Collaboration Opportunities

in 3D Printing

A/Prof Tim Sercombe

Head

School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering,

The University of Western Australia

tim.sercombe@uwa.edu.au

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

UWA Research Week

Overview

• What is 3D Printing

• Real 3D Printing applications

• Some of our research

• The world of bio printing

• Get involved

Selection of 3D Printed parts produced at UWA

What is 3D Printing

• Correct term is additive manufacturing (AM)

• Generic term to cover a range of technologies.

• One common trait: all are layer-wise, additive manufacturing techniques that to build up parts in small material increments called voxels (i.e. volume elements).

• Geometric complexity far beyond conventional manufacturing – “complexity for free”

• Two parts can be built slight differently (i.e. customised) for almost no cost penalty

Load and resource optimized wheel bearing

manufactured using selective laser melting.

Source: fraunhofer.de

Topology optimised isotropic scaffold V.J. Challis, et al . Advanced Engineering Materials,

2010. 12(11): p. 1106-1110.

Custom acetabular cup

design that combines solid

and porous areas in one part. Source: fraunhofer.de

The Bad

Sydney Morning Herald

11/11/13

News.com.au

3/4/13

The Ugly

3D Printed Dress

http://www.irisvanherpen.com/ 3D Printed “hat"

http://sensoree.com/

Your very own 3D Printed Family from

3D scans

Source: own photo

3D Printing in the Body

• Collaborations between Engineering, Science

and Medicine has resulted in 3D printed parts

becoming more and more wide spread

• Mostly one-off customised orthopaedic

implant (“hard” devices)

• More recently, emerging area of producing

“soft” implants

Co-Cr dental crowns produced at UWA

Porous Ti mandible produced at UWA

CSIRO new blog, Oct 21, 2014

CSIRO produces replacement

heel for cancer patient

Oxford Performance

Materials uses 3DP to

produce cranial implant

Stryker 3DP standard implant

• Reduced cost

• Integration of porous

structures for biological

fixation

Conformis

Knee implants customised to

each patient – no two are alike • Improved alignment

• Less bone removed

• Reduced surgery times

• Improved recovery and outcomes.

3D Printed Ti acetabular cup

designed by RPH

Replacement hip produced

using 3D Printed Ti in China

3D Printing Equipment at UWA

Ultimaker 2

Realizer SLM100

Formlabs SLA

• Low cost printers

– Ultimaker 2 FDM

– Formlabs SLA

• Metal Printer

– Realizer SLM100

• Bioprinters

– Fab@Home 3: Dual Syringe

– Biobots Single Syringe

Fab@Home 3

Biobots

Research at UWA

• Current Ti implant materials are much stiffer than the bone it

replaces => stress shielding

0

20

40

60

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120

Ti Ti 2448 Bone

Yo

un

g's

Mo

du

lus (

GP

a) Ti ~110 GPa

Cortical bone

10-30 GPa

Research at UWA

• Next generation of low modulus Ti alloys (eg Ti2448) are approx. half

conventional Ti.

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20

40

60

80

100

120

Ti Ti 2448 Bone

Yo

un

g's

Mo

du

lus (

GP

a) Ti ~110 GPa

Cortical bone

10-30 GPa

Ti2448

50-60 GPa

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Yo

un

g's

Mo

du

lus (

GP

a)

Density (%)

Conv. Ti

Low Modulus Ti

(Ti2448)

Research at UWA

• Still too high, but much closer

• Stiffness can be reduced by introducing porosity

• Ti2448 requires less porosity and therefore will have higher strength

Density for E = 10 – 30 GPa

• Conv. Ti = 25-50%

• Ti2448 = 40-70%

High Strength/Stiffness to

Weight Structures

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1

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0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50

Mo

du

lus

(G

Pa

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Density (g/cm3)

Theoretical -

Optimised

SLM or EBM Ti Alporas

Ti foams

0

10

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30

40

50

60

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0 0.5 1

Co

mp

res

siv

e S

tre

ng

th (

MP

a)

Density (g/cm3)

Optimised

Gyroid

SLM or EBM Ti

Ti

foa

ms

Topology Optimised Gyroid

Next Steps/Collaboration

Opportunities

• Ti2448 is a relatively new alloy and some information is

known about its biological response

• But not in porous parts made using SLM.

• So we need to understand

– The difference in in vitro and in vivo response of Ti2448 against

conventional Ti alloys

– What is the effect of pore size and shape?

– How does the SLM processing (esp the rough surface) affects its

biological properties.

Bioprinting –the future of 3DP?

• What is bioprinting?

– The use of 3D Printing technologies to produce spatially-

controlled cell patterns where the cell function and viability is

preserved.

• What will it do?

– Provides a potential route to

produce replacement organs

– While the printing of large groups

of cells is possible, there is a

quantum leap from this to a fully

functioning organ.

New 3D Bioprinter with dual syringe delivery

3D Bioprinting Principle

• Harvest small amount of cells

• Cultivate/multiply them over a

period of days/weeks/months

while maintaining sterility

• Encapsulate cells into carrier

• Print scaffold while maintaining

optimum cell conditions and

minimal stress.

• Multiple syringes allows different

materials and/or cells to be

placed in very specific locations.

What’s being done in the area?

www.adafruit.com

Skin

US Army, Wakefield Forest

University, University of Toronto.

Aim is to print directly onto wounds

Organovo, Inc. (organovo.com)

First liver tissue printed (Jan ‘14)

Now commercially available (Nov ’14

www.3ders.org

Liver

Breast Cancer

TeVido BioDevices: Bioprints custom

grafts for breast cancer reconstructions

Bone

University of Sydney, Harvard-MIT,

University of Tokyo

University of Louisville: “A

whole heart within a decade!”

Cornell University

Heart Valves and Vessels

Initial Efforts at UWA

Need a really good seal

www.ciccenters.com

Two main problems with current devices: 1. Poor seal at top = device slippage and leaks 2. Leaks develop through the device = aneurysm

sac remains pressurised leaks

We previously created ECM aortic stent-graft scaffolds which remained patent in a porcine model

Davis et al. J Biomed Mater Res Part B 2014;102:89-97

Can we improve on this with bioprinting?

blo

od

flo

w

Aortic Aneurysm Stent-Grafts

Tympanoplasty – Replacement Eardrums

entkidsadults.com

real-i-d.net.com

ESIA and Deakin University are using silk to create a new typanic membranes

Silk is dissolved and cast into a thin membrane (30-90 μm)

http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/stories/2013/06/24/a-different-drum

Can we bioprint an alternative?