Development of a Multi-Material 3D Printer for Functional Anatomic Models

Abstract

Anatomic models are important in medical education and pre-operative planning as they help students or doctors prepare for real scenarios in a risk-free way. Several experimental anatomic models were made with additive manufacturing techniques to improve geometric, radiological, or mechanical realism. However, reproducing the mechanical behavior of soft tissues remains a challenge. To solve this problem, multi-material structuring of soft and hard materials was proposed in this study, and a three-dimensional (3D) printer was built to make such structuring possible. The printer relies on extrusion to deposit certain thermoplastic and silicone rubber materials. Various objects were successfully printed for testing the feasibility of geometric features such as thin walls, infill structuring, overhangs, and multi-material interfaces. Finally, a small medical image-based ribcage model was printed as a proof of concept for anatomic model printing. The features enabled by this printer offer a promising outlook on mimicking the mechanical properties of various soft tissues.

Material extrusion additive manufacturing of dual material composite thermoset silicone components

“…[30][31][32][33] Other work uses the multi-material printing to print composite structures that use the combined material properties. [34][35][36][37] This type of composite printing opens up more room for designing composite structures with specific material properties by combining dissimilar materials in novel patterns.…”

“…When one of the materials is more unwieldy or the shape is too complex, multi‐material systems allow for sacrificial materials to be implemented in the layer‐by‐layer approach to support the material of interest 30–33 . Other work uses the multi‐material printing to print composite structures that use the combined material properties 34–37 . This type of composite printing opens up more room for designing composite structures with specific material properties by combining dissimilar materials in novel patterns.…”

Inkless Multimaterial Printing Flexible Electronics by Directed Laser Deposition at Nano- and Microscale

“…The current state-of-the-art printed electronics mostly revolve around ink-based manufacturing techniques such as inkjet and aerosol jet printing (IJP and AJP). − These direct printing methods overcome the challenges of conventional lithography-based processes, which require expensive manufacturing facilities with complex and wasteful processes. ,− IJP and AJP techniques have been successful in printing a limited single material in a single process step. A few printing methods have also been reported that are capable of printing multimaterials. − For example, Skylar-Scott et al reported a micrometer-scale printing strategy by fast switching between viscous materials which are extruded through a single nozzle.…”

Design of Dual-Head 3D Printer

“…The use of 3D printing in medicine is becoming more widespread, and the resulting demand for anatomically accurate models brings the need to print products that simulate the interweaving of soft and hard tissues. Jaksa et al [10] describes a solution to this problem using an available conventional 3D printer. A similar use of a dualhead 3D printer is found in medicine by Liimatainen et al [14] when printing models of a tumor-infected organ, where healthy and infected tissues are printed from different material.…”