Case Study: University of Colorado Boulder achieves precise voxel-level multi-material 3D printing for innovative robots and patient-specific medical models with Stratasys

How University of Colorado - Boulder Professor Rob MacCurdy is innovating using 3D printing for medical models

The University of Colorado Boulder, led by Professor Rob MacCurdy, needed more flexible, precise control to advance multi-material 3D printing for fully printed, hydraulically actuated robots and patient‑specific medical models. Existing tools were too limiting for addressing the “billions of voxels” in multi‑material designs, so the lab turned to Stratasys and its PolyJet printers and Research package to gain the additional software control and material capabilities required.

Stratasys delivered PolyJet hardware and a Research package that enables voxel‑level control and multiple material channels — including printing liquid materials in place — so solid and fluid components can be printed simultaneously. That capability let MacCurdy’s team produce fully functional, immediately activatable 3D‑printed robots and realistic pre‑surgical models, improving design verification, realism and clinical planning (shortening procedures and recovery time), and giving researchers far greater precision and flexibility in multi‑material additive manufacturing.

University of Colorado Boulder

Rob MacCurdy

Professor