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A jet of photocurable liquid falling under gravity can be turned into a solid thread by focused ultraviolet light. Gravity keeps stretching the stream, and the light fixes its shape at a controlled point. A team at the University of Twente and collaborators report that a model combining gravity, inertia, and capillarity predicted the final fiber radii they measured in this laboratory setup. The result is a controlled experiment, not a manufacturing process ready for factories.
How the setup works
The experiment starts with a vertical nozzle that pushes a highly reactive, photocurable liquid resin downward. Gravity pulls the stream down and thins it as it falls. Per the American Physical Society’s Physics Magazine overview of the work, focused, high-intensity UV LEDs sit about 5 mm below the nozzle. That position matters because it sets where the liquid meets the light.
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- Pump the resin through the nozzle. The liquid leaves the nozzle as a freely falling jet.
- Leave the light off and the jet breaks up. With no UV, the stream accelerates and eventually separates into droplets.
- Switch the UV on. Polymerization rapidly converts the illuminated section of the stream into a solid-like thread.
- Let the solid part pull the liquid. The solidified portion hangs below the illuminated area and tugs on the still-liquid material above it, so the stretching continues while the transition zone moves.
This is the core idea: the fiber is drawn by its own hanging weight rather than by a mechanical winder pulling it at a set speed. The announcement from the University of Twente describes the same basic mechanism, with light acting as the solidification trigger and gravity supplying the stretch.
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The researchers found that the intensity of the UV light sets where the liquid-to-solid transition happens. Moving that transition point changes the final form of the material. According to the APS overview, the outcomes range across three types:
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- A smooth, continuous fiber, when solidification is well placed relative to the stretching.
- Connected beads, where the thread solidifies in a way that leaves a chain of thicker sections.
- Separate droplets, the same outcome as the unlit jet, when solidification does not catch the stream in time.
Light intensity is therefore the practical control knob in this setup. Changing it is what lets the team move between these regimes without changing the liquid itself.
The prediction model
The team combined a momentum balance around the transition zone with a chemical-kinetics model of how the resin polymerizes. The result is an equation for the final fiber radius that depends on gravity, inertia, and capillarity. The APS overview describes this equation as parameter-free, meaning it does not rely on numbers fitted to each run, and says it reliably predicted the radii measured in the experiment.
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That claim is specific to the tested apparatus and conditions. The APS article notes that the team hopes to examine how these simplified dynamics hold when solidification is more gradual or when air drag plays a larger role. Until those cases are tested, the equation should be read as validated for this geometry and this resin system only.
Paper and publication details
The paper is “Fast Solidification of a Gravity-Stretched Liquid Jet” by J. S. Smink, C. W. Visser, and H. Lhuissier. It was published in Physical Review Letters 137, 144004 on October 2, 2026. Smink is with the Faculty of Engineering Technology at the University of Twente. The university’s announcement, dated October 8, 2026, says the paper was selected as an Editors’ Suggestion and Featured in Physics.
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What the evidence does and does not show
The available sources describe a controlled laboratory experiment and a model that matched the measured fiber radii. They do not report manufacturing cost savings, commercial deployment, or improved textile performance. They also do not establish that the approach can predict every polymer-spinning process.
The university describes one demonstration in which an illuminated jet and an unilluminated jet were collected on a plate. Only the illuminated jet kept its shape. That supports the claim that light solidified the material in the demonstration. The announcement does not, however, report a standardized test of fiber strength, so nothing in it speaks to how strong the fibers are.
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Reduced trial and error in fiber production is a plausible application that the experts quoted below point toward. It is not a measured result.
What the experts said
Henri Lhuissier, a fluid-mechanics expert at Aix-Marseille University, put the problem this way: “Most manufactured fibers are spun, but what happens is mostly unpredictable due to the complexity of chemistry, phase changes, fluid mechanics, and other factors.”
Detlef Lohse, a fluid-dynamics expert at the University of Twente, called the paper “really beautiful” and said that “using light to induce solidification in a liquid jet is a highly original idea that opens up great opportunity for controlling spinning and fiber production.” He added that “this work nicely combines very careful experiments with a deep theoretical analysis.”
Neither quote is a measurement, and neither describes a commercial product or partnership.
Where the idea could matter next
Most fiber-spinning methods either pull material with an imposed drawing force or rely on solidification that happens over a longer distance. A light-triggered approach that uses gravity to stretch the stream would differ on three points: how the material is drawn, where solidification is triggered, and how final radius and continuity are controlled. Any comparison with existing spinning equipment would need data on each of these points, and the cited coverage does not provide a head-to-head performance comparison.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchFor readers following the work, the questions to watch are whether the model holds when solidification is slower, whether air drag changes the picture at larger scales, and whether the fibers are tested for mechanical properties.
Sources: University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology, “Gravity and Light Reveal How Liquids Turn into Thin Fibers,” October 8, 2026. American Physical Society, Physics Magazine, “Spinning Liquid into Solid,” October 2, 2026.
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