Development of Heart-Like Structure Employing Additive Manufacturing Technologies

Abstract

This study aims to present a workflow concerning the retrieval of a human heart’s 3D model and its fabrication with heart-like materials producing a 3D printed replica. In detail, the 3D model of the examined heart was obtained by applying a 3D reconstruction methodology utilizing DICOM data derived from CT-scans. For the 3D printed heart-like material, the Material Jetting AM technique was employed due to its ability to fabricate 3D printed composite parts with variable properties. Several compositions for the print-out materials were examined, and the material with the appropriate mechanical behavior compared to the actual heart, i.e. RWT-ENT A50 composite, was utilized. The 3D printing process of the physical heart-like structure was performed with the highest accuracy. Finally, the 3D printed heart-like structure was evaluated in terms of dimensional accuracy and surface roughness achieving sufficient accuracy with mean absolute error of 1.05mm and mean surface roughness of 2.78μm.