Trio Labs and its Microscopic Metal 3D Printing Technology

Trio Labs is an American company that has developed a metal additive manufacturing technology capable of designing parts on a microscopic scale. Called Resin Infused Powder Lithography, it can achieve a resolution of 5 microns, making it possible to design highly detailed and precise components. It is mainly used in the healthcare sector, where personalization is key. We caught up with its founder and CEO, Adam Steege, to find out more about how this process works and the prospects it offers.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your connection with 3D printing?

Adam Steege

I started my first company in 2010 to develop advanced laparoscopic surgical instrumentation, and utilized 3D printing, as well as CNC and casting processes to develop those devices. I’ve also worked extensively in medical device development in a consulting capacity over the past 10+ years, and have used those processes as well as stamping and molding to produce devices. I had a lot of the same frustrations with 3D printing that I think most design engineers have had, especially when it comes to metal printing (poor surface finish, poor tolerances) so I started Trio Labs to fix some of those problems.

3DN: What is Trio Labs’ mission?

Trio Labs has developed a technology called Resin Infused Powder Lithography (RIPL). This process provides the precision of CNC machining with the flexibility of 3D printing. We are primarily focused on healthcare applications, since there is a tremendous need for the parts we can make in the minimally invasive surgical space as well as in interventional catheters. More broadly, there is a continuous push towards miniaturization in many verticals, and we will support this type of innovation everywhere we can.