This 3D printer creates objects from 10 materials at once

A new 3D printer capable of manufacturing objects with up to ten materials at once has been unveiled. MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory released video of the printer, which they say is cheaper and "more user-friendly" than previous multi-material printers. "The platform opens up new possibilities for manufacturing, giving researchers and hobbyists alike the power to create objects that have previously been difficult or even impossible to print," said Javier Ramos, a research engineer at CSAIL who co-authored the paper along with members of Professor Wojciech Matusik's Computational Fabrication Group. The key to the system is its ability to scan and print directly onto other objects -- the team says you could put an iPhone into the machine and print a case directly onto it. Instead of extrusion -- in which components are layered onto each other like icing on a cake -- the machine "mixes microscopic droplets of photopolymers together that are then sent through inkjet printheads similar to the ones you see in office printers".