectronics Research Centre in the UK. This fibre has unique function that any other fibres not able to achieve easily, not only transmit light, also the two cores can mechanically move and interact with each other. This MEMS-type of optical fibre was made from lead silicate glass.

The submicron optical fibre is highly sensitive to pressure, vibration etc. and would offer interesting applications in the broad field of sensing.

 

[http://www.osa.org/about_osa/newsroom/newsreleases/2012/new_dynamic_dual-core_optical_fiber_enhances_data/]

Nanofiber borate bioglass, Cotton candy-like fibers repair wounds

Hard-to-heal open wounds may have met their match in the form of a cottony glass material developed at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Delbert Day’s work with glass fibers may lead to a new method to heal open wounds. (Photo by B.A. Rupert/Missouri S&T.)

The glass fiber material could become a source of relief for diabetics fighting infections. It also could be used by battlefield medics or emergency medical technicians to treat wounds in the field.

In a recent clinical trial, the material was found to speed the healing of venous stasis wounds in eight out of the 12 patients enrolled in the trial. Details about the trials and the material were published in the May issue of theAmerican Ceramic Society‘sBulletin magazine.

The material – a nanofiber borate glass – was developed in the laboratories of Missouri S&T’s Graduate Center for Materials Research and the Center for Bone and Tissue Repair and Regeneration, says Dr. Delbert E. Day, Curators’ Professor emeritus of ceramic engineering and a pioneer in the development of bioglass materials. Day and his former student, Dr. Steve Jung, developed the material over the past five years.

Other bioactive glass materials are formed from silica-based glass compositions and have been used primarily for hard-tissue regeneration, such as bone repair. But Day and Jung experimented with borate glass, which early lab studies showed reacted to fluids much faster than silicate glasses.

“The borate glasses react with the body fluids very quickly” when applied to an open wound, says Day. “They begin to dissolve and release elements into the body that stimulate the body to generate new blood vessels. This improves the blood supply to the wound, allowing the body’s normal healing processes to take over.”

Clinical trials at Phelps County Regional Medical Center in Rolla began in the fall of 2010 with 13 subjects. One dropped out early in the process. All suffer from diabetes and had wounds that had been unhealed for more than a year.

Depending on the severity of the wound, Day says the wounds can heal within a few weeks to several months after the material is applied. “Within a few days, most patients see an improvement,” he says.

The material is produced at Mo-Sci Corp., a glass technology company founded by Day. Jung is a glass scientist at the company and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramic engineering and a Ph.D. in materials engineering from Missouri S&T.

“Rolla is extremely fortunate to have the three key ingredients needed to take research from the idea stage to the commercial product stage,” says Day, who also invented TheraSphere, a glass product now used to treat patients with liver cancer at more than 100 sites worldwide, including Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. “We have the university, which provides the research expertise, Phelps County Regional Medical Center for the clinical trials, and Mo-Sci for the manufacturing and commercialization.”

Day foresees expanding the clinical trials to include patients with other types of wounds, such as burn victims.

 

http://news.mst.edu/2011/05/cotton_candy-like_fibers_repai.html

 

Glass story—Corning

Watch and share “A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked,” to see how Corning’s highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world. Take a journey with our narrator for details on these technologies, answers to your questions, and to learn about what’s possible — and what’s not — in the near future.

Here is the question, how much does Corning contribute to those charming technology? Is that the glass only choice?

 

Invisibility cloaking, metamaterial.

A team led by scientists at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering has demonstrated the first working “invisibility cloak.” The cloak deflects microwave beams so they flow around a “hidden” object inside with little distortion, making it appear almost as if nothing were there at all.
[Schurig et al., SCIENCE VOL 314, 977-980, 2006]