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3DMM2O

People working with microscopes — (© 3DMM2O)

Clusters of Excellence

3D Matter Made to Order

The vision of the Cluster is to establish scalable digital three-dimensional (3D) Additive Manufacturing reaching all the way from the molecular, via the nanometer and micrometer, to the macroscopic scale. This vision is nothing less than the ultimate digitization of 3D manufacturing and material processing.

The Cluster of Excellence 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O) is a joint initiative of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Heidelberg University. The main task of the Cluster is to take 3D Additive Manufacturing to the next level. 3D Additive Manufacturing, or plainly speaking “3D printing”, has the potential to change our world in the 21st Century as much as Gutenberg’s movable-type “2D printing” did in the 15th Century. 3D Additive Manufacturing converts information – a digital blueprint – directly and rapidly into physical objects.

This technology drastically shortens time to market, allows customization without additional cost, overcomes limitations of standard machining, and places the production of materials, objects, and functional devices from the hands of few factory owners into the hands of many with access to tabletop instruments with 3D printing capabilities. At the macroscale, 3D Additive Manufacturing of polymers and metals is already a megatrend worldwide.

The Cluster 3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O) aims at bringing 3D Additive Manufacturing from the macroscale to the micro-, nano-, and eventually to the molecular scale and at applying these technologies in three selected application Thrusts.

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