Ivory Made Using 3D Printer, Suitable Replacement For Real One

Scientists from the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and 3D printing company Cubicure GmbH created an ivory substitute that can replace the real one and possibly restore many museum artifacts, Free News reported.

Ivory trade has been banned across the world because of the declining populations of majestic animals. The team of scientists explained that the ivory substitute, called 'Digory,' consists of synthetic resin and calcium phosphate particles that are processed in a hot, liquid state and hardened in a 3D printer using UV rays in the desired shape. Digory can also be polished and color-matched.

Jürgen Stampfl of the Vienna Institute for Materials Science and Technology said that their project started with the restoration of a 17th-century coffin in the Mauerbacj Church, which is adorned with small ivory ornaments. But some of these ornaments have been lost over time. Luckily, the ivory substitute can now replace those lost ones.

Their study, entitled "Developing an ivory-like material for stereolithography-based additive manufacturing," is published in Applied Materials Today.

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3D Printers Make Ivory Substitute

According to CNet, it took scientists numerous experiments to create the right formula for the ivory substitute. It is translucent similar to the natural material and also has the same density and color. They used black tea to stain the Digory to much older ivory.

Thaddäa Rath and other members of the team from TU Wien and Cubicure used tiny phosphate particles with an average diameter of about 7 microns embedded in a special resin together with an extremely fine silicon oxide powder, Science Daily reported.

Then they processed the mixture at high heat in the 3D printers of Cubicure using the hot lithography process, wherein each layer is treated with a UV laser until the complete object is finished.

"You also have to bear in mind that ivory is translucent," explains Rath. "Only if you use the right amount of calcium phosphate will the material have the same translucent properties as ivory."

Just then, the color of the object could be added. The team was able to have good results using black tea, which they used in creating dark lines that are typically seen in real ivory that can be applied afterward.

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Perfect Substitute for Ivory

According to Science Daily, Digory is a big step forward in the efforts to not use tusks from animals. Researchers noted that the 3D-printed material is even better, more beautiful, and easier to work with than before because the 3D technology makes it possible to reproduce it automatically instead of painstakingly carving them from ivory substitute material.

Konstanze Seidler from Cubicure said that their expertise in using the technology allowed them to process different formulas of the material. It is proof of how diverse the possible applications of the technology of stereolithography.

They hope that Digory will be accepted by the public in the future as an aesthetically and mechanically high-quality ivory substitute to avoid using elephant tusks.