Home · Open research agenda
The open research agenda: what this field still has to solve.
Not a list of solved applications — the standing problem list for conformal printing, with the status of each item as we currently see it. Statuses are reviewed as work in the field progresses; if your group has moved one of these, send the evidence and the agenda gets updated.
Q1 Conformal electronics & antennas
Traces, antennas and sensor patterns belong on curved surfaces, not flat boards folded to fit. Printing structure — and eventually conductive paths — directly onto curved shells is one of the most-cited reasons labs want true non-planar toolpaths.
Agenda · awaits conductive-path maturityQ2 Printing onto existing objects
Scan a curved substrate, register the toolpath to it, and add material exactly where it's needed: features on printed or machined parts, repair of worn curved surfaces, personalisation of existing products. Flat-bed machines cannot do this at all.
Active on our platformQ3 Curved composite shells
Shells, ducts and housings whose strength comes from fibre laid along the curve. Conformal layers put continuous material along the load path instead of chopping it into flat slices — a measurable mechanical question waiting for more data.
Open problem · comparative data wantedQ4 Wearables, prosthetics & orthotics
Parts shaped by a body are curved in every direction. Support-free conformal printing promises smooth skin-contact surfaces and shells that follow anatomy without a staircase finish — a natural fit for research with clinical and design partners.
Exploring · partners welcomeQ5 Aerodynamic & fluid surfaces
Impellers, ducts, propellers and flow channels where surface quality is performance. Smooth curved layers remove the stair-stepping that disturbs flow, and support-free printing opens internal channel geometries that flat slicing can't build.
Active on our platformQ6 The slicing problem itself
Generating collision-free, well-oriented non-planar toolpaths on arbitrary geometry is an open algorithmic problem. Our slicer is a working answer, developed with academic partners — and collaboration on it is one of the fastest ways to move the whole field.
Our core collaboration topicLast updated: November 2026