New Digital Fabrication Technique Creates Interlocking 3D-Printed Ceramic PolyBricks

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - June 19, 2014 - PRLog -- An innovative system using automated 3D printing technology and advanced digital tools to create customized, prefabricated ceramic building blocks, called PolyBricks, is enabling the construction of mortar-less brick building assemblies at much greater scales than was previously possible. The new techniques that use 3D printers to produce modular ceramic bricks from a single material that then interlock and assemble easily into larger units for architectural applications are described in an article in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (3DP) (http://www.liebertpub.com/3DP), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available free online on the 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/3dp.2014.0012) website.

Jenny Sabin, Martin Miller, Nicholas Cassab, and Andrew Lucia, of Sabin Design Lab, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) and Jenny Sabin Studio (Philadelphia, PA), provide a detailed description of the computational design techniques they developed for the digital fabrication and production of ceramic PolyBrick components. The authors explain how they used available 3D printing technology to produce mass customized components in the article “PolyBrick: Variegated Additive Ceramic Component Manufacturing (ACCM). (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/3dp.2014.0012)”

“This work offers an exciting new alternative approach for 3D printing at architectural scales, without requiring the large infrastructure that most current methods require. It could open the door to many new applications,” says Editor-in-Chief Hod Lipson, PhD, Director of Cornell University's Creative Machines Lab at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Ithaca, NY.

About the Journal
3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (3DP) (http://www.liebertpub.com/3DP) is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly in print and online. The Journal facilitates and supports the efforts of engineers, software developers, architects, lawyers, Deans and academic chairpersons of engineering and business schools, technology transfer specialists, chief research officers and vice presidents of research in government, industry, and academia, medical professionals, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. Spanning a broad array of disciplines focusing on novel 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies, policies, and innovations, the Journal brings together the community to address the challenges and discover new breakthroughs and trends living within this groundbreaking technology. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed at the 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (http://www.liebertpub.com/3DP) website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including Big Data, Soft Robotics, New Space, Tissue Engineering, and Stem Cells and Development. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s more than 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com) website.