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May/Jun 2013  

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Fabrication

Top Features

MICA Freeform combines fabbing techniques

MICA Freeform is a microscale fabrication process that bridges the gap between traditional micromachining processes, such as microEDM and laser machining, and newer methods, like LIGA—a process developed in Germany that combines lithography, electroplating and molding.

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Hot Off the Press: 3-D printers making more products—and news

Turn on the TV, pick up a consumer magazine or visit a popular Web news portal these days and you just might get an update on 3-D printing—the hottest topic in manufacturing.

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Electron beam melting serves up implants

When the rapid-prototyping industry launched in 1987, stereolithography apparatuses (SLAes) were used to build physical parts from pools of laser-cured liquid resin. Since then, the technology has grown, changed and inspired a handful of fundamentally different additive-manufacturing (AM) processes that also create parts by binding successive layers of various raw materials into CAD-designated shapes.

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Faster Times

In the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, weapons engineers aboard the USS Enterprise didn’t need to search the galaxy for rapid-prototyping (RP) shops to model their phaser designs. All they had to do was program the ship’s holodeck with whatever death-ray design an engineer dreamed up in the shower, test the device on a few hostile Romulans and go into production.

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Building with µLegos

In the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage, doctors put a new spin on the term “house call.” Using microminiaturization technology, scientists shrink a team of surgeons to the size of the flu virus, then send the group on a mission to destroy a blood clot deep inside the brain of a Russian defector. (There’s no spoiler—you’ll have to watch the movie for yourself.)

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Meeting the conductive challenge

You probably don’t think about electrically conductive inks as you drive to work each morning. But it’s likely that you give at least a passing thought to some of your vehicle’s features that incorporate potentiometers and rheostats made with conductive inks.

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Top Videos

Standford researchers develop all-carbon solar cell

Stanford University researchers have developed an all-carbon, thin-film prototype solar cell that they say could reduce the manufacturing costs associated with rigid silicon solar panels.

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T-Ink animation showcases conductive ink technology

T-Ink Inc., New York, offers a "thinking ink" technology that reportedly can replace physical switches, wire and sensors with printed components that create circuits without wires, as the company illustrated in a recent video animation of the process used to make an automobile overhead light.

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Cold Heading Technology from Fukui Byora

Keigo Fukumoto, representing Fukui Byora Co., Ltd, Fukui, Japan, during the recent ICOMM 2012 gathering at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., offered a brief backround about the company and its Cold Heading Technology.

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ICOMM growing, achieving balanced global interest

April 13, 2012—With about 150 attendees turning out for the 7th International Conference on MicroManufacturing (ICOMM 2012) held March 12-14 at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., conference organizers hailed the balanced attendance from Asia, Europe and North America as a first for the annual gathering.

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3-D printing merges with printed electronics

soStratasys, Eden Prairie, Minn., and Optomec Inc., Albuquerque, N.M., have partnered in a joint development project to merge 3-D printing and printed electronics to create what Stratasys is calling the first fully printed hybrid structure, according to a release by Stratasys.

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Top Products

Photoetching metal parts

Tech-Etch Inc.

Tech-Etch partsTech-Etch Inc. specializes in the manufacture of light gauge metal parts as small as 0.0005" thick. The photoetching process allows the company to produce intricate metal components with close tolerances.

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Electronic contract manufacturing service provider

Advanced Manufacturing Service Inc.

Advanced Manufacturing Service is an electronic contract manufacturing service provider. Its customers include manufacturers of industrial controls, medical devices and equipment for laboratories, surveillance and communication.

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Stereolithography process

FineLine Prototyping Inc.

Fineline stereolithographyFineLine Prototyping Inc. is a rapidprototyping and additive-manufacturing company that specializes in fabricating high-accuracy, high-resolution parts for the medical device industry.

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Micromachining, fabrication book available

InTech

InTech micro book thumb"Micromachining Techniques for Fabrication of Micro and Nano Structures," a new book presenting advances in micromanufacturing technology, is available as a free download through InTech, an open access publisher of scholoarly papers and books.

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Spin-on hardmask product created for advanced lithography

Brewer Science Inc.

Feb. 21, 2012—Pixelligent LLC and Brewer Science Inc. have combined their respective expertise in nanocrystal additives and microelectronics "to create a next generation spin-on hardmask for advanced lithography," Brewer announced in a recent news release.

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