3D printing laboratory

Constant innovation in the materials processing sector has allowed the development and accelerated refinement of various 3D printing techniques.

The 3D printing laboratory of the Group of Innovation in Materials and Molecular Engineering - Biomaterials for Regenerative Therapies (IMEM-BRT) works with two 3D printing techniques, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and printing based on ink extrusion.

3D printing by FDM has been used in our laboratory for several applications, including:

- the manufacture of molds or supports for the production of pieces with specific designs;

- supports for electrochemical sensors;

- electrode manufacturing

- printing of thermo-sensitive platforms, i.e. 4D printing

INCLUDE (Figure 1).

Recently, the 3D printing laboratory of the IMEM-BRT group is using 3D printing by extrusion for the manufacture of systems based on hydrogels or bioinks for various applications, such as for example in electronic applications (batteries, capacitors, fuel cell) and related to the field of biomedicine (conductive hydrogels, thermosensitive hydrogels).

This features various printing filaments for FDM, including PLA in various colors, PP, TPU, PET-G and PVA; and they can be printed with heads of 0.3 and 0.4 mm in diameter, with temperature fluctuations between 200-280 °C. The extrusion printer (inks) has a resolution of 1.25 microns per layer or position and the extrusion conditions can be controlled with heads for high temperatures (up to 250 °C) or low temperatures (from 8 to 60 ° C), in addition to a head for crossing or curing with adjustable ultraviolet light at 365 nm, 395 nm and 405 nm.