Mahesh Mulik

Q2. Short write up about Different technologies of 3d printer and 3d Bioprinter?

3D Printing technology, also known as Additive Manufacturing (AM), refers to processes used to
generate a 3D object in which layers of material are successively formed under a computer-controlled
program to create a physical object. The 3D file source is usually sliced into several layers, each layer
generating a set of computer-controlled instructions. The term 3D printing originally referred to a process
that deposited a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by layer. Other terms
used to define 3D printing are rapid manufacturing, direct digital manufacturing, and rapid prototyping.

Additive manufacturing invention can be traced back to the 1980’s by Japanese, French and American
researchers. The very first patent of 3D printing was coined in 1984 by Chuck Hull of 3D Systems
Corporation. Hull defined the 3D printing process as a system for generating three-dimensional objects by
creating a cross-sectional pattern of the object to be formed. His invention consists of a stereolithography
fabrication system, in which layers are added by curing photopolymers with ultraviolet light lasers.

The objects manufactured through 3D printing processes can be of almost any shape or geometry. They
are typically produced using electronic data source such as a Standard Triangle language (STL) file, one
of the most common file types that 3D printers can read. The other commonly used files types are OBJ(if
you need more than 1 color in the final object), AMF( if the final product requires precision, multiple
materials and multiple colours at the same time) , 3MF( considered the future of 3D printing, used for
complicated 3D objects)

A. 3D Printer
The common techniques used in 3D printing:

1) Material Extrusion:

Material Extrusion 3D printing technology uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material as a

base material. The filament is fed from a coil, through a moving heated printer extruder head. The
molten material is forced out of the extruder's nozzle and is deposited first onto a platform, which can
be heated for extra adhesion. Once the first layer is completed, the second layer can then be directly
deposited until the object’s fabrication is complete. The extruder head is moved under computer
control. At least three axes are required for the extruder to move in Cartesian architectures.
 Material extrusion is known as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and is one of the most popular
processes for hobbyist-grade 3D printing. However, the material extrusion technique has dimensional
accuracy limitations and is very anisotropic. A wide variety of materials can be extruded, the most
popular being thermoplastics, such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), PolyLactic Acid (PLA),
aliphatic PolyAmides (PA, also known as Nylon). Additionally, paste-like materials such as ceramics,
concrete and chocolate can be extruded using this 3D printing technique.

2) Photopolymerization:

Photopolymerization 3D printing technology encompasses several different processes that rely on the
same basic strategy: a liquid photopolymer contained in a vat (or tank) is selectively cured by a heat
source. Layer by layer, a 3D physical object is built until completion.

Two different approaches are also competing inside the photopolymerization 3D printing technique,
and both of them build the part at the interface between the last layer and the surface of the resin tank.
The top-down approach consists of placing the heat source below the vat. The 3D printing platform is
then progressively raised into the air and the final part-built upside down. The second technique called
bottom-up consists of placing the heat source above the vat. Therefore, the 3D printing platform is
progressively dipped in the vat.
 The most popular vat photopolymerization 3D printing technologies include the following:

• StereoLithogrAphy (SLA) - is also known as, photo-solidification, or resin printing. During the
SL manufacturing process, a concentrated beam of ultraviolet light or a laser is focused onto the
surface of a vat filled with a liquid photopolymer. The beam or laser is focused, creating each
layer of the desired 3D object by means of cross-linking or degrading a polymer.

• Digital Light Processing (DLP) - For DLP 3D printing process, a digital projector screen is used
to flash a single image of each layer across the entire platform at once. Because the projector is a
digital screen, the image of each layer is composed of square pixels, resulting in a layer formed
from small rectangular bricks called voxels. DLP can achieve faster print times for some parts, as
each entire layer is exposed all at once, rather than drawn out with a laser.

3) Powder Bed Fusion :

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) 3D printing technology spawns’ products with precision. This 3D printing
technique enables the manufacturing of a vast array of geometrically complex products using a heat
source, mainly laser or electron beams, to fuse powder particles layer-by-layer, therefore forming a
solid part. Manufacturers can benefit from substantial freedom of design considering that PBF
presents several viable technologies and materials.

The different Powder Bed Fusion methods notably include:

• Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) -The process uses lasers to sinter, or combine, powdered
material layer-by-layer to create a solid structure. The final product is enveloped in loose powder,
which is then cleaned with brushes and pressurized air. The materials used include polyamide
(Nylons), Alumide, and rubber-like materials. Nylons are strong and durable but do feature some
flexibility, making them excellent for snap fits, brackets, clips, and spring features.

• Selective Laser Melting (SLM) - The same technical principle as SLS is used to produce
Selective Laser Melting (SLM) parts but is exclusively used to produce metal parts. SLM achieves
a full melt of the powder so that single-component metals, such as aluminum, can be used to
create light, strong spare parts and prototypes. These methods require added support to
compensate for the high residual stress and to limit the occurrence of distortion. Applications
include jewelry and dental industries, spare parts, and prototypes.

• Electron Beam Melting (EBM) - The EBM 3D printing technology attains fusion with the use of
a high-energy electron beam and produces less residual stress resulting in less distortion. It uses
 less energy and can produce layers faster than SLS. This method is most useful in high-value
industries such as aerospace and defense, motor sports, and medical prosthetics.

4) Binder Jetting :

The binder jetting 3D printing technique consists of the deposition of a binding adhesive agent onto
thin layers of powdered material. The powdered materials are either ceramic-based (for example glass
or gypsum) or metal (for example stainless steel).

During the binder jetting 3D printing process, the 3D print head moves over the build platform
depositing binder droplets, printing each layer in a similar fashion to 2D printers that print ink on
paper. When a layer is complete, the powder bed moves downwards, and a new layer of powder is
spread onto the build area. The process is repeated layer by layer until all parts are complete.

After printing, the parts are in a green, or unfinished, state and require additional post processing
before they are ready to use. Often an infiltrate substance is added to improve the mechanical
properties of the parts. Another strategy is to put the workpiece, in its green state, inside an oven to
achieve a sintering of the grains of matter.

Binder jetting is great for applications that require good aesthetics and form, such as architectural
models, packaging, toys and figurines. It is generally not suited for functional applications due to the
 brittle nature of the parts. Compared to Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) 3D printing techniques, the binder
jetting method has the advantage of not employing heat during the build process, which prevents the
creation of residual stresses in the parts.

5) Sheet Lamination –

The Sheet Lamination (SL) 3D printing manufacturing technique, also known as Laminated Object
Manufacturing (LOM) consists of super-positioning several layers of material composed of foil in
order to manufacture an object. Each foil is cut to shape with a knife or laser in order to fit to the
object’s cross-section. In paper-based laminated object manufacturing, the paper material is taken
from standard copy paper.

First, the paper goes through a standard inkjet 2D printer in order to be colored. All the colored pages
required to build the final part are then stacked in the 3D printer, which uses them one by one. Each
page is thereby removed from the stack, glued to the previous one and then precision-cut with a knife.
Layer by layer the workpiece is completed. The remaining paper can be removed by hand. Paper
models can be fully colored, have wood-like characteristics, and may be worked and finished
accordingly. The precision of the result depends mainly on the thickness of the layered material used,
like a paper sheet for example. A standard sheet of paper has a thickness that ranges between 50 and
100 microns.

Applications for 3D Laminated Object Manufacturing parts include ergonomic studies, topography
visualization, architecture models for paper-made objects. With thermoplastics and fibers it is possible
to directly manufacture functional lightweight technical components for aerospace and automotive
B. 3D Bio printing
Bio-printing is a generalized term that encompasses printing of various materials such as polymers,
plastics, ceramics, metals, and composites. Bioprinting refers specifically to the printing of live
cellular material, usually mixed in with a polymer (i.e. biomaterial) of choice. This allows
researchers to develop tissue constructs with a high degree of complexity that mimics the observed
structure and composition within the body. Such cellular tissue constructs can be applied towards
research (such as investigation of cell biology) or in pre-clinical research (such as implantation in
animal models). The ultimate goal of such approaches is to engineer 3D printed constructs that are
repaid, regenerate, or replace damaged tissue in the body.

The common techniques used in 3D printing:

1) Extrusion Based Bio Printing –

Extrusion-based bioprinting (also called direct ink writing), is the most widely used approach of 3D
bioprinting because of its versatility and affordability. In an extrusion-based system, continuous
filaments of a Bio-ink mixture are dispensed to fabricate the structure. This approach can be used for
printing a wide range of viscosities of biomaterials and different concentrations of cells. For this
reason, researchers prefer extrusion-based bioprinting to build tissue structures with sufficient
mechanical property. In addition, coaxial and multi-material bioprinting can also be perfectly
compatible with extrusion-based bioprinting for various kinds of applications. Parameters such as
temperature, nozzle diameter, extrusion pressure, movement speed, extrusion speed, path interval,
etc. would influence the final bio-printed structures. Commonly used extrusion-based bio printers are
pneumatic driven, Screw driven and Piston Driven.
 • Pneumatic-driven extrusion - system utilizes compressed air to realize liquid dispensing. Usually
it includes a syringe loaded with bio-ink, which is connected to an air pump through adapter and
pipes. Hydrogels with shear-thinning property works sufficiently with pneumatic-driven system
on account of its maintaining filament status after extrusion. Pneumatic-driven system requires
sterilization of air from the air pump. (Fig A)

• Piston Driven - It is generally accepted that mechanical driven liquid dispensing system is more
suitable for extrusion of high viscosity biomaterials, such as synthetic or natural high- molecular
polymers. Among them, piston-driven extrusion is quite common, as well as micro-infusion
pumps as they can be easily avaible in the market. The piston in this system is connected to a
motor through a guide screw. When motor starts, rotational motion of the guide screw transfers to
linear motion of the piston, which pushes bio-ink out of the nozzle to form filaments. (Fig B)

• Screw Driven - Another type of mechanical driven liquid dispensing system, screw-driven
devices provide more volumetric control, and contribute to the extrusion of biomaterials with
higher viscosities. The principle of screw-driven system is similar with piston-driven one except
that a screw which is connected to the motor, is directly used for extrusion instead of the piston.
Nevertheless, screw-driven devices not only provide more pressure, but also might damage the
cell.

Closing thoughts are, compared to pneumatic-driven method, piston and screw-driven methods
provide higher resolution and better printability with semi-solid or solid state biomaterials ( e.g., cell
aggregates) . Whereas, using these two methods they are volumetric limited, cleaning and disinfection
complicated (especially for screw-driven devices), and cost more. With appropriate bio-inks,
extrusion-based bioprinting is a reliable tool to fabricate biomaterials. For the reason of diversity,
economy and capacity of printing porous structures, extrusion-based bioprinting is widely used by
researchers all over the world.

2) Droplet Based Bio-Printing –

Droplet-based bioprinting use independent and discrete droplets as basic unit which leads to
relatively high resolution compared to extrusion- based bioprinting. Due to its simplicity and
capability of precise control of biologics including cells, growth factors, genes, medicines,
biomaterials, etc., droplet-based bioprinting has many applications in tissue engineering, regenerative
medicine, transplantation, clinical, pharmacy, high-throughput screening and cancer research.
According to different droplets forming principles, droplet- based bioprinting can be divided into
inkjet bioprinting, electrohydrodynamic jetting (EHDJ) and laser assisted bioprinting (LAB).
Moreover, inkjet bioprinting can be subdivided into continuous inkjet (CIJ) printing and drop-on-
demand (DOD) inkjet printing,
• Inkjet Bio Printing- Inkjet bioprinting is regarded to be the first bioprinting. The process of inkjet
printing can be considered as two steps: 1. the formation of discrete droplets which are directed to
a desired location of substrate; 2. the interaction between droplets and substrate. They are divided
into 2 types Continuous Ink Jet (CIJ) and Demand on Drop (DoD).

The ink applied in CIJ is usually electrically conductive so that it can be guided by electric or
magnetic fields. During the printing process, redundant droplets would be recirculated. DOD
inkjet, in contrast, produces a droplet when required and droplet deposition is achieved by
displacing the nozzle above the desired location before a droplet is ejected.

CIJ possesses higher drop generating frequencies, while DOD inkjet works at lower frequencies
but achieves smaller drop volumes which lead to higher printing resolution. DOD inkjet
bioprinting can be further divided into thermal, piezoelectric, electrostatic, etc. according to
different droplet motivation mechanisms.
3) Photocuring Bio-Printing -

Photocuring-based bioprinting/ VAT polymerization- a liquid photopolymer contained in a vat (or

tank) is selectively cured by a heat source. Layer by layer, a 3D physical object is built until
completion. There are multiple types of curing devices including lasers. Compared to other
approaches of bioprinting, it usually has significant improvement on printing resolution and printing
speed. Besides, it has a congenital advantage of no worrying about nozzle plugging, or shear stress
affecting cell viability. The most common use of photocuring-based bioprinting is to
manufacture cell-free scaffolds, for cells to be seeded post- printing. It can further be classified
into stereolithography (SLA), and digital light processing (DLP)

• Stereolithography (SLA)– In the bioprinting area, SLA is often applied to print precise tissue
scaffolds with controllable geometry and porous structure due to its high resolution. SLA
technology has been applied more in scaffold printing than cell-loaded bioprinting.

For a SLA bioprinter, bio-ink is filled in a tank with a platform that moves up and down. When
printing the first layer, the platform shifts to the surface of the bio-ink solution and the liquid
solidifies upon exposure to the UV laser. For each layer, laser scan through a 2D pattern. Instead
of focusing directly on the ink solution, the laser reflects from a mirror for reaching appropriate
point by moving in X and Y directions. By submerging the platform in the vat of liquid and
moving it up/down a distance equal to the layer height, the newly cured ink solution is firmly
adhered to the previous layer, this process repeats until the final 3D construct is completed. In
most cases, excess of bio-ink needs to be cleaned and further photo-curing is required post-
printing
 • Digital Light Processing (DLP) – Differs from SLA, DLP solidifies a complete layer at once
instead of point-by-point. The above Figure shows a typical bottom-to- top DLP bioprinter, which
means printing the bottom layer first, each new layer is above the previous one. It consists of three
components: a container filled with bio-ink including photocurable hydrogel or photosensitive
resin which can solidify exposed to laser of a specific wavelength (usually UV light), photo
initiator, cells, etc.; a lifting platform insures lowering a certain height (equals to the thickness of
one layer) after one layer is finishing exposed, making it a new layer for photocuring; and a
imaging system above the container. The reason for photocuring one complete layer at once
during the printing process is the use of a dynamic mask. Simply put, the mask carries a design
pattern through which light passes and transmits the pattern to the receiving substrate. Layering
software is used to slice the 3D digital model according to a certain thickness. Each layer is
converted into a bitmap file, which is subsequently input into the dynamic mask. According to the
graph displayed on the dynamic mask, each layer is exposed to solidify the surface of bio-ink.

Q3). Please put down short description on Process involved in 3d Printing &
bioprinting process

The typical workflow for both 3D printer and Bio-printer are identical. In their book "Additive
Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing," Ian Gibson,
David W. Rosen and Brent Stucker list the following eight steps in the generic AM process namely

• Step 1: CAD – Produce a 3-D model using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The software
may provide some hint as to the structural integrity you can expect in the finished product, too, using
 scientific data about certain materials to create virtual simulations of how the object will behave
under certain conditions.

• Step 2: Conversion to STL – Convert the CAD drawing to the STL format. STL, which is an
acronym for Standard Triangle Language/standard tessellation language. Most 3-D printers can use
STL files.

• Step 3: Transfer to AM Machine and STL File Manipulation – A user copies the STL file to the
computer that controls the 3-D printer. Here, there may be some general manipulation of the file so
that it is the correct size, position, and orientation for building. This is similar to the way you would
set up a 2-D printout to print two-sided or in landscape versus portrait orientation.

• Step 4: Machine Setup – Each machine has its own requirements for how to prepare for a new print
job. The AM machine must be properly set up prior to the build process. Such settings would relate to
the build parameters like the material constraints, energy source, layer thickness, timings, etc. This
also includes refilling the polymers, binders and other consumables the printer will use. It also covers
adding a tray to serve as a foundation or adding the material to build temporary water-soluble supports.

• Step 5: Build – Building the part is mainly an automated process and the machine can largely carry on
without supervision. Only superficial monitoring of the machine needs to take place at this time to
ensure no errors have taken place like running out of material, power or software glitches, etc. Each
layer is usually about 0.1 mm thick, though it can be much thinner or thicker. Depending on the
object's size, the machine and the materials used, this process could take hours or even days to
complete.

• Step 6: Removal – Once the AM machine has completed the build, the parts must be removed. This
may require interaction with the machine, which may have safety interlocks to ensure for example that
the operating temperatures are sufficiently low or that there are no actively moving parts. Be sure to
take any safety precautions to avoid injury, such as wearing gloves to protect yourself from hot
surfaces or toxic chemicals.

• Step 7: Postprocessing – Many 3-D printers will require some amount of post-processing for the
printed object. This could include brushing off any remaining powder or bathing the printed object to
remove water-soluble supports. The new print may be weak during this step since some materials
require time to cure, so caution might be necessary to ensure that it doesn't break or fall apart.

• Step 8: Application – Make use of the newly printed object or objects.

 In case of the Bio Printing the idea is the same but steps are a little bit different. They are as follows:

• Data acquisition - 3D models can be obtained by using X-ray, computed tomography (CT),
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc. techniques to scan and reconstruct, or directly using
computer aided design (CAD) software to establish. 3D models would then be divided into 2D
horizontal slices (with customizable size and orientation) by specific software. These data would be
further processed into particles or filaments according to different bioprinting approaches.

• Material selection - Materials including cells, growth factors, hydrogels, etc. should be chosen
carefully according to the requirement of printed structures and approaches. Strictly speaking, the
combination of these biomaterials is called bio-inks, while they could also be simply regarded as cell-
laden hydrogels in most cases. The selection of bio-inks is crucial to guarantee biocompatibility,
printability and mechanical property.

• Bioprinting - Before bioprinting, appropriate configuration of printing parameters needs to be

confirmed. And observation during printing process is necessary to make adjustment when
encounters any problems.

• Functionalization - After printing, to make dispersed cells forming connections and generating some
functions of natural tissue/organ through physical and chemical stimulation is the target.
 INDEX
1) https://www.news-medical.net/life-sciences/Bioprinting-An-Overview.aspx
2) https://make.3dexperience.3ds.com/processes
3) https://make.3dexperience.3ds.com/processes/photopolymerization
4) https://www.cmac.com.au/blog/4-common-types-3d-printer-file-formats-when-to-use
5) Zeming Gu, Jianzhong Fu and Hui Lin et al., Development of 3D bioprinting: From printing
methods to biomedical applications, Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajps.2019.11.003)
6) https://cect.umd.edu/3d-printing-and-bioprinting
7) https://computer.howstuffworks.com/3-d-printing
8) https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/additive-manufacturing-process/