Application Of 3D Printing Technique Research Articles

3D printing of titanium dioxide and polyaniline-based photocatalytic composites

Photocatalysis has emerged as a promising method for wastewater treatment, organic removal, and hydrogen gas production. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a popular photocatalyst due to its ability to absorb ultraviolet light, its electronic structure, and its optical and chemical stability. The photocatalytic capacity of TiO2 is influenced by its crystal structure (anatase, rutile, and brookite), particle size, and surface area, which can be optimized. Moreover, TiO2 can be coated onto substrates such as ceramics or polymers. This research aims to investigate the application of 3D printing techniques to fabricate composites between TiO2 and polyaniline (PANI) under controlled processing conditions. The 3D photocatalyst was characterized using XRD, SEM, XAS, FTIR, and UV-VIS techniques. The results of this research could pave the way for more efficient and effective photocatalysts fabricated by 3D printing technique, with potential benefits for environmental sustainability and energy production.

3D Printed Micro‐Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices

AbstractMicro‐electrochemical energy storage devices (MEESDs) including micro‐supercapacitors (MSCs), micro‐batteries (MBs), and metal‐ion hybrid micro‐supercapacitors (MIHMSCs) are critical components of electronic systems, especially in the expanding field of the Internet of Things (IoT). In recent years, three‐dimensional (3D) printing techniques also known as additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have emerged as promising approaches to overcome the limitations of conventional fabrication procedures. Employing advanced manufacturing techniques to fabricate MEESDs offers potential benefits, including mass production and programmable prototyping. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in the applications of 3D printing techniques for MEESDs such as MBs, MSCs, and MIHMSCs. First, this review discusses the fundamental of micro/nano energy storage devices by 3D printing technology. Further, we examine the critical properties of the printable inks used in these processes. We also highlighted the current developments in 3D printing‐based MEESDs including various types of MBs, pseudocapacitive and electrochemical double‐layer‐based MSCs, and a range of MIHMSCs. Additionally, this review addresses the challenges and future prospects of 3D printing based MEESDs, including material limitations, printing resolution, manufacturing scalability, mechanical properties, and cost. Overall, this review presents a unique and valuable contribution by providing a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in 3D printing based MEESDs.

3D Printing of Dental Prostheses: Current and Emerging Applications.

Revolutionary fabrication technologies such as three-dimensional (3D) printing to develop dental structures are expected to replace traditional methods due to their ability to establish constructs with the required mechanical properties and detailed structures. Three-dimensional printing, as an additive manufacturing approach, has the potential to rapidly fabricate complex dental prostheses by employing a bottom-up strategy in a layer-by-layer fashion. This new technology allows dentists to extend their degree of freedom in selecting, creating, and performing the required treatments. Three-dimensional printing has been narrowly employed in the fabrication of various kinds of prostheses and implants. There is still an on-demand production procedure that offers a reasonable method with superior efficiency to engineer multifaceted dental constructs. This review article aims to cover the most recent applications of 3D printing techniques in the manufacturing of dental prosthetics. More specifically, after describing various 3D printing techniques and their advantages/disadvantages, the applications of 3D printing in dental prostheses are elaborated in various examples in the literature. Different 3D printing techniques have the capability to use different materials, including thermoplastic polymers, ceramics, and metals with distinctive suitability for dental applications, which are discussed in this article. The relevant limitations and challenges that currently limit the efficacy of 3D printing in this field are also reviewed. This review article has employed five major scientific databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus, with appropriate keywords to find the most relevant literature in the subject of dental prostheses 3D printing.

Heat transfer in BCC lattice materials: Conduction, convection, and radiation

Research studies have recently been conducted on heat transfer in architected materials. As a type of rationally-designed lightweight material, lattices have received much attention in the past few years due to their multifunctional properties, mainly realized by the application of 3D printing techniques. In the present research, fluid flow and conduction, convection, and radiation heat transfer in three-dimensional periodic BCC lattices, as a topologically cubic example among a myriad of cellular architectures, are studied for a wide range of porosity (0.7–0.99) and Reynolds numbers (1–150) via a CFD analysis. The steady and incompressible flow of cool fluid with constant thermophysical properties inside a unit cell or an assembly of unit cells is simulated using the Fluent software. First, the hydrodynamic behavior of the fluid flow in the unit cell without a thermal gradient is studied. In the absence of radiation, conduction and convection heat transfer are explored under two different thermal conditions, namely Constant temperature at solid struts and Constant heat release from solid struts. The numerical results show that cell temperature increases for the constant temperature boundary condition and decreases for the constant heat release when the cell porosity decreases at the same Reynolds number. By considering radiation mechanism via the Discrete Ordinates Method, it is observed that radiative thermal conductivity increases by increasing the porosity. The increase, linearly correlated with the cell size, slightly enhances by increasing the solid radiative emission coefficient and the applied temperature difference. At lower porosities, the heat conduction, and at higher porosities, the radiation heat transfer plays a significant role in the effective thermal conductivity. At the average cell temperature of 1800 K, the ratio of radiative thermal conductivity to the effective thermal conductivity is 95% for the porosity of 0.99 and is 12% for the porosity of 0.7. After examining all three modes of heat transfer at the constant heat release thermal condition, it is found that the temperature of solid struts increases by decreasing the Reynolds number, leading to an increase of the ratio of radiation heat transfer to the total heat transfer (the ratio rises six times as the Reynolds number decreases from 150 to 1.5625 for the porosity of 0.99). For the constant heat release thermal condition, radiation heat transfer in BCC lattices can not be ignored when the porosity is high or the thermal conductivity of constitutive solid and the flow Reynolds number are low.

A Review on: 3D Printed Orthopaedic Cast for Improved Forearm Fracture Rehabilitation

Abstract: Forearm fracture has many management related problems. In order to regain its function anatomical reduction and immobility is very necessary. Traditional cast is not a satisfactory cast as it is heavy, poorly ventilated and often causes fracture related complications. The paper deals with application of 3D printing technique for suitable cast for forearm rehabilitation. Novel 3D printed cast is light weighted, ventilated, custom fit, strong and waterproof and substantial improvement over conventional orthopaedic cast. With the development in technology, it is expected that the cost of fabrication and its manufacturing time will be greatly reduced in the coming future. Keywords: bone fracture, immobility, rehabilitation, 3D printing, orthopaedic cast

3D concrete printing matrix reinforced with Geogrid

One of the most widely used Construction material is Concrete. The quality of the concrete is highly dependent on the material proportion which in turn depends on the application that it is being used for. In the conventional method, hike in the cost of the project is majorly synonymous to the use of formwork. And this gets added up with a list that includes safety issues, wastage of material, time elapse, space constrain, labour problems, etc. The aforementioned subjects can be made effective with the application of 3D Printing Techniques in Concrete Technology. This Paper targets on optimizing the mortar mix for 3D Printing Concrete with adaptable mineral and chemical admixtures. Use of accelerators reduced the final setting time to 95 min from conventional time of 310 min. Also the use of fly ash as replacement to sand enhanced the compressive strength to 30 MPa compared to conventional concrete that had 25 MPa. Other durability parameters were also improved compared to control mix.

Three-dimensional printing of tactile sensors for soft robotics

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has become an important fabrication method for soft robotics, due to its ability to make complex 3D structures from computer designs in simple steps and multimaterial co-deposition ability. In this article, the application of 3D printing techniques in the fabrication of four types of tactile sensors commonly used in soft robotics, including the piezoresistive tactile sensor, capacitive tactile sensor, piezoelectric tactile sensor, and triboelectric tactile sensor, will be discussed. The 3D printing mechanism, material, and structure for each type of sensor will be introduced, and the perspectives on the future potential of 3D printable tactile sensors will be discussed.

The Application of 3D-Printing Techniques in the Manufacturing of Cement-Based Construction Products and Experiences Based on the Assessment of Such Products

The construction industry has embraced digitisation and industrialisation in response to the need to increase its productivity, optimise material consumption and improve workmanship. Additive manufacturing (AM), more widely known as 3D printing, has driven substantial progress in these respects in other industries, and a number of national and international projects have helped to introduce the technique to the construction industry. As with other innovative processes not covered by uniform standards, appropriate assessments and testing methodologies to control the quality of the 3D-printed end products, while not obligatory, are advisable. This article shows that regulation is not an obstacle to the use of an innovative product, such as 3D printing, by proposing quality-control tests and an assessment methodology, in the understanding that standardisation ensures the viability of a technology. The information, including the methods and results, is based on the authors’ experiences in the development of three research projects pertaining to 3D printing. This paper also discusses whether the performance of the materials used in 3D printing could be superior to traditional ones.

TECHNICAL DIMENSIONS OF 3D PRINTING TECHNIQUES IN THE FIELD OF ARTS AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

3D printing technologies are controlling the functioning of many machines, process, or different system in technical skills. Consequently, the present research investigates these performances as has come into view among the considerable scholarly regulations. The present research demonstrated teaching the students the application of 3D printing techniques in universities. Furthermore, to demonstrate teaching educators as well as an assistive technology for the sake of educating the related materials of 3D printing techniques. The present research provides a review of the literature, considering where and how 3DP could utilise. The research showed that the educational system is requested to construct curricula and an experimental methodology as an aid for Educational process. Keywords: 3D printing, art education, assistive technology, experimental methodology.

Application of 3D printing technique in percutaneous nephrolithotomy of patients with complicated kidney stones

Objective To investigate the application of 3D printing technique in percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) of patients with complicated kidney stones. Methods From January 2015 to December 2017, 60 patients with complicated kidney stones were enrolled in the First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University for prospective study, and PCNL was proposed.All the patients were randomly divided into 3D print group (30 cases) and conventional image inspection group (30 cases, control group). Before operation, CT urography (CTU) was used in both groups.In 3D printing group, digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) files of CT were extracted for 3D image postprocessing, and thermoplastic materials were used to print 3D model.In the 3D printing group, the digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) files of CT were extracted for 3D image post-processing, and the 3D model was printed with thermoplastic materials.According to the comprehensive planning of 3D kidney model, a virtual safe and reliable percutaneous renal access was established for each patient, and PCNL was executed.The patients in the two groups were compared before, during and after operation.Preoperative: age, sex, body mass index, blood creatinine, stone size and CT value.During the operation: (1) the target renal calices location time; (2) the conformity between the preoperative planning and the actual operation; (3) the operation completion time.After operation: (1) stone removal rate; (2) hemoglobin reduction level; (3) postoperative recovery. Results All the 60 patients successfully completed the operation, 30 patients successfully printed out the 3D model, which can accurately express the relationship between the stone and the adjacent anatomical structure, the internal renal artery and the collecting system.Positioning time of 3D printing group in target renal calices((2.9 ± 1.5) min vs.(5.8 ± 1.7) min, P=0.023), coincidence between simulated and actual puncture calices((89.5 ± 3.5)% vs.(60.2 ± 5.7)%, P=0.005), postoperative stone removal rate ((89.9 ± 4.5)% vs.(75.9 ± 5.2)%, P=0.009), and hemoglobin levels((1.4 ± 0.5) g/L vs.(2.9 ± 1.4) g/L, P=0.032) were superior to the control group, and the difference was statistically significant.But there was no significant difference between the two groups (all P>0.05). Conclusion The 3D printed kidney model truly restores the anatomical details around the kidneys and stones, providing a stereoscopic and intuitive way to perform surgery, so it maybe has a significance guidance for percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Key words: Kidney stones; Percutaneous nephrolithotomy; Kidney model; Surgery simulation

3D printable ‘just-add-water glass and water’ geopolymer-an experimental research based on extrusion-based 3D printing practices

The application of 3D printing technique has been bringing construction to a new stage. Development of suitable materials and suitable printing process of printable mixtures are very important issues. The present study aims to understand the strategies for the application of ‘just-add-water glass and water’ geopolymer in extrusion-based 3D printing. The 3D printing practice showed that the satisfactory printing quality, including extrudability, shape retainability, and buildability, can be achieved by adjusting water-to-binder ratio and gap time between layers for the ‘just-add-water glass and water’ geopolymer in fly ash – slag binary system.

Application of 3D printing techniques in treatment of congenital heart disease

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect at present. In recent years, the application of 3D printing in the diagnosis and treatment of CHD has been widely recognized, which presents CHD lesions in 3D solid model and provides a better understanding of the anatomy of CHD. In the future, 3D printing technology would improve the surgical proficiency, shorten the operation time, reduce the occurrence of perioperative complications, and create more personalized cardiovascular implants, therefore promote the precision of diagnosis and treatment for congenital heart disease. This article reviews the application of 3D printing technology in preoperative planning, intraoperative navigation and personalized implants of CHD, in surgical training and medical education, as well as in promoting doctor-patient communication and better understanding their condition for patients.

Application of 3D printing technique in clinical practice of spinal surgery

Objective To explore the application of 3D printing technology in clinical apprenticeship teaching in spinal surgery. Methods 38 eight-year clinical medical students admitted to the Department of Spine Surgery were randomly divided into experimental group (19 patients) and control group (19 patients). Taking odontoid fracture as an example. The traditional method is used for teaching, and the experimental group is taught with traditional teaching method combined with 3D printing technology. After the apprenticeship, the students of the two groups were tested in theory and simulated operation to evaluate the teaching effect. SPSS 17.0 was used for statistical analysis. The measurement data was expressed as mean ± standard deviation, and the t-test was used to compare the measurement data between two groups. Results The results showed that the scores of immediate examination and one month after class in the control group were (82.23±7.52) and (72.36±6.39) points respectively. The scores of immediate examination and one month after the class in the experimental group were (85.58±6.32), (80.87±6.23). The scores of the two examinations in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The 3D printing technology can significantly improve the teaching effect in the clinical apprenticeship teaching of spine surgery, and it has a bright prospect for application. Key words: 3D printing technology; Clinical practice; Spinal surgery

Biofabrication offers future hope for tackling various obstacles and challenges in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: A Perspective.

Biofabrication is an emerging multidisciplinary field that makes a revolutionary impact on the researches on life science, biomedical engineering, and both basic and clinical medicine, has progressed tremendously over the past few years. Recently, there has been a big boom in three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing (AM) research worldwide, and there is a significant increase not only in the number of researchers turning their attention to AM but also publications demonstrating the potential applications of 3D printing techniques in multiple fields. Biofabrication and bioprinting hold great promise for the innovation of engineering-based organ replacing medicine. In this mini review, various challenges in the field of tissue engineering are focused from the point of view of the biofabrication - strategies to bridge the gap between organ shortage and mission of medical innovation research seek to achieve organ-specific treatments or regenerative therapies. Four major challenges are discussed including (i) challenge of producing organs by AM, (ii) digitalization of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, (iii) rapid production of organs beyond the biological natural course, and (iv) extracorporeal organ engineering.

A review on the use of computational methods to characterize, design, and optimize tissue engineering scaffolds, with a potential in 3D printing fabrication.

The design and fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds is a highly complex process. In order to provide a proper architecture for cells to grow, proliferate, and differentiate to form tissues, scaffolds have to be made with suitable properties. However, the limited structural designs and conventional fabrication techniques severely cripple the improvement of scaffold properties. To overcome these limitations, many researchers have recently adopted computational methods combined with 3D printing techniques as a new approach for scaffold design and fabrication. This approach allows scaffolds to be designed and fabricated with highly complex microstructures and good control and accuracy. Previous works have also shown this approach to be a very useful tool to predict the scaffold properties and to optimize the scaffold designs with a great reduction of experimental iterations. As this approach combining computational methods and 3D printing techniques for scaffold design and fabrication has many advantages over the conventional trial-and-error based approach, it is imperative to provide a state-of-the-art review on the topic. To this end, this article reviews the various applications of computational methods in scaffold design and simulation; it also briefly reviews the application of 3D printing techniques to fabricate the computationally designed scaffolds. Finally, the limitations and future trends of this approach are discussed. Overall, this review will enable readers to understand the benefits of using computational methods coupled with 3D printing to design and fabricate scaffolds, and thus help researchers to improve and optimize the scaffold properties for future tissue engineering research. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 1329-1351, 2019.

Current progresses of 3D bioprinting based tissue engineering

BackgroundThe shortage of available organs for transplantation is the major obstacle hindering the application of regenerative medicine, and has also become the desperate problem faced by more and more patients nowadays. The recent development and application of 3D printing technique in biological research (bioprinting) has revolutionized the tissue engineering methods, and become a promising solution for tissue regeneration.ResultsIn this review, we summarize the current application of bioprinting in producing tissues and organoids, and discuss the future directions and challenges of 3D bioprinting.ConclusionsCurrently, 3D bioprinting is capable to generate patient‐specialized bone, cartilage, blood vascular network, hepatic unit and other simple components/tissues, yet pure cell‐based functional organs are still desired.

Heat Absorption Capacity and Binder Degradation Characteristics of 3D Printed Cores Investigated by Inverse Fourier Thermal Analysis

The application of 3D printing techniques is a recently developing area used within foundry technology. Digital production of sand molds and cores eliminates the need for hard tooling, drastically reduces lead times and offers design freedoms not possible in the traditional pattern making. Even though mold and core making technologies are refined from both scientific and practical points of view, casting defects may still occur in the final products. Thus, molding material related casting research is required to generate state-of-the-art methods and understandings to avoid the formation of casting defects. In this paper, a pioneering method is presented which is suitable to determine novel thermophysical and heat transfer properties of various types of molding materials. These properties are strongly connected to the cooling capacity and the gas evolution features of the cores used in casting production. The method is based on temperature measurements inside spherical shaped core sand specimens and evaluated by a special application of Fourier thermal analysis. Temperature measurements were performed in test samples produced by two different 3D core printing systems. The registered temperature data were processed by Fourier thermal analysis to calculate the thermal properties and the decomposition characteristics of the 3D printed cores. The experiments were executed under different heating conditions analogous to aluminium and cast iron production.

Application of 3D printing technique in the diagnosis and treatment for pancreatic and periampullary neoplasms

Application of 3D printing technique in the diagnosis and treatment for pancreatic and periampullary neoplasms

3D CT Image Processing for 3D Printed Auricular Reconstruction of Unilateral Microtia Patient

Purpose Microtia is congenital anomaly of external ear and the reconstruction method for the external ear of microtia patient was based on autogenous costal cartilage framework. The application of 3D printing technique in medical science has made more possibility of human tissue restoration, and we tried to apply this technique in auricular reconstruction field. Materials and Methods As for unilateral microtia patient, the contralateral side ear is normal and reconstructive surgeon tried to mimic it for reconstruction of affected ear. So, we obtained facial CT scan of microtia patient and made mirror image of normal side ear. Moreover, to make the 3D scaffold based on the mirror image of normal ear and to apply this scaffold for the auricular reconstruction surgery, we included auriculocephalic sulcus and anterior fixation part. Results We could successfully obtain mirror image of normal ear, auriculocephalic sulcus and anterior fixation part for 3D scaffold printing. Conclusions Using this CT image processing and 3D printing technique, we will be able to make the scaffold for auricular reconstruction of unilateral microtia patient, and perform auricular reconstruction in near future.