New NIST method measures 3D polymer processing precisely

Recipes for three-dimensional (3D) printing, or additive manufacturing, of parts have required as much guesswork as science. Until now. Researchers have demonstrated a novel light-based atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique -- sample-coupled-resonance photorheology (SCRPR) -- that measures how and where a material's properties change in real time at the smallest scales during the curing process.