Close Menu
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    • News
    • Insights
    • Case Studies
    • AM Infocast
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
  • About us
  • Media Kit
  • Contact us
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
  • Content
    1. News
    2. Insights
    3. Case Studies
    4. AM Infocast
    5. View All
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    NAMI Partners with Ministry to Launch Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Manufacturing Centre

    May 30, 2025
    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone's Reach!

    Revopoint Trackit Now on Kickstarter: Marker-free 3D Scans Within Everyone’s Reach!

    May 28, 2025
    Credits: Outokumpu

    Outokumpu launches stainless steel metal powder in additive manufacturing for aerospace and aviation industry applications

    May 22, 2025
    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    Why Bioprinting Innovations can elevate healthcare and industrial AM

    May 21, 2025
    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    Why Additive Manufacturing Excels in Some Applications but Fails in Others?

    May 21, 2025
    Formlabs fuse 1+

    How Imaginarium Helped Kaash Studio Scale with the Right 3D Printing Technology

    April 12, 2025
    The Formlabs Fuse 1+ 30W

    Kaash Studio Optimized Service Bureau Operations with Formlabs 3D Printers- Case Study

    January 30, 2025
    Namthaja Unveils Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway

    Worlds First 3D Printed Marine Gangway unveiled by Namthaja

    August 8, 2024
    RusselSmith Material Performance Improvement Whitepaper

    RusselSmith Whitepaper : Improving Material Performance with Microstructural Refinement

    May 9, 2024
    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing

    Sustainable Production of Metal Powder for Additive Manufacturing with Bruce Bradshaw

    February 15, 2024
    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    Meeting Evolving Customer Demands in the Additive Manufacturing Industry with Tyler Reid

    February 9, 2024
    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    Innovation is at the heart of AMUG with Diana Kalisz

    March 7, 2023
    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    3D Printing Workshops at AMUG with Edward Graham

    March 7, 2023
    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d

    Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

    June 5, 2025
    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

    June 5, 2025
    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen

    Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

    June 3, 2025
    Caption:Researchers have developed a resin that turns into two different kinds of solids, depending on the type of light that shines on it: Ultraviolet light cures the resin into a highly resilient solid, while visible light turns the same resin into a solid that is easily dissolvable in certain solvents. Credits:Credit: Courtesy of the researchers; MIT News

    New 3D printing method by MIT enables complex designs and creates less waste

    June 3, 2025
  • Focus Regions
    • India
    • Asia Pacific
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Europe
  • Industries
    • Automotive
    • Aerospace
    • Defence
    • Energy
    • Construction
    • Healthcare
    • Tooling
    • Engineering
  • Training
  • Magazine
    • Digital Issues
    • Print Subscription
  • Events
Subscribe
AM ChronicleAM Chronicle
Home » Insights

3D printing has potential to cut cost of optical silica fibres

Insights By Aditya ChandavarkarNovember 5, 20193 Mins Read
shutterstock 1086304745
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Pinterest Email Copy Link

Australian and Chinese engineers develop method for printing optical silica preforms that can be drawn into fibres

it’s no exaggeration to say that optical silica fibres are among the most important materials for the world economy. High-speed Internet depends on them, and therefore so do many of the financial transactions that underpin stock markets. However, making them is a labour-intensive and precise process.

The new technique, developed by a research team led by John Canning of the University of technology in Sydney, collaborating with Gang-Dean Peng’s team from University of New South Wales and colleagues from Harbin Engineering University and Yanshan University in China produces a preform from optical silica that can be drawn into fibres using a much simpler and cheaper procedure.

“Making silica optical fibre involves the labour-intensive process of spinning tubes on a lathe, which requires the fibre’s core or cores to be precisely centered,” explained Canning. “With additive manufacturing, there’s no need for the fibre geometry to be centered. This removes one of the greatest limitations in fibre design and greatly reduces the cost of fibre manufacturing.”

Canning and his collaborators describe their research in the Optical Society journal Optics Letters. The research builds on earlier work in which the team is a polymer material to demonstrate drawing fibres from a 3D-printed preform, but expanding technique to silica required considerable additional innovation: notably the need for a temperature of more than 1900°C to 3D print glass.

The team used a commercially available direct light projection 3D printer, which is normally used to polymerise photo-reactive monomers, and loaded it with silica nanoparticles along with monomer at greater than 50 per cent by weight. They then printed a cylindrical object hollow core, which they subsequently filled with a similar mix of the same monomer and silica nanoparticles, but in this case adding germanosilicate dopant to the mixture to increase the refractive index.

Having produced the preform, they then performed a heating step to remove the polymer binding agent, leaving the nanoparticles held together by intermolecular forces. Raising the temperature further fused the nanoparticles together into a solid structure. This could then be heated and pulled in a draw tower to create optical fibres.

Initial experimentation produced fibres that had high light-loss characteristics, but the team has identified cause of these losses and is working to address them.

“The new technique worked surprisingly well and can be applied to a range of glass material processing to improve other types of optical components,” said Canning. “With further improvements to limit the light losses, this new approach could potentially replace the conventional lathe-based method of making silica optical fibres. This would not only reduce fabrication and material costs but also lower labour costs because training and hazards are reduced.”

Source: theengineer.co.uk

Aditya Chandavarkar
Aditya Chandavarkar
Website
Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.
3DPrinting additive manufacturing Silica silica fibers
Aditya Chandavarkar
  • Website

Aditya Chandavarkar is a established entrepreneur with business interests in manufacturing, innovative technology, training and consulting. Among other activities he the Co-Founder of Indian 3D Printing Network and is a subject matter expert on 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing with good grasp of Additive Manufacturing trends in the Region including India, APAC, Middleeast and Africa.

LATEST FROM AM
Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications, Credits: Velo3d News

Velo3D enters CRADA with NAVAIR to Advance Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace and Defense Applications

June 5, 20252 Mins Read
New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin Uncategorized

New 3D Printing Technology Enables Dual-Material Creation from Single Resin

June 5, 20251 Min Read
Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen News

Novel Magnetic 3D-Printed Pen Can be A Promising Diagnostic Tool for Early-Stage Parkinson’s Disease

June 3, 20253 Mins Read

CONNECT WITH US

  • 126 A, Dhuruwadi, A. V. Nagvekar Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400025
  • [email protected]
  • +91 022 24306319
Facebook Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Newsletter

Subscribe to the AM Chronicle mailer to receive latest tech updates and insights from global industry experts.

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Quick Links

  • News
  • Insights
  • Case Studies
  • AM Training
  • AM Infocast
  • AM Magazine
  • Events

Media

  • Advertise with us
  • Sponsored Articles
  • Media Kit

Events

  • AM Conclave 2025
    24-25 September 2025 | ADNEC, Abu Dhabi
  • AMTECH 2025
    3-4 December 2025 | KTPO, Whitefield, Bengaluru
CNT Expositions & Services LLP
© 2025 CNT Expositions & Services LLP.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.



0 / 75