3-D Printing[Non-toxic biocompatible medical

implants]

INTRODUCTION• 3D printing is a form of additive

manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. It is also known as rapid prototyping.

• 3D Printers are machines that produce physical 3D models from digital data by printing layer by layer. It can make physical models of objects either designed with a CAD program or scanned with a 3D Scanner. It is used in a variety of industries including jewellery, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education and consumer products.

3-D Printing in biocompatible medical implants

• Two-photon polymerization is a 3-D printing technique for making small-scale solid structures from many types of photoreactive liquid precursors.

• A naturally-occurring compound called riboflavin, which is better known as vitamin B2, has made it possible to 3D-print non-toxic medical implants, 

Mechanism [3-D printing from vitamin B-2]

• Riboflavin(bio-ink for 3d printing) is used as a photo initiator which is a chemical in a 3D printer that is activated by light (usually from a laser), and breaks down into other chemicals that allow the 3D printing ink to polymerize and solidify.

• With a titanium-sapphire laser as a light source, the researchers created 3D, honeycomb like scaffolds, and then lined the scaffolds with cells from a cow's aorta.

3-D Printing the Programmer’s angle

• In 3d printers input is given through a 3d scanner or a CAD program

• The model information is then transferred to the printer , the printer then deposits various materials layer by layer to build a 3d object.

3D Modeling Software Openscad is a parametric CAD

(Computer Aided Design) program that allows you to create 3D models based on lines of code with parameters. It works similar to a programming language and its advantage over standard CAD programs is that it’s really easy to change dimesions (parameters) on the model. All of the plastic parts on Plastibot-Mendel were designed on OpenScad. This software is more oriented to the Engineer than to the artist and is great to make mechanical parts.

Some other softwares are: Art of Illusion Blender 

• Some of the small scale softwares are written in python or java for cross platform compatibility.

• Makerbot has also developed a refined engine that converts a 3D object into g-code called Miracle-Grue which is C++ based.

Mathematical component

• Fubini’s Theorem• An object of n dimensions can be represented

as a spectrum of layers of shapes of n+1 dimension layers.

• Another approach to designing a tissue is based on mathematical modelling using a set of theoretical principles rules or laws related to spatial organisation.

Mechanical component

• Parts of 3d printer:• Print head and print base• Bionik , extracellular

matrix arranged in which cells are arranged in particular manner layer by layer.

• Extracellular matrix should have same viscous properties as embryonic tissue

REFERENCES

• Gaurav Tyagi, Technical Director/DIO, NIC-Muzaffarnagar, UP

• Dr. Roger Narayan , North Carolina State University

• Alexander K , North Carolina State University

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