TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF MED610 MEDICAL MATERIALUSED IN POLYJET MATRIX 3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

3D printing is increasingly being used in many industries and in medicine. As a result, new materials are beingsought and researched, in particular biocompatible materials. Such materials can be used for medical devices,surgical instruments, and orthopaedic devices, as well as in bone surgery, tissue engineering, prosthetics,regenerative medicine, and the creation of drug delivery systems. This paper presents an analysis of the resultsof tribological testing of a biocompatible material used in 3D printing technology. The tests were conductedon a TRB3 tribometer (Anton) in a sphere-disk association. The tests were carried out by making cylindricalspecimens with a diameter of 40 mm and a height of 6 mm from the MED610 material using photo-curing liquidpolymer resin (PJM) technology. The specimens were fabricated in High Quality mode with a layer thicknessof 0.016 mm and with different print directions in the X-Z plane: 0, 45, and 90. The analysis was carriedout under technical dry friction conditions and in the presence of saline solution (0.9% NaCl). The tests wereperformed under fixed test parameters, i.e. speed and loading of the specimens. Ball-disc tests were carried outusing balls (counter-specimen) made of different materials with a diameter of 6 mm. Studies have shown that thedirection of printing affects tribological wear, due to the anisotropic nature of the 3D printing technology. Thelowest average coefficient of friction was obtained for specimens with a print direction of 90.