Indeed this evolution process turns out to be a creative way to engage young researchers in photonics. Thanks to the fact that the fabrication time is minimal, the characteristics and quality of the components can evolve very fast in the hands of researchers. Researchers are no longer constrained to work with commercially available products and therefore their experimental setups can be made more versatile. The implementation of opto-mechanical components using 3D printing technology is having a direct impact on the photonics community. Fortunately, scientific research is one of them. However, we are currently in a stage of development where the use of 3D printing is advantageous over other manufacturing technologies only in rare scenarios.

For many authors, we are living the time of a third industrial revolution.

Nowadays is not uncommon to find headlines in the media where it is stated that 3D printing is a technology called to change our lives in the near future. JPT acknowledges support from the program ICREA Academia (Generalitat de Catalunya).Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. LJSS and JPT acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (SEV- 2015-0522) and from Fundació Privada Cellex. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: LJSS and AV acknowledge support from Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes. Received: JAccepted: DecemPublished: January 18, 2017Ĭopyright: © 2017 Salazar-Serrano et al. Universidad Miguel Hernandez de Elche, SPAIN Torres J, Valencia A (2017) A 3D Printed Toolbox for Opto-Mechanical Components.

Blender 3d print toolbox