Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604

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Additive Manufacturing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/addma

MEWron: An open-source melt electrowriting platform

Ander Reizabal a, b, 1, Taavet Kangur a, c, 1, Paula G. Saiz a, d, Sönke Menke a, Christophe Moser c,
Jürgen Brugger c, Paul D. Dalton a, *, Simon Luposchainsky a, *
a
Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, University of Oregon, 1505 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene 97403, OR, USA
b
BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures, Bldg. Martina Casiano, UPV/EHU Science Park, Barrio Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain
c
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Laboratory of Applied Photonics Devices, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
d
Macromolecular Chemistry Research Group (LABQUIMAC), Dept. of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country (UPV/
EHU), Spain

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Melt electrowriting (MEW) is a distinct class of additive manufacturing technologies that generates fibrous and
Near-field electrospinning (NFES) porous macrostructures with microscale resolution from an electrically charged molten polymer. The high-
Electrohydrodynamic jet printing (EJP) resolution scaffolds produced by MEW have been primarily used for tissue engineering, cancer research, bio­
Porous fibrillar scaffolds
fabrication and biomaterials. Unfortunately, the commercial MEW device’s prohibitive affordability and lack of
Open-source hardware
Voron project
standardization of custom devices, represent obstacles to further research. Built on the achievements and
affordability of material extrusion 3D printers, we convert an open-source Voron 0.1 printer into a highly capable
MEW device, termed as MEWron. To guarantee availability, the use of commercial and affordable components is
prioritized, while in the cases where this has not been possible, 3D printed, and easy-to-machine components
have been employed. Two main approaches have been followed, the first one focused on the existing material
extrusion configuration (i.e., filament-based feeding system and material input) while the second one focuses on
a conventional MEW pneumatic feeding system and syringe reservoir. When not including the high voltage
supply, both approaches have a final budget below $1000. The manuscript describes all required steps and
components to modify a Voron 0.1 printer and provides the computer-aided design (CAD) for required custom
components reproduction. Moreover, the MEWron devices’ reliability is demonstrated, as well as their potential
to extend the MEW field boundaries. We believe that the open-source MEWron device will facilitate unprece­
dented MEW technology accessibility using a well-established and modifiable platform.

1. Introduction
Among 3D printing technologies, melt electrowriting (MEW) stands
out for its ability to generate high-resolution fibrous and porous mac­
rostructures profiting from electrically charged molten polymers
(Fig. 1a). MEW provides a high printing stability [1], deposition accu­
racy [2], and control over fiber shape and solidification [3], which al­
lows generated micrometric jet/fiber precise patterning to form complex
2D layers, which can be stacked on top of each other forming 3D
structures [4]. MEW’s ability to operate without solvents avoids the
necessity of extraction systems, minimizes the material lost, reduces the
environmental impact, and prevents designed materials’ biological
toxicity from residual solvents. These attributes together with the
increasing availability of medical-grade polymers, make MEW an
outstanding candidate for scaffold fabrication, which have been gener­
ally studied for guiding cell growth and supporting tissue regeneration.
MEW has been used for mimicking the heart valve [5], tympanic
membrane [6], human trabecular meshwork [7], and cartilage [8],
among other tissues.
The low flow rates that MEW usually requires (0.5–20 µL/h),
together with the printer’s common configuration with syringe-like
reservoirs of several mL of volume, involve substantial periods when
the polymer remains in the molten state, requiring the use of materials
with significant thermal stability to prevent degradation and loss of
properties (Table 1) [9]. MEW research has mostly focused on poly
(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), a medical grade polymer with a processing
temperature of 70–90 ◦ C, high thermal stability [1], and controllable
solidification and crystallization dynamics [4], which allow the

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: pdalton@uoregon.edu (P.D. Dalton), slupo@uoregon.edu (S. Luposchainsky).
1
Equal contribution.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604
Received 16 February 2023; Received in revised form 19 April 2023; Accepted 10 May 2023
Available online 11 May 2023
2214-8604/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
A. Reizabal et al. Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604

development of highly complex structures and features [10], biomedical Table 1

devices [11], and multi-active components [12]. Recently, other mate­ Characteristics of commonly employed FFF and MEW devices.
rials have been processed by MEW, such as polylactic acid (PLA) [13], FFF MEW
polypropylene (PP) [14], and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) [15],
Material feeding Mechanical pushing Pneumatic pressurized syringe
among others [4]. Nevertheless, several issues must be addressed to system filament
achieve similar outcomes as PCL, such as fiber diameter and homoge­ Heating type Resistive Resistive
neity control, morphological complexity, thermal degradation, print­ Nozzle diameters 250–400 50–400
ability over long periods, and large-size structure development [16]. (µm)
Feature dimension 150–600 0.5–50
The vast majority of peer-reviewed MEW research has been per­ (µm)
formed with build-your-own systems, an approach that has reduced the Flow rate (µL/h) 3600–36,000 0.5–20
threshold for technology adoption, and stimulated the research output Maximum 300 150
through customized hardware development (e.g. dual extrusion nozzle temperature (◦ C)
Printing speed (mm/ 600–4800 300–600
and semi-woven scaffolds [17], rotatory mandrel and spatially hetero­
min)
geneous tubular scaffolds [5,18], and multi-axis MEW robot [19]). Heated material 50–70 500–3000+
However, the development of custom systems requires great technical volume (µL)
skill and the devices are inherently heterogeneous, which affects sci­ Printing volume (µL) 5⋅103 - 500⋅103 5 – 50
entific reproducibility, hinders standardization, and subsequently delays Price range (USD) 200–200,000+ 30,000–50,000+
Application Fixtures and Scaffolds for in vivo/vitro, tissue
the translation of research to industry and clinical use. Unfortunately, prototyping engineering
the affordability of commercial MEW devices with high-quality com­
ponents is prohibitive, and any modification to them, risks voiding
warranties or becomes unreasonable due to printers’ complexity, devices capable of printing most of their components or even giving way
limiting versatility for research purposes [20]. There are noteworthy to newly updated versions [25]. This allows the improvement of a device
existing efforts to sharing the development of high-end MEW printers, in every iteration and makes it easily repairable, and customizable. As a
which reduce the gap between custom and commercial MEW [21–23]. result, in recent years, FFF has become one of the most accessible ad­
The printer described herein differs in its significantly lower price, is ditive manufacturing techniques and the default one when talking about
based on an open-source platform and permits the use of filament “3D printing”. Currently, consumer grade FFF printers can process
feedstock. polymers at temperatures as high as 300 ◦ C, achieve seemingly flawless
Fused filament fabrication (FFF), the non-trademarked term for printing accuracy, and process a variety of materials beyond neat ther­
Fused deposition modeling (FDM), is an additive manufacturing tech­ moplastics [26]. Moreover, the community of FFF users is actively
nique where a filament of thermoplastic polymer is extruded through a working to overcome manufacturing challenges, help untrained users,
nozzle onto a build plate to generate a 3D object by stacking layers of and even provide new open-access technologies that continuously up­
materials (Fig. 1b). It was patented by Scott Crump in 1989 [24], but date the limits of the field [27].
only when the patent expired in 2009 and the Replicating FFF printers and MEW devices share various of their functional re­
Rapid-prototype (RepRap) philosophy bloomed, the technology became quirements, such as a heater to melt the polymer, a heated print bed to
widespread, started to be replicated, was upgraded by the community, control solidification dynamics, extrusion-based processing, a three-axis
and commercialized at an accessible price to a mass market. RepRap can stage (XYZ) to control the material deposition, and G-code as numerical
be described as an “evolution-made machine” strategy, focused on control programming language (Fig. 1). Thus, upgrading a suitable FFF

Fig. 1. Schematic including the main components and working mechanism of a) Melt Electrowriting (MEW), and b) Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). Note that both
systems share various of their functional requirements, such as a heater to melt the polymer, extrusion-based processing, and a three-axis stage (XYZ) to control the
material deposition. The main differences are the extrusion system, which normally is pneumatic in MEW and gear-driven in FFF, and the high voltage that MEW
requires to generate small fibers and keep them stable.

2
A. Reizabal et al.
3D printer into a MEW device requires some modifications to apply an
electric potential and reach suitable flow rates (Table 1). To date, some
attempts have been made to process MEW structures through the input
of filament-based polymers, demonstrating the potential of this
approach for expanding the MEW boundaries [19,28], but still have
some limitations, such as dealing with the low flow rates that MEW
requires, the printing speed, and large scaffolds printing.
Driven by the achievements and affordability of FFF 3D printers, to
tackle some MEW limitations, and with the expectation of showing the
community the possibility of having an accessible MEW printer, the
potential of using an open-source FFF printer as a platform to develop a
MEW device has been explored. Two different MEW conversions were
tested because of their specific advantages (Fig. 2, Supporting video
S1). The first approach focuses on using a conventional FFF printer
setup, with polymeric filament as source material and a gear-based
extrusion system. This decreases the volume of melted material and
increases the control of the polymer degradation, which can eventually
help to increase the number of materials that can be processed by MEW.
The second approach follows the MEW printer’s common configuration,
with a syringe as the material reservoir, and pneumatic pressure con­
trolling material extrusion. These systems will be referred to as “filament
MEWron” and "syringe MEWron”, respectively.
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
doi:10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604.
The main requirements set as proof of converted devices reliability,
Fig. 2. Overview and main components of a) MEWron printer, b) MEWron collector, c) filament MEWron printhead and d) syringe MEWron printhead.
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Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604
were to achieve accessible and affordable devices from a cost and as­
sembly perspective, the ability to produce micrometric jet/fibers and
accurately deposit them to generate high-resolution structures, while
ensuring the safety of the user and electronics. The current work de­
scribes the required components and steps to perform both conversions,
and provides an overview of the devices’ potential to expand MEW
boundaries.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Voron 0.1 FFF printer to MEWron conversion
As a first step to develop the MEWron conversion, a functional and
well-calibrated FFF Voron printer is required. These printers have to be
assembled by the user and require FFF printing of various parts plus
work with electrical mains wiring necessitating the user to carefully
follow the official manual using their brain and being mindful of safety.
Voron printers are a set of FFF devices born from RepRap philosophy
and were selected for this purpose because of their printing quality, and
community-based support. Voron0 version 0.1 (referred in the following
as Voron 0.1) was selected as the platform because of its balance be­
tween printing quality and affordability (price range of 400–700 USD).
Furthermore, some of the functionalities that this model offers are
highly attractive for MEW conversion and future updates. The core XY
kinematics, small size and independent Z collector allows stable printing
A. Reizabal et al.
for high printing speeds, the compact dimension
(250 × 250 × 380 mm3) and the collector print area (120 × 120 mm2)
perfectly match the MEW research requirements while allowing porta­
bility, and being fully enclosed by design opens the possibility of envi­
ronment control. From the electronics and software point of view, the
open-source environment on which the Voron project is built, i.e., the
use of Linux on a Raspberry pi as an onboard computer connected to a
controller board managed by Klipper, makes possible the custom
modification of all the features to adapt device function to MEW re­
quirements. Further, the Voron project, and the work developed by the
community, lead to several FFF printer models and add-ons that can be
used to upgrade Voron devices. Please refer to Supporting section S1 for
further details.
With the focus on conversion accessibility, the common Voron 0.1.
kit components were reused when possible. When further materials were
required, the Rep-Rap philosophy was followed and FFF printable
components were designed and printed. Where this was not possible due
to material requirements, components manufactured using accessible
machining tools (i.e., lathe, drill, and mill) were used. Please refer to
Supporting section S2 for further details.
For MEW conversion, a high electrical potential between the nozzle
and the collector needs to be established. It is essential that the assembly
and use of this device is undertaken while being mindful of this fact and
the associated dangers (important safety recommendations can be found
in the supporting information). The potential difference required is
commonly achieved by applying a high voltage to the printhead or the
collector and grounding the opposite. Thus, the electronics must be
isolated from the high voltage to avoid any damage. Also, precise control
of the extrusion and positioning is required to finely tune the micro­
fiber’s characteristics, and accurately deposit them. To achieve these
purposes, the Voron 0.1 original printhead and collector were replaced
by new components, and few software modifications were performed
(Fig. 2a). In the following, an overview of developed modifications will
be provided, while the supporting files will tackle the most technical
aspects.
2.2. MEWron collector
Due to the equivalent technical requirements of filament and syringe
MEWron collectors, the same assembly was installed in both devices
(Fig. 2b). With the Voron 0.1 kit collector as a base, to isolate the
electronics, a borosilicate glass was added below the steel printing plate
and connected by a magnetic layer that allows for the plate’s easy
removal. The original heater and thermistor were set below the glass,
and the whole assembly was mounted on a specifically designed FFF-
printed frame. The electrical conductivity of the printing plate allows
its use as an electrode, and to generate the required electric potential, a
high-voltage wire was connected to it through a pogo pin, which ensures
the transmission of the charge while allowing easy removal of the col­
lector plate. More technical data can be found in Supporting section
S2.2.
2.3. Filament MEWron
With the broad appeal of high-resolution scaffolds for biomedical
research as well as small fibers for electronics, sensing, actuation, and
robotics, there is a need to expand the number of MEW-processable
materials [19,29,30]. The main requirement for the filament MEWron
was to provide the flow rates that MEW usually requires [31,32] (Sup­
porting Section 2.3). In Voron 0.1, the extrusion feed system is based on
a gear train controlled by a stepper motor which pushes a polymeric
filament through a temperature-controlled hot end (Fig. 2c and Sup­
porting Fig. S1). The material is melted in the hot end, and it is push­
ed/forced forward through the nozzle by the non-molten filament that is
advanced by the gear. Since there is no solvent evaporation or any other
mass loss, the flow rate is controlled by the speed of the motor and the
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Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604
dimensions of the pushed filament (Supporting section 2.3.2). The time
the material stays molten in the reservoir will be defined by these two
factors and the size of the hot end. Considering the components and
dimensions of the Voron 0.1 standard kit, i.e., 2 mm diameter reservoir,
and approximately 20 mm height hot end, it can be estimated that the
volume of molten material is around 60 µL, although it can be 5–10 µL
smaller by varying the used nozzle size. Additionally, considering reg­
ular MEW printing conditions with flow rates ranging from 0.5 µL/h to
20 µL/h, and 1.75 mm diameter polymer filament input (2.4 µL/mm), it
can be estimated that 0.2 mm/h to 8.3 mm/h of filament must be
pushed by the extruder gear. Therefore, to achieve the continuous, low,
homogeneous, and accurate flow rate that MEW requires for micro­
metric fibers development, the original Voron 0.1 transmission ratio of
5:1, was replaced by an approximate 80:1 new one. This allowed fila­
ment input control below 1 µm per motor step, a value that is even
smoother considering the micro stepping control. Additionally, the
continuous feeding of the extrusion motor was achieved by wiring its
control circuitry directly to the Raspberry pi and configuring the control
software to retain G-coded control of the motor (more info in supporting
section S2.3.1).
To isolate the electronics from the high voltage, the metal FFF heat
block was replaced with a machinable ceramic (Macor) one with the
same original dimensions. The high voltage was connected to the nozzle
using a ring terminal threaded between the nozzle and the heat block,
and the Voron 0.1 head was modified to hold the fan 6 mm further away
from the printhead (Fig. 2c). To achieve smaller fibers, the nozzle was
replaced by a commercial 0.15 mm diameter brass nozzle. To avoid
molten plastic leakage, no gap between the nozzle and heat break was
allowed.
2.4. Syringe MEWron
Syringe MEWron was designed as an alternative and accessible de­
vice that includes the commercial MEW device functionalities while
allowing high temperatures processing, and flexible components up­
grade (Fig. 2d and Supporting Fig. 3). Besides, does not require software
modification, so it can be made to work by following the assembly and
starting up directions provided by the Voron design community plus,
some hardware modifications (Supporting section S2.4). The Syringe
MEWron can be run with all Klipper-compatible controller boards.
To develop the new printhead, an aluminum block was machined to
be used as the heat block, and it was connected to high voltage through a
wire connected on it. Commercially available ceramic tubes were used
as sleeves to electrically isolate the heater and thermistor from the high
voltage. Swappable glass syringes were used as a material reservoir,
connected to pressurized air through a 3D-printed hose barb to control
the feeding pressure. Stainless steel nozzles with a Luer-lock connector,
allow switching between different nozzles to better control jet stability
and fiber size. The contact between the nozzle and the electrified block
allows the electrical charge of the melted polymers. A fiberglass fabric
wrapped around the heat block reduces the thermal losses of the system,
while stainless steel screws reduce the thermal transmission towards
thermally less stable FFF printed parts that join the printhead to the
original carriage of the Voron 0.1. The repositioned original Voron fan
facing these screws helps for further heat dissipation.
3. Results and discussion
The main considerations for testing the MEWron functionality and
suitability were to ensure electronics safety, and the capacity of the
device to build high-resolution structures through the accurate shape
control and deposition of microfibers, including high-temperature
polymers.
The electronics safety was verified by testing the new components’
electrical isolation limits. First, by increasing the voltage from 1 to
10 kV, no electrical discharge from electrified surfaces (nozzle in
A. Reizabal et al.
filament printhead, and heat block in syringe) to the electronics was
observed. To further analyze the high-voltage isolation, an electrical
voltage of 7 kV was generated while the devices were running, and the
gap between electrodes was carefully decreased from 5 mm to 1 mm
until a discharge (arc) occurred (Supporting video S2). The maintained
functionality of MEWron devices after the repetitive arcs confirmed the
electrical isolation of the electronics.
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
doi:10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604.
The MEWron uses a belt-driven core XY kinematic system, i.e., two
motors work together to position the printhead in the horizontal plane,
while the collector remains static (Fig. 3a). This feature eventually
provides a platform to work with mobile substrates, such as water or
hydrogels, but differs from the conventional screw-driven linear rail
stack kinematic system that MEW devices typically use to achieve the
highest positioning precision by moving the collector [21] (Fig. 3b).
Nevertheless, the stepper motors of the Voron 0.1 and the
micro-stepping control are accurate enough to provide the micrometric
repeatability that MEW requires. This feature combined with Voron 0.1
robust frame, the low weight that printheads carry (below 200 g for
either MEWron printhead), timing belts assembly, and optimal printer
calibration, should provide the required precision for high-resolution
structures design. To test all these statement, two identical scaffolds
were printed in the two separate MEWron printers (Fig. 3c,d and Sup­
porting Fig. S4a, b). Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) was used in this first test
since is the gold standard for MEW. Squares were selected as scaffold
shape because of their simplicity, their extensive use in studies for
biomedical research, and the opportunity they provide to recognize
pattern reproducibility and precision. Both scaffolds have 5 consecutive
layers (Supporting G-code 1 and 2, respectively).
By slightly adapting processing conditions, homogeneous 25 µm
diameter fibers, accurate square shape pores, and accurate 5 layers of
vertical stacking were successfully produced in both MEWron devices.
The ability to achieve micrometric fibers with homogeneous di­
mensions, show the MEWron potential to custom control fibers di­
mensions, and the reliability of both gear and pneumatic-based
extrusion systems. The agreement between filament and syringe
MEWron outcomes demonstrates the robustness of the proposed devices,
but also their ability to print the patterns defined in the G-codes.
Fig. 3. a) Highlight of MEWron kinematic motors and schematics of core XY kinematics, b) overview of MEWron printhead and collector assembly, 20 mm side PCL
square scaffold with 300 µm inter-space, 25 µm fibers, and 5 layers printed with c) filament MEWron, d) syringe MEWron.
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Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604
Furthermore, the fiber’s homogeneity in diameter and lack of defects
while printing macroscopic scaffolds demonstrate the printer’s reli­
ability for large scaffolds and long-term prints.
With the MEWron device’s potential for MEW research established, a
deeper analysis of new functionalities and their potential for further
research was developed. The provided new gear train to filament
MEWron allows the extrusion at low flow rates, allowing the deposition
of microfibers, but also brings the opportunity for dynamic control of the
extruder motor speed, and the extrusion rate. This new feature allows
the tuning of the flow rate during the print with high precision and
opens the way to combine different flow rate outcomes in the same print
(Fig. 4). To test this ability, a scaffold combining a first layer printed at
flow rates and distances close to FFF, and consecutive layers under the
MEW regime, i.e. low flow rates and higher distance, was designed
(Supporting G-code 3). For the first layer, parallel lines of 20 mm
length and inter-space of 1 mm were printed at 100 mm/min (Fig. 4d).
The flow rate was increased progressively from ~135 µL/h (E = 4000) to
~675 µL/h (E = 20,000). The consecutive 3 layers, printed under a flow
rate of ~20 µL/h (E = 600) and higher speed (1000 mm/min) were
designed to form square pores with 500 µm fiber spacing (Fig. 4e).
During the whole scaffold printing a constant voltage was applied
(Supporting Video S3).
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
doi:10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604.
The control of extrusion rate “on the fly”, successfully allowed the
processing of a scaffold with multi-diameter fibers ranging from 250 µm
diameter to above 0.5 mm in the first layer (Fig. 4d), and 20 µm diam­
eter in the consecutive layers (Fig. 4e). The microfibers were success­
fully printed on top of first layer macro fibers in a homogeneous and
reproducible manner. The macro fibers, behave as pillars that allowed
microfibers bridging, also, because the smaller interspace of top
microfibers, some of them were deposited above the already bridged
microfibers. The obtained results demonstrate the filament MEWron’s
ability to accurately control the volume of supplied molten material and
open new design possibilities through the combination of different flow
rates. It is observed that microfibers placement accuracy is slightly
reduced, especially in the area where the macro fibers increase their
diameter. Due to the multi-parametric nature of MEW, it is hard to
define this effect conclusively, but the attraction/repulsion exerted by
A. Reizabal et al. Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604

Fig. 4. a) Filament MEWron printhead overview, a close look at b) high flow rate printing mode and c) low flow rate printing. d) Optical microscope overview and e)
SEM microscope close view of, scaffold combining macro and microfibers (false-colored) printed under different flow rates switched on “the fly”. f) False-colored SEM
close look of PCL square scaffold of 30 mm side, 300 µm interspace, 25 µm fibers, and 5 layers printed by filament MEWron. g) Optical microscope overview and h)
close look at 30 mm side PCL scaffold of 4 layers, combining MEW printing above and below CTS.

FFF fibers due to their larger charge accumulation can be a major effect
defining this behavior (Supporting Fig. S4d). To validate this assump­
tion, a scaffold using the low flow rates of microfibers was printed
directly on a glass slide, and no fiber deposition accuracy loss was
observed (Fig. 4f).
A route to increase MEW materials availability is the processing of
polymers with high melting temperatures. In this regard, the thermal
degradation of polymers must be avoided since the heating of polymers
above their melting temperature can induce material thermal degrada­
tion [33,34]. Furthermore, when processing at high melting tempera­
tures, the thermal gradient between the extruded material and the
collector increases, decreasing the control of solidification dynamics and
usually affecting the printing quality. The small heating chamber that
the filament MEWron provides, results in a decrease in the volume of
molten material, and thus, minimizes the thermal degradation of pro­
cessed polymers. The ability to control collector temperature, while
having the electronics safe from possible electrical discharges, increases
the control of the heated environment, and consequently opens new
routes for increasing the quality of the printed structure.
As a final test for the filament MEWron, its ability to process high-
temperature materials was tested. Polylactic acid (PLA) was selected
as the target material because of its higher processing temperature
(melting point > 160 ◦ C), thermal degradation close to the processing
temperature (from 180 ◦ C to 220 ◦ C), and industrial and medical in­
terest [35]. A scaffold of 30 mm side was built to test the continuous and
long-term printability of PLA. By setting the printhead temperature to
220 ◦ C, and the collector to 100 ◦ C, it was possible to process homoge­
neous and continuous PLA fibers for several minutes (Fig. 4g).
Furthermore, the potential of combining MEW printing above and below
CTS demonstrates the further control of PLA fibers to develop
multi-porous structures (Fig. 4h).
To keep testing the MEWron devices suitability for new materials
processing, the syringe MEWron working quality at high temperatures
was analyzed (Fig. 5). In this regard, PLA was also tested, and square
scaffolds with 10 layers and 500 µm interspace were generated (Fig. 5c).
Achieved results show the syringe MEWron’s ability to produce struc­
tures with a highly homogeneous fiber diameter of 20 µm, 10 layers of
accurate stacking, and well-defined square shape pores. These results
are comparable with the PLA prints that commercial or expensive
traditional MEW devices have achieved [13,28,32]. As a
proof-of-concept, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), a vaguely explored
material for MEW, was also processed through the syringe MEWron
[36]. A scaffold with 72 ◦ C angular offset between layers was selected
for this purpose and the processing temperature was set to 220 ◦ C
(Fig. 5d). The resulting elastomeric scaffold showed good adhesion be­
tween layers, and provides completely new mechanical properties to
MEW scaffolds, expanding the palette of MEW processable materials,
and opening new application routes.
The stability of the syringe MEWron provided jet, gives the chance to
process high-resolution complex scaffolds with similar features and di­
mensions comparable to the ones printed by commercial printers
(Supporting Video S4). Taking advance of the MEWron speed and
stability, 1500 mm/min speed was used to develop m-PCL fibers of
1.5 µm diameter, which were stacked repeatedly giving rise to a square
scaffold of 300 layers (Fig. 5e). It is worth mentioning that the printer
was perfectly stable at those printing speeds, and the achieved scaffold
was composed of a single fiber of more than 500 m, processed in a
continuous mode without visible defects, and taking less than 7 h to be
printed (Supporting Video S5). To further explore the speed limits of
the Syringe MEWron, a single layer of square scaffolds was processed at
3000 mm/min, obtaining fibers of approximately 900 nm diameter,
which were successfully deposited following the defined pattern of the

6
A. Reizabal et al.
Fig. 5. Representative images of syringe MEWron device and outcomes. a) A general overview of the syringe MEWron printhead, and b) a close look of the printer
while printing. Overview and false-colored SEM close look of c) 30 mm side PLA scaffold with 500 µm interspace, 20 µm diameter fibers, and 10 stacked layers. d)
TPU scaffold with 72 ◦ C tilting between layers, and e) m-PCL square scaffold with 500 µm interspace, 1.5 µm fibers, and 300 layers.
square scaffold with 500 µm of interspace (Supporting Fig. S4g).
Exploring m-PCL processability beyond the linear patterns, scaffolds
with sinusoidal patterns, and multiporous structures combining sinu­
soids of different amplitude and frequency, were also produced, showing
the potentials of the MEWron not just for straight fibers printing but also
for more complex features (Supporting Fig. S4h and i).
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
doi:10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604.
4. Conclusions
Advanced manufacturing technologies should be available to all re­
searchers. Here, we demonstrate the conversion of a commercial FFF 3D
printer into a highly capable research tool. The filament MEWron pro­
vides a tool capable of controlling the flow rates during printing, which
opens a new degree of freedom to combine different fiber diameters in a
high-resolution scaffold. This also allows for control of the thermal
degradation of melted polymers, allowing the expansion of MEW pro­
cessing to new materials, while introducing MEW and high-resolution
structures development to the wider FFF community. The syringe
MEWron, which keeps the conventional MEW configuration, brings to
the MEW community and the eventual new users an accessible and
affordable device, easily modifiable, and able to reach high processing
temperatures.
Considering all the required components, either commercial or
manufactured, for Voron 0.1 conversion into a MEW device, the price
stays below 3000 USD, which not only facilitates the acquisition of MEW
devices but also provides the platform to explore and integrate new
functionalities with less fear of harm, and increases the throughput
potential by allowing the possibility of having multiple systems working
in parallel. Voron models have similar quality standards and work with
the same software, which represents an opportunity to extrapolate the
modifications of this work to other Voron printers and achieve new
7
Additive Manufacturing 71 (2023) 103604
functionalities.
The open-source nature of the project, allows the development and
test of additional functionalities, such more complex axis arrangements
or the in-process control of high voltage and pressure, as well as their
implementation in the MEWron platform or alternative devices. The
printing outcomes achieved here demonstrate both syringe and filament
MEWron’s capability of achieving a printing quality equal to the current
commercial standards. The achieved scaffolds with PCL, are close to the
limits of the state of the art, while the PLA and TPU prints demonstrate
the possibility of expanding the availability of MEW-processable
materials.
The user interface and active FFF community behind the Voron
complement new user integration and provide the opportunity to
strengthen ties and reinforce the MEW community. Furthermore, the
continuous advancement that the FFF printer community achieves, un­
locks possibilities for future updates, ensures components accessibility,
and brings the opportunity to make a hybrid device with FFF and MEW
integrated into the same printhead.
Improved accessibility to a MEW system would mean more research
using the technology, sharing knowledge, and making further advances
in biomedical materials. A community of researchers using the same
printer could improve the repeatability of experiments and lead to op­
portunities for further collaborations between laboratories by simply
sharing a scaffold design along with the used parameters. The open-
source approach of this work aims to increase the accessibility to
MEW by replicating the achievements of the FFF printers’ community
and showing the potential of sharing free data as the trigger of collab­
orative work. It is expected that a multidisciplinary community working
on MEW, can boost modifications and upgrades of the technology, and
thus bring new scientific outputs.
A. Reizabal et al.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Conceptualization: P.D.D. and S.L.; Data curation: A.R. and T.K.;
Formal analysis: A.R., T.K., P.G.S. and S.M.; Funding acquisition: P.D.
D.; Investigation: A.R., T.K., P.G.S., S.M. and S.L.; Methodology: A.R.,
T.K., P.G.S., S.M. and S.L.; Project administration: C.M., J.B., P.D.D.
and S.L.; Resources: C.M., J.B., P.D.D. and S.L.; Software: T.K., P.G.S.
and S.L.; Supervision: C.M., J.B., P.D.D. and S.L.; Validation: A.R., P.
G.S. and S.L.; Visualization: A.R., T.K. and P.G.S.; Writing – original
draft: A.R.; Writing - review & editing: A.R., T.K., P.G.S., S.M., C.M., J.
B., P.D.D. and S.L.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data Availability
The data is available on github and from the authors on reasonable
request.
Acknowledgments
Startup funding from the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accel­
erating Scientific Impact is greatly appreciated. The support of the Wu
Tsai Human Performance Alliance and the Joe and Clara Tsai Founda­
tion is appreciated. Paula G. Saiz thanks the University of the Basque
Country (UPV/EHU) for the Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant financed
by the European Union – Next generation EU.
Appendix A. Supporting information
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the
online version at doi:10.1016/j.addma.2023.103604.
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