Everybody knows that diamonds are pretty tough. They are hard and complicated to machine, so forming complex shapes with them is not easy. Sandvik has come up with the world’s first 3D printed diamond composite that can be printed in highly complex shapes. As the company explains:
The difference between Sandvik’s diamond and natural or synthetic diamond is that Sandvik’s is a composite material. Most of the material is diamond, but to make it printable and dense it needs to be cemented in a very hard matrix material, keeping the most important physical properties of pure diamond. We are printing in a slurry consisting of diamond powder and polymer using a method called stereolithography, where complex parts are produced, layer by layer, using ultraviolet light.
This 3D printed diamond will have advanced industrial applications. In the future, it will be possible to print anything in any shape in diamond. Pretty exciting, isn’t it?
[HT]
