Education · Research
“3D printing allows scientists and engineers to quickly create prototypes and push the boundaries of what’s possible.”
DZDina ZimmermannStructural engineer at IdeaSquare, CERN
CERN
Read the storyCERN, in three numbers
CERN — the European Organization for Nuclear Research — has studied the particles that make up matter from Geneva since 1954, with 12,000+ people and the Large Hadron Collider. Original Prusa printers run across its departments, and some of what they print goes into the tunnel.
- 12,000+people at CERN
- 27 kmthe LHC ring
- 100 munderground
27 kmthe LHC ring · 100 m underground
Keeping it aligned is challenging because of the Earth’s own movements — and at this scale, everything on it must be custom-made.
A 27‑kilometre machine that the Earth keeps moving
- ProblemThe Large Hadron Collider is buried 100 metres underground and spans 27 kilometres, and it has to stay perfectly aligned for the experiments to mean anything. The Earth’s own movements work against that. [3D Printing Now 01/2024, p26] “Thanks to LHC’s scale and complexity, it’s only natural that everything must be custom-made.” [p26]
- SolutionCERN engineers design and produce the sensors, control systems and accelerators that measure and adjust the positions of the large magnets. 3D printing is used not only for testing but for parts that are installed directly in the tunnels of the LHC. [p26] The printers are not kept in one lab: on Prusa’s visit they were found throughout the departments, from maintenance and IT to the research facilities. [blog]
- ValueThe benefits box puts it as “cuts costs with 3D-printed models used directly in LHC” and “speeds up creation of parts for extreme environments”. [p27]
“We use 3D printing a lot. It’s not just for testing, we also use it to create parts that go directly into the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider.”
Jonas Kampp, Mechatronics engineer at CERN (Prusa blog)
A bead that carries a wire for 200 metres
- ProblemDistances in a critical part of the LHC are measured by a fragile wire spanning 200 metres — on each side of the four experiments. Much of the rest of the equipment runs on fragile fiber optics, where a bend that is too sharp cracks the glass inside and ruins the signal. [p26–27; blog]
- SolutionA bead made on an Original Prusa 3D printer carries the wire and protects it from damage [p26] — it took a lot of time and a lot of attempts to get right [blog]. Around it, printed casings and guides safeguard the optics: the FSI photodetection module has a printed component that organises the optical fibers into neat coils so they never bend sharply. [p27]
- ValueThese are not models of parts. They are the parts, in the tunnel, doing the measuring — printed because at this scale everything is a one-off anyway. [p26]
Test it in plastic before you commit the expensive material
- ProblemA tool for the LHC has to be proven reliable before the expensive material is committed to it — and at CERN the expensive material can be the whole point of the experiment. [p27]
- SolutionPrint the test. A feasibility print for a Hydrostatic Levelling System sensor was made to explore whether the part could be printed in metal and the production cost brought down [p27; blog]. A prototype connector between two Wire Positioning System sensors went the same way — and was redesigned several times before the article was even published. [p27; blog] Printed tubing connectors are made custom and stay easily modifiable — the property that a machined part loses the moment it exists. [p27, photo caption]
- Value“Often, these printed models are even used as final products.” The benefits box adds the other half: it reduces expensive material usage in prototype testing, and produces final-use prototypes quickly for high-stakes projects. [p27]
Changing the sample without turning the beam off
- ProblemCERN’s CLEAR accelerator aims a radiation beam at cancer cells to spare the healthy tissue around them. The experiment needs irradiated samples swapped quickly — and with radiation in the room, human safety comes first, so nobody can simply walk in and do it. [p27; blog] The VITO project has the same problem in a different shape: liquid samples in a high-vacuum setting, where opening and closing the equipment to change one costs time. [p27; blog]
- SolutionAt IdeaSquare — the workshop where young minds work alongside seasoned scientists — a 3D-printed robotic solution swaps the samples without interrupting the beam, and the sample boxes themselves are printed there. [p27; blog] For VITO, a special holder and a 3D-printed 8 mm capillary let the samples change without stopping the experiment. The capillary is printed from resin on an Original Prusa SL1. [p27; blog]
- ValueThe beam keeps running, the people stay out of the room, and the experiment stops waiting for its own housekeeping. [p27]
“3D printing allows scientists and engineers to quickly create prototypes and push the boundaries of what’s possible,”
Dina Zimmermann, Structural engineer at IdeaSquare, CERN
Could your lab print the part instead of waiting for it?
Tell us what you are building. We will come back with the machines, the materials and the parts other research groups print first.
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Customer story — ETH Zurich
Every one of ETH Zurich’s 100+ printers was built by a student
The architecture department’s HYTAC programme trains 300+ students a term, and each of them assembles an Original Prusa kit in two days before printing anything. It started as a maintenance problem: the university could fund the machines, but not the people to keep them running.
- 100+Original Prusa printers
- 300+students trained per term
- 20printers replaced each year
“I can’t imagine a world without 3D printing. It just wouldn’t work!”
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