Abstract
Syringe pump extruders are required for a wide range of 3D printing applications, including bioprinting, embedded printing, and food printing. However, the mass of the syringe becomes a major challenge for most printing platforms, requiring compromises in speed, resolution and/or volume. To address these issues, we have designed a syringe pump large volume extruder (LVE) that is compatible with low-cost, open source 3D printers, and herein demonstrate its performance on a PrintrBot Simple Metal. Key aspects of the LVE include: (1) it is open source and compatible with open source hardware and software, making it inexpensive and widely accessible to the 3D printing community, (2) it utilizes a standard 60 mL syringe as its ink reservoir, effectively increasing print volume of the average bioprinter, (3) it is capable of retraction and high speed movements, and (4) it can print fluids using nozzle diameters as small as 100 µm, enabling the printing of complex shapes/objects when used in conjunction with the freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) 3D printing method. Printing performance of the LVE is demonstrated by utilizing alginate as a model biomaterial ink to fabricate parametric CAD models and standard calibration objects.
Highlights
Syringe-pump-based 3D printers can be generically broken down into two categories: bioprinters and paste/clay extruders
Paste extruders are designed for high-capacity, often featuring large material reservoirs and large-diameter nozzles
The result is an inexpensive, 3D-printable, 60 mL-volume, open source syringe pump extruder that can retract, operate at high speeds, and fabricate complex objects via the freeform reversible embedding of suspended hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting method [4]
Summary
The Large Volume Extruder (LVE) was developed to print a range of materials, including biopolymers, hydrogels, pastes, epoxies, and other shear thinning and yield-stress fluids (Fig. 1). Goals of the LVE were to: (1) minimize cost and difficulty of fabrication by utilizing standard syringe sizes and luer-fittings, (2) increase bioprinter ink volume, and (3) increase performance of paste extruders by enabling use of small nozzle sizes and increased speeds. To lower the cost of entry, moderately-priced large volume paste extruders such as the Discov3ry extruder (https://www.structur3d.io/), which has a starting price of $1300, have become available for purchase While these are more cost accessible than commercial 3D bioprinters, such drop-in modifications are not designed for retraction and are typically used with large-diameter nozzles. The LVE is compatible with standard 60 mL syringes, per ISO 7886-2:1996 [9], and luer-lock needles, both of which are widely available online
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