The Applications of 3D Printing Today
Plastic objects are printed by machines according to instructions stored on digital files. Individual strands of plastic, ceramics, or metals are stacked on top of the previous layer until the object’s distinctive shape is realized. This process is referred to as 3D printing, which has the potential to revolutionize how we manufacture things.
Engineers and designers have been using 3D printers for many years before news of this spread to the public. They’ve successfully constructed machine parts for the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries. In the last decade or so, printing software has received upgrades: Scanners were installed on most printers, and in turn, many self-starting entrepreneurs and college libraries could afford a desktop-sized 3D printer.
Technology experts insist that 3D printing will soon make design accessible to individuals rather than exclusively for mass production. One could argue that not all consumer-based ideas are feasible for 3D printing. Oftentimes, people wound up printing cheap, plastic figurines, children’s toys, letter blocks, or an oddly-twisted lump, none of which has any practical use.–They were mostly decorative mini-sculptures that belonged on someone’s desk.
Key Differences between Cube-Shaped and Industrial 3D Printers
A cube structure houses the smaller-scale 3D printer that creates objects through expelling molten plastic onto a platform, gradually depositing thin layers in the image of the original design. The process starts once the user has uploaded their digital model into the cube-shaped container. Using the software, they can directly adjust the size of the object to be printed.
The cube generates a blueprint from slicing the object template into horizontal layers measured in microns. It may add structural support of the same material to stabilize the object. The only downside to this 3D printer is that it cannot print multi-colored objects despite being able to hold 16 color cartridges. You would definitely need a far bigger printer to produce working equipment.
How does 3D printing create iterations of a prototype?
For a large-scale 3D printer, it is hooked up to several monitors and keypads where clusters of electrical wires extend above the device. Inside the stereolithography machine, you will see a vat full of light-sensitive polymers continually struck by a laser beam, setting off a chemical reaction that hardens the liquid into a resin. It is sliced off by a wiper and deposited as a thin layer on top of what’s already in the chamber. A single layer is only 50 microns thick to exhibit the finer details in high resolution.
Other machines have vats filled with powdered nylon. In a process called sintering, the wiper sweeps the surface of the vat until it is smooth. Then, a laser carves into the layer to form an outline of the object. This time, the powdered substance is fused together with previous layers for a span of several hours. When the machine is finished printing, it removes excess powder and releases a product of meticulous labor.
The Evolution of 3D Printing in Health Science
3D printed objects are far more durable than those created via traditional methods. The process involves additive manufacturing, with similar properties to laserjet printers, the key feature being its ability to replicate any object based on a digital model. 3D printing is suitable for building custom fixtures at a fraction of the cost. It is a versatile solution that speeds up manufacturing by removing the injection mold used on most assembly lines.
In the healthcare sector, 3D printing plays a significant role in bioprinting polymers in addition to surgical implants and prosthetic limbs. The same can be said about tissue engineering through piecing together biomaterial components. These fields are still undergoing a lot of research and may yield some exciting results in the upcoming years.
Prosthetic Implants to Replace Amputated Limbs
Creating a prosthetic limb that fits the patient has always been a challenge even for hospitals that have access to adequate resources. For healthcare facilities, they need a way to model new prosthetics for children as they age. And 3D printing made that possible since prosthetics could be printed every few months to replace the ones patients have outgrown.
Unfortunately, traditional prosthetics are priced at a range well beyond the budget of most patients, costing them an arm and a leg literally. The good news is, 3D printing is making them affordable using durable materials such as bridge nylon and acrylonitrile plastic, allowing them to accumulate in layers as instructed by a blueprint of the custom part.
Arms and hands are the most commonly printed prosthetics. A bionic hand is capable of moving almost to the same extent as a human one. Likewise, a 3D printed prosthetic arm can bend and turn in response to coordinating movements. Individual joints are designed to support amputated patients in grasping objects or performing manual activities like typing on a keyboard.
Amputees will soon have access to 3D printed prosthetic legs, built to function in any environment while remaining comfortable to walk or run on. A 3D printer would recognize how muscles are attached to bones, as it constructs a lightweight exoskeleton for the leg. Some of these prosthetic implants are scaled to the correct size of the original missing limb.
Last but not least, patients can receive facial reconstruction in case their face was damaged by skin cancer. This means getting a facial prosthetic to erase disfigurement on the face left behind by surgery. 3D printing lets hospitals create molds down to the finest details from the color of skin to the thickness of eyelids. But before that, clinical trials are needed to determine if these prosthetics are safe to use.
How Bioprinting is Innovating Medical Science
Another application is bioprinting, also known as the 3D printing of cellular tissue in skin cells and organs. Bioprinting triggers growth factors in cells to replicate the structure of tissues. In bioengineering applications, this procedure has progressed into the areas of tissue regeneration and neural reconstruction.
- Before the process begins, an MRI or CT scan retrieves the exact dimensions of a digital model. A blueprint is created using CAD to carefully instruct the 3D bio-printer on stacking each layer.
- In the next step, bioink spheroids (composed of gelatin, collagen, and living cells) are embedded into a layer of bio paper gel, providing cells with nutrients and scaffolding to promote rapid growth.
- The bio paper dissolves after bioink spheroids fuse into a viscous fluid and are deposited in thin layers from several nozzles until it hardens to retain its shape. The tissue is also treated with UV light to induce the crosslinking of cells.
Bioprinted human tissues imitate those found inside human bodies. It could reduce the need for animal testing, opening up opportunities in using artificial tissues to develop pharmaceutical drugs. Moreover, bioprinting removes complications in delivering organ transplants.
Healthcare practitioners can 3D print bones and organs for patients in critical condition so they don’t have to wait for a compatible donor before they receive a transplant. In the meantime, repairing damaged tissue with bioink is an equally viable option.
3D Printing Models Tooth Cavities in Dental Care
The latest 3D printing innovation in dentist technology is a set of dentures made out of antimicrobial plastic. The idea of 3D printed teeth that remains clean and resists cavities sounds great in hindsight, but could drive away patients who dislike tasting plastic in their mouth.
In one Dutch study, medical researchers combined ammonium salts with a dental resin polymer to form a mixture that is poured into a 3D printer. It is then solidified with UV light before pressed into a tooth mold to create replacement teeth. This synthetic tooth was tested by exposing it to human saliva, coupled with bacteria that cause tooth decay, to measure its anti-bacterial effects.
At the moment, it has not been approved for clinical trials due to a lack of information on whether it reacts to chemicals in toothpaste or any hygienic products for cleaning teeth. Nevertheless, there have been attempts to 3D print life-sized teeth that had realistic gums and roots with nerves underneath.
The release of the Objet260 Dental Selection is dubbed one step forward for dental care, producing models that dentists can adopt to understand dental procedures in depth. One day, it might be possible to replace a dental patient’s teeth with painless 3D printed dentures, especially if tooth decay causes them to fall out.
Accurate and precise dental applications are just on the horizon, thanks to the introduction of Low Force Stereolithography (LFS) and Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printers. It won’t be long before diagnostic models emerge for crowns, bridges, retainers, and splints.
Only time can tell whether hospitals will start using 3D printed equipment to treat their patients and if they plan to approve of synthetic organ tissues for surgical reconstruction. What are some other interesting applications of 3D printing in health science you’ve heard of lately in the news?
