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17 December 2007
Printing Multi Materials and Graded Structures Now Possible 
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The
new additive production system, based on High Viscosity Inkjet
Printing, is being developed by TNO in The Netherlands under the
auspices of the Custom-Fit project. It has several print heads that
produce continuous streams of material droplets at high frequency.
Dr.
Michiel Willemse is leading the team developing the inkjet printing
machine at TNO. He says, “The process is unique in its capability to
print highly viscous, UV curable, resins. Material formulations with
viscosities up to 500 mPa•s (at ambient temperature) have been printed
successfully. This offers the opportunity to print products with
unequalled mechanical properties when compared to any other printing
systems.”
The High Viscosity Inkjet Printing machine is also
capable of printing multi-materials simultaneously. Currently, most
additive manufacturing machines are only capable of printing one type
of material. Not only is the TNO inkjet process capable of printing
multi material, it also enables the mixing and grading of materials in
any combination that is desired. This will enable the manufacturing of
products with two or more materials that are graded and there will be
no distinct boundary between the materials. This will result in
products with unique mechanical properties. To enable the modelling of
products with multi-material and graded structures, TNO has developed a
CAD modeller known as Innerspace. InnerSpace enables a designer to
define material property distributions and also the distribution
profile. The software uses the STL file as the source file and the STL
model defines the outer boundary of the object. It can define the
material distribution for a whole object or just part of the object at
any location. The data files from InnerSpace are very small and thus
easy to transfer.
Within Custom Fit, the system is designed and
used to print bio-compatible materials; the next step for the project
would be to print scaffolds for implants using bio-resorbable
materials, with varying porosity and graded inclusion of e.g. growth
enhancers and anti-biotics. Dr. Willemse says, “The big challenge is
the further development of the concept of printing bio-resorbable
implants. Improvement of the machine is a minor effort compared to
approval of the medical procedure for modelling a graded implant,
printing and sterilising it, and implanting it into a human patient.
Given the level of innovation in both technology, material and medical
procedures, acquiring the approval from relevant authority such as FDA
(Food and Drug Administration) will require a much bigger effort.”
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