Well, an interesting post – a long time coming. Not because of any delays in the research. Just that I haven’t been that active on Everything for a while again. I know, I know, the apologies are starting to seem hollow.

Anyway, as I have alluded to before – Human innovation never ceases to amaze me.

Imagine if you could create a 3D print in seconds – in a single pass as opposed to layer by layer.

Sounds like the Star Trek Replicator is getting close to reality.

It has the potential to make other types of 3D printing feel obsolete – Even todays fastest printers – Dinosaurs…?

An article from the folks at Photonics.com had me thinking that anyway.

Here is an couple of excerpts and a link to the article.

“(SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 25, 2026) — A newly developed optical printing technique allows complex 3D structures to be fabricated in a single holographic exposure. Unlike layer-by-layer 3D processing techniques, which limit fabrication speed and scalability, the holographic printing method projects the entire 3D intensity distribution into the photoresin in one step. The printing process takes only a few seconds, in contrast to other laser-based printing methods that can take hours to complete….

….The single-shot, holographic, 3D printing platform circumvents the intrinsic speed limitations of serial and layer-by-layer 3D printing, offering a potential path to high-speed, fully parallelized volumetric manufacturing for scientific and industrial applications.”

https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Holographic-3D-Printer-Makes-Complex-Shapes-in/p5/a72525

As with any new tech from reserach labs we will have to see where this actually goes. It is unlikely to be a consumer based platform for quite some time – 🙂 .

I wonder too, if this process makes the print output intrinsically stonger – as it technically is not layered. Hmmm. More investigation to follow.