3-D Printing Could Get 10,000 Times Faster: Livermore Lab

LIVERMORE, CA — Thanks to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Chinese University of Hong Kong, 3-D printing could get up to 10,000 times faster and become 98 percent cheaper.

Existing technology is inefficient, according to the CUHK. The new method may increase printing speeds from 1,000 to 10,000 times, thus significantly reducing the expense of 3-D printing.

"Even a centimeter-sized object can take several days to weeks to fabricate," CUHK wrote in a press release.

Researchers received multiple U.S. patents for the technology and the results were profiled in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's "Science" journal.

It's been hard to print 3-D tissues and organs for transplants, lab models or drug screens, Science wrote, but this new method could change that.

Read more on Science.