A £4 million mini-factory for developing the next generation of miniaturised medical devices and ‘robots’ has officially opened at Imperial College London.

The new Micro-Machining Facility for Medical Robotics will be led by Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, director of Imperial’s Hamlyn Centre.

Advances in rapid-prototyping technologies, micro-fabrication and micro-machining processes, plus the development of advanced materials that are compatible with the body, will allow researchers to build advanced surgical tools and smart implants that can deliver targeted therapies with micro-instruments featuring integrated sensing and imaging technology.

In the past, developing miniaturised surgical robotic devices meant researchers had to undergo a prolonged and costly design and construction process that involved getting parts made off-campus, which could take weeks — and often months.

The new facility brings the entire construction process in-house and will cut development times significantly.

The facility will house advanced ‘3-D printers’ for researchers to print components that will be made from advanced materials and incorporate features ranging in size from the microscopic to the nanoscale. The researchers have also installed X-ray imaging technology that allows them to see the tiny components they are working on in real-time.