Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are becoming the approaches of choice for the construction of scaffolds in tissue engineering. However, the development of 3D printing in this field brings unique challenges, which must be accounted for in the design of experiments. The common printing process parameters must be considered as important factors in the design and quality of final 3D-printed products. In this work, we study the influence of some parameters in the design and fabrication of PCL scaffolds, such as the number and orientation of layers, but also others of “hidden” importance, such as the cooling down rate while printing, or the position of the starting point in each layer. These factors can have an important impact oin the final porosity and mechanical performance of the scaffolds. A pure polycaprolactone filament was used. Three different configurations were selected for the design of the internal structure of the scaffolds: a solid one with alternate layers (solid) (0°, 90°), a porous one with 30% infill and alternate layers (ALT) (0°, 90°) and a non-alternated configuration consisting in printing three piled layers before changing the orientation (n-ALT) (0°, 0°, 0°, 90°, 90°, 90°). The nozzle temperature was set to 172 °C for printing and the build plate to 40 °C. Strand diameters of 361 ± 26 µm for room temperature cooling down and of 290 ± 30 µm for forced cooling down, were obtained. A compression elastic modulus of 2.12 ± 0.31 MPa for n-ALT and 8.58 ± 0.14 MPa for ALT scaffolds were obtained. The cooling down rate has been observed as an important parameter for the final characteristics of the scaffold.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are becoming the techniques of choice for the development of scaffolds in tissue engineering (TE)
The cooling down rate has been observed as an important parameter for the final characteristics of the scaffold
Subsequent DSC analysis produced a Tg at −64 ◦ C and a melting point at 51 ◦ C that agree with literature values and should determine the processing temperature [29]
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques are becoming the techniques of choice for the development of scaffolds in tissue engineering (TE). 3D printing has significantly increased the economic feasibility of low volume production runs, because the majority of investment for traditional manufacturing methods like injection moulding is for set up (e.g., fixturing, tooling, and moulds) and costs can only be recouped for high volume production runs [5]. Tissue engineering scaffolds should have similar mechanical properties to native tissue for withstanding similar physiological loading, which is a critical parameter for the regeneration of the target tissue. Mechanical properties should be achieved in combination with high porosities that allow cell migration [6], vasculature growing [7] and a degradation kinetics of the material that eventually facilitates the substitution of the implanted device for new ingrowth tissue [8]
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