The present disclose provides methods for forming a microfluidic device. Methods for forming a microfluidic device may comprise providing a microfluidic structure and a film, treating a surface of the microfluidic structure, a surface of the film, or both with a solvent, subsequently pressing the microfluidic structure together with the film under a first heating condition to form the microfluidic device comprising the solvent, and applying a negative pressure to the microfluidic device under a second heating condition, which negative pressure is applied for a time period greater than 30 minutes or at a pressure less than 20 kilopascals (kPa) to remove at least a portion of the solvent. In some aspects, the present disclosure provides devices consistent with the methods herein.

The present disclose provides methods for forming a microfluidic device. Methods for forming a microfluidic device may comprise providing a microfluidic structure and a film, treating a surface of the microfluidic structure, a surface of the film, or both with a solvent, subsequently pressing the microfluidic structure together with the film under a first heating condition to form the microfluidic device comprising the solvent, and applying a negative pressure to the microfluidic device under a second heating condition, which negative pressure is applied for a time period greater than 30 minutes or at a pressure less than 20 kilopascals (kPa) to remove at least a portion of the solvent. In some aspects, the present disclosure provides devices consistent with the methods herein.

Disclosed is a method that determines information associated with at least a portion of a build volume that comprises one or more 3D printed objects, and determines an amount of material to be applied to the build volume for use in annealing the one or more 3D printed objects of the build volume, on the basis of the information.

Gel compositions have a tunable hardness controlled by exposure to an external stimulus. Further disclosed herein are methods for making such gel compositions and devices that use such gel compositions. In one aspect, the gel compositions can be used to prepare physical 3-D replicas of the topography of a target surface.

The present disclosure provides Lazarev reactor that sustains reaction of two dimensional polymerization on the interface of two immiscible solutions A and B carrying components of reaction to the interface where reaction takes place and produces film of two dimensional polymer layers that are pulled out of reactor and rolled up on roll after drying excess of solvent out.

The present disclosure provides Lazarev reactor that sustains reaction of two dimensional polymerization on the interface of two immiscible solutions A and B carrying components of reaction to the interface where reaction takes place and produces film of two dimensional polymer layers that are pulled out of reactor and rolled up on roll after drying excess of solvent out.

The invention relates to a method and to a device for stabilizing precursor fibers for the production of carbon fibers. In the method, precursor fibers are first heated to a first temperature and held at the temperature for a predefined duration. Subsequently, the precursor fibers are heated to at least one second temperature, which is higher than the first temperature, and held at said temperature for a predefined duration. During each heating and between the heating steps, the precursor fibers are in a gas atmosphere having a negative pressure in the range between 12 mbar and 300 mbar and having an oxygen partial pressure of 2.5 to 63 mbar. The device has at least one evacuable, elongate vacuum chamber for feeding the precursor fibers through, at least two lock units and at least one heating unit. At least one lock unit is used for the sealed insertion of precursor fibers into the at least one vacuum chamber, while at least one other lock unit is used for the sealed removal of precursor fibers from the at least one vacuum chamber. The heating unit has at least two individually controllable heating elements, which are suitable for heating the at least one vacuum chamber to at least two different temperatures in heating zones which are adjacent in the longitudinal direction.

The present disclosure describes a method of post-treatment of a three-dimensional printed object and the three-dimensional printed object thus produced from this method. The method of post-treatment comprises application of a post-treatment agent comprising a plant oil and a heat-treatment step at high temperature with the aim of reducing surface roughness of the final part.

An example processing system for processing a part includes: a processing chamber to hold the part to be processed; a plurality of supply reservoir to contain respective processing fluids; an injection system fluidly coupled to the plurality of supply reservoirs; and a controller operatively coupled to the injection system, the controller to: based on the part to be processed, select a processing sequence for processing the part; and control the injection system to execute the selected processing sequence; wherein the processing sequence is selected from: (i) injecting, sequentially, a first volume of a first processing fluid and a second volume of a second processing fluid; and (ii) combining a third volume of a third processing fluid and a fourth volume of a fourth processing fluid to form a combined processing fluid and injecting the combined processing fluid into the processing chamber.

An example processing system for processing a part includes: a processing chamber to hold the part to be processed; a plurality of supply reservoir to contain respective processing fluids; an injection system fluidly coupled to the plurality of supply reservoirs; and a controller operatively coupled to the injection system, the controller to: based on the part to be processed, select a processing sequence for processing the part; and control the injection system to execute the selected processing sequence; wherein the processing sequence is selected from: (i) injecting, sequentially, a first volume of a first processing fluid and a second volume of a second processing fluid; and (ii) combining a third volume of a third processing fluid and a fourth volume of a fourth processing fluid to form a combined processing fluid and injecting the combined processing fluid into the processing chamber.