Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and start-up firm Carbon3D have created a 3D printing technology that they say can grow objects in liquid.

The process uses ultraviolet light to "grow" objects out of liquid by shining the light through an oxygen-permeable window into a pool of liquid resin. Researchers are able to control the solidification of the liquid by manipulating the light and oxygen. The newly formed object is lifted out of the liquid by a slow-moving platform.

This continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) is 25 to 100 times faster than current methods of 3D printing, researchers say. It also is compatible with a range of materials such as elastomers, silicones, nylon-like materials, ceramics and biodegradables, and is able to generate geometries that previously had been nearly impossible to form.

“Since CLIP can allow us to make stronger objects with unique geometries that other technologies cannot achieve …. and facilitates 3D polymeric object fabrication in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days, it would not be impossible within the coming years to enable personalized coronary stents, dental implants or prosthetics to be 3D printed on-demand in a medical setting," says Joseph DeSimone, UNC-Chapel Hill professor.