What Is Micro 3D Printing?

By Christopher Hunt

Additive manufacturing (AM) and micro 3D printing has disrupted the way micro-sized parts are designed and manufactured for engineers worldwide. Advances enable faster prototyping, faster production, more complex geometry, and smaller sizes.

The continuous development of materials and technology has created distinguishable tiers within the AM market. Large industrial uses include the printing sea-worthy boats or buildings down to microfluidic devices or biopolymer scaffolds printed on the nano scale. The need for smaller and smaller components is rapidly growing across several industries, especially in microelectronics, optics, and medical, leading to investment in micro additive manufacturing (µAM).

Micro 3D printing, also called micro additive manufacturing (µAM), refers to printers, materials, and processes that produce printed parts at the micron level. Micro 3D printing options commercially available today can produce complex parts in various polymers or metals utilizing unique methods of vat polymerization, micro laser sintering, and an innovative lithography-based metal manufacturing technique.