Chait says his company is working with several others to create prototype devices based on the new technique, which can produce complex, three-dimensional structures out of multiple materials--and do so in a high-throughput process that can lower costs. The new method is an improvement over other printing-based techniques, Chait says, such as those that print designs on pre-formed ceramic sheets. The new method requires no pre-forms, which simplifies the process, cuts costs, and allows for more-complex designs, he says.

EoPlex is applying the concept to manufacturing micro-reactors, devices now often made from silicon, which quickly combine small amounts of precursor compounds to form high-value chemicals. Because they work with small amounts of chemcials at a time, such micro-reactors could be safer than conventional techniques when interacting with toxic or volatile chemicals. EoPlex has also designed an electrical generator smaller than a dime that uses piezoelectric materials to transform vibrations in a vehicle into electricity for powering wireless sensors. While wireless air-pressure sensors are now available on luxury cars, Chait says the new power source could lead to much smaller devices. The new printing technique would help make the sensors inexpensive enough to be put on all new cars.

Printing technologies have promise because "they are amenable to low-cost mass production," says Michael Cima, materials-science and engineering professor at MIT. "If you're talking about sensors for cars, you've got to make millions of them, and you've got to make them cheaply."

But scaling up to actual production can be difficult, says Emanuel Sachs, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering with experience developing three-dimensional printing techniques. "Are their accuracies, tolerances, and production rates good enough to make real stuff? That's what it's going to come down to."