3D glass printing: the next step in advanced manufacturing

该项目旨在建立澳大利亚首个3D玻璃打印能力，用于学术和工业研发。这一能力提供了一个机会，将3D玻璃打印领域从现代艺术推进到玻璃组件的制造，既具有高透明度，又涉及任何其他技术无法实现的新结构。这些3D打印玻璃材料和结构有望通过实现利用光线和流体控制的新方法，为光子学和微流体设备带来革命性的变化。利用这一基础设施产生的新玻璃材料预计将提高建筑的能源效率，开发用于健康科学的生物医学探头，以及用于国家安全、农业和环境监测的新型传感技术。这将使澳大利亚保持在科学研究和发展的前沿，特别是在生物医学设备、光纤和分析仪器方面。

This project aims to establish the first 3D glass printing capability in Australia for academic and industrial research and development. This capability provides an opportunity to advance the field of 3D glass printing from modern art to the fabrication of glass components, with both high transparency and involving new structures not possible with any other technology. These 3D printed glass materials and structures are expected to revolutionise photonics and microfluidics devices by enabling new ways to harness light and fluidics control. The new glass materials generated with this infrastructure are envisioned to improve energy efficiency in buildings, develop biomedical probes for health science and novel sensing technology for national security, agriculture and environmental monitoring. This will keep Australia at the forefront of scientific research and development, specifically in biomedical devices, fibre optics, and analytical instrumentation.