3D printing nickel (IMAGE) National Institute for Materials Science, Japan Caption (Left) Laser beam being irradiated on the powder bed and the resulting cylindrical single-crystalline objects produced. (Right) A flat-top laser beam can be applied to form crystals aligned in the same orientation while the application of a conventional Gaussian laser beam results in less oriented crystalline grains. Credit Tomonori Kitashima National Institute for Materials Science KITASHIMA.Tomonori@nims.go.jp Usage Restrictions None License Original content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.