RepRapMicron

What happened

The project's team says its μRepRap prototype has reached its first goals. The current recommended build, called PIKA, can place parts very precisely. It has also been used to deposit tiny drops of UV resin and to cure thin lines of resin. Work on an older design, called MAUS, has stopped, and a newer version, MAUS 'L', is in development.

Key numbers

• Early goal: repeatable positioning better than 3µm over a work area 10mm across. The team says this goal has been achieved.
• PIKA V0.02: repeatable positioning of about 1µm, and accuracy of 10µm or better, in an area of about 8mm cubic.
• UV resin droplets as small as 4µm have been deposited.
• With a fibre optic probe, resin lines as thin as 9µm have been cured.
• MAUS C V0.04 reached about 5µm positioning over a 4mm square, but its motion was not linear.

Why the scale is so small

A micron is one thousandth of a millimetre. The first micron-scale electronic chips were made from silicon in the 1960s. The Intel 4004, for example, had a feature size of 10µm. Making such tiny parts has usually needed expensive, complex and sometimes dangerous equipment. Microscope platforms from The OpenFlexure Project, which are 3D printed, made high precision possible at low cost.

Why it matters

RepRap helped bring 3D printing to home users. The team hopes a similar open, low-cost tool can help people make micron-scale parts. This could help biology labs get cheaper equipment and let small groups take part in microelectronics research, which has mostly been led by big companies.

What to watch

• Progress on the MAUS 'L' V0.05 design, which is still in development.
• Whether the PIKA design keeps improving its accuracy and print size.
• New build guides and parts lists that let more people make their own machine.