GAITHERSBURG, MD—Created by a team including scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an advanced filtering material can extract the key ingredient in the most common form of plastic from a mixture of other chemicals while consuming far less energy than usual.

Additive manufacturing has already transformed the way that products are designed and produced in a wide variety of industries. The technology is now starting to be used by appliance engineers to assemble coffee makers, ovens, refrigerators and other household products.

3D printing technology is everywhere, from medical implants to aerostructures, and recently it's made its way to the Olympics. USA Luge teamed up with Stratasys, a supplier of additive manufacturing technology, to build customized racing sleds.

Medical devices represent both a challenge and an opportunity for plastics manufacturers.

Catheters, pacemakers, ventilators and dialysis filters are vastly different products. But, they all have one thing in common: they must be checked for leaks, whether into, or out of, an assembly.