Fast‑Printing 3D Objects in Less Than a Second

A Chinese research team has made 3‑D printing much quicker and still detailed. Instead of adding layers one by one, they use holographic light that fills a whole volume at once. The system shines light from many angles, like a projector, and shapes the resin inside a container instantly. No moving parts or waiting for layers to set are needed, which saves time and keeps precision. The new method can create millimeter‑size parts in only 0. 6 seconds, while keeping tiny details as small as 12 micrometers—about one‑fifth the width of a human hair.This speed comes from rotating a light source instead of turning the liquid, and from fine‑tuning each hologram to keep sharpness across a 1‑centimeter depth. Tests show the printer can build 333 cubic millimeters every second, even with materials that flow or have different thicknesses. Such fast, accurate printing could help make small electronics, optical chips, and flexible devices quickly. In medicine the technology might produce realistic tissue models in a flash, while in robotics it could build tiny robots or curved circuits. The research was published in Nature on February 12, showing how the new approach could change many industries.