RepRap SWIM-ER: low cost open-source 3D gel printer

Abstract

Gels, soft and wet materials, have unique properties such as transparency, biocompatibility, and low friction. In recent years, high strength gel has been developed. Various studies take advantage of these characteristics has proceeded, we research to use high strength gel. High-strength gels are expected to be put to practical use in various situations. For example, gel organ models and gel artificial blood vessels are required at a medical site. Also in the field of robotics, soft materials are drawing attention. To put a high-strength gel into practical use, it is necessary to free-form a gel using a 3D gel printer. We developed a 3D gel Printer SWIM-ER, has enabled modeling of complex shapes of the gel. However, this is expensive. Therefore not all of the gel researchers and the companies have such a device. “RepRap” is the abbreviation for “Replicating rapidly prototyper”, the open source 3D printer. Most of the RepRap parts are made of a resin, and the 3D digital data of the parts and its firmware are posted on the internet. Therefore, we can easily create another 3D printer by building the parts with a 3D printer and programing the firmware on an inexpensive electronic substrate like the “Arduino”. In this research, we aimed to develop a low-cost 3D gel printer which can be used by anyone.