IQS nano comes with a record
Czech nanotechnology company IQS nano creates smallest 3D printed replica of largest mosque in world: Great Mosque of Mecca.
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IQS nano, part of the IQS Group company, has created a record-breaking small gold-plated model of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Al-Mastjid al-Haram Mecca. The size of the 3D micro model is 820 µm x 643 µm x 135 µm – the thickness of a sewing needle. It was printed using micro-stereolithography with a resolution of 250 nm and is approximately 1:600000 scale of the real-life Great Mosque of Mecca.
IQS nano has produced the model for its world’s premiere at the Dubai EXPO 2020. The silicon model was created using 3D nano-printing based on two-photon lithography and is coated with an extremely thin layer of gold (100 nanometres). Only ten pieces of this model have been created.
“Today we are opening a rotating exhibition Czech Treasures, where I personally present this world-unique micro model of Great Mosque of Mecca,” says the company´s managing director Petr Franc.
IQS nano has been developing 3D nano-printing since its establishment 10 years ago.
“Our goal is to be one of the first in the world to use 3D nano-printing on an industrial scale. Although we have followed a more difficult route by developing and building our own equipment, it has given us unique knowledge in constructing and operating this type of technology, and most importantly, the expertise to keep improving it. Developed progressively in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences and ELTEK Ltd, the equipment and technology allows precision printing of spatial objects with dimensions in the micro and nano domains,” says the company’s CEO Milan Matějka.
The model of the Mecca shrine will be on display in the Czech Republic’s pavilion at EXPO 2020 from 15 December 2021 to 31 January 2022.
