3D printing allows engineers to custom build intricate structures impossible with traditional manufacturing, but the layer-by-layer approach can be slow and limits the shapes that can be built. A new technique can now fabricate entire 3D shapes in seconds using holographic light fields.
The technique, developed by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, uses special resins that solidify when they are exposed to light. By shining three laser beams at a vat filled with the resin to create a 3D pattern of light, they were able to fabricate 3D structures in one go in just 10 seconds.
