The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) has been working with embedding electronics into 3D printed items for some time now, but its new hybrid 3D printing approach is the most advanced yet. The process, which was developed by the center's Design and Prototyping Group, is called THREAD, and it allows multiple electrical, optical and structural elements to be woven directly into components as they're being 3D printed. Details of how the process works are being kept largely under wraps at the moment as a patent is still pending, but THREAD enables unbroken connectivity and other functions to pass through all three axes of a 3D printed object, without affecting build time. Read more at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/173410/amrc-embedded-materials/