A spin-off company of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Novaetech, recently used 3D printing to build an open-source version of a delicate instrument which uses the piezoelectric features of quartz crytals to detect mass down to a billionth of a gram. The openQCM project has resulted in a Quartz Crystal Microbalance device which has a wide range of scientific study applications, and the use of 3D printing to prototype -- and ultimately distribute the units -- means the developers can make their creation available for a price which represents a mere fraction of the the cost of similar products. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/34734/openqcm-project/ ‎


Below is a look at openQCM components: