Abstract
Micro-drilling devices with different blade shapes were fabricated with a rapid and facile manufacturing process using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. The 3D-printed casting mold was utilized to customize the continuous shape of the blades without the need for expensive manufacturing tools. A computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed to estimate the pressure differences (fluidic resistance) around each rotating device in a flowing stream. Three types of blades (i.e., 45°, 0°, and helical type) were manufactured and compared to a device without blades (i.e., plain type). As a result, the device with the 45° blades exhibited the best drilling performance. At a rotational speed of 1000 rpm, the average drilling depth of the device with the 45° blades to penetrate artificial thrombus for 90 s was 3.64 mm, which was ~ 2.4 times longer than that of helical blades (1.51 mm). This study demonstrates the feasibility of using 3D printing to fabricate microscale drilling devices with sharp blades for various applications, such as in vivo microsurgery and clogged water supply tube maintenance.
Highlights
Micro-drilling devices with different blade shapes were fabricated with a rapid and facile manufacturing process using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology
This suggests the considerable effect of micro-drilling devices (MDDs) surface pattern and the bulletshaped body on the resistance to flow during the drilling operation
The MDD with 45° blades had an advantageous to move forward under the same magnetic field. These results revealed that the MDD with 45° blades shows the best drilling performance, and the conventional helical blades fabricated by the 3D-printing based casting method were limited in drilling obstacles
Summary
Micro-drilling devices with different blade shapes were fabricated with a rapid and facile manufacturing process using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using 3D printing to fabricate microscale drilling devices with sharp blades for various applications, such as in vivo microsurgery and clogged water supply tube maintenance. The conventional micro fabrications could create sharp blades with precise control, the manufacturing processes are expensive, complex, and have difficulty in modifying the device parameters upon user requests. Casting methods using 3D-printed molds have been widely researched owing to their advantages and applicability to various fields with different commercial materials (filaments). Micro-drilling devices (MDDs) with micropatterns are fabricated and demonstrated using FFF-type 3D printing methods, which modify the device features with simple and rapid manufacturing processes. The microdrills manufactured in this study have various biomedical applications such as removing blood clots in blood vessels or environmental applications such as piercing the blocked water supply tubes, serving as catheters or drilling robots, respectively
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