In this paper, a review is carried out of how 3D printing helps to improve the fabrication of microfluidic devices, the 3D printing technologies currently used for fabrication and the future of 3D printing in the field of microfluidics.

Additive manufacturing/3D printing is praised as revolutionary by many because it enables the decentralized and on‐demand manufacturing of complex shapes. With the ongoing rapid development and increased availability of these technologies, it has become crucial to develop novel materials with unique functionalities for 3D‐printed components. Advances in self‐healing materials have resulted in structures capable of recovering from physical damage through material remendability. By applying self‐healing solutions to 3D printing, researchers are attempting to overcome current barriers such as low mechanical properties, material waste, and printability issues, among others. This review summarizes the current state of research on self‐healing materials used for 3D printing and presents recent progress in the 3D printing of self‐healing components. The particular focus is on the use of intrinsic polymer self‐healing, which is prominent in the published literature. The self‐healing mechanisms of the proposed material systems as well as their composition are highlighted, and their intended application with respect to 3D printing is focused on. The scientific and technological challenges involved in the implementation of self‐healing materials and approaches and the potential functional 3D printing applications of these new materials are also discussed.

In this study, we propose a bistable energy harvester with an auxiliary magnet oscillator (BEH-O), whose motion is mechanically rectified to enhance its broadband energy harvesting performance. The design of the proposed BEH-O system is based on local modification of the double-well potential. The auxiliary oscillator with the mechanical rectifier is designed in such a manner that its rectified half-sine motion tends to reduce the saddle barrier of restoring potential, leading to a possibility of an easier escape from the potential well, while keeping other parts of the potential, thereby maintaining high-energy orbital motion. Consequently, the lower bound of the operating frequency band of the BEH-O is reduced, when compared to its conventional counterpart, i.e., conventional bistable energy harvester (CBEH), while its upper bound remains unchanged. Such a broader frequency band of the BEH-O can be directly compared with that of the CBEH, as there is little difference in the high-energy orbital motion between the two. This beneficial effect of the BEH-O system is theoretically and experimentally supported by bifurcation analyses and frequency response analyses.