scholarly journals 3D-Printed Soft Robotics: A Novel Fold-Based Design Approach toward Printable Soft Robotics Using Flexible 3D Printing Materials (Adv. Mater. Technol. 2/2018)

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1870007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ang Wee Keong ◽  
Raye Yeow Chen Hua
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
3D Printed

scholarly journals A review of 3D printing processes and materials for soft robotics

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1345-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yee Ling Yap ◽  
Swee Leong Sing ◽  
Wai Yee Yeong
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Soft Robotics ◽  
Soft Robots ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Future ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Multiple Materials ◽  
Printing Processes ◽  
Printing Techniques

Purpose Soft robotics is currently a rapidly growing new field of robotics whereby the robots are fundamentally soft and elastically deformable. Fabrication of soft robots is currently challenging and highly time- and labor-intensive. Recent advancements in three-dimensional (3D) printing of soft materials and multi-materials have become the key to enable direct manufacturing of soft robots with sophisticated designs and functions. Hence, this paper aims to review the current 3D printing processes and materials for soft robotics applications, as well as the potentials of 3D printing technologies on 3D printed soft robotics. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the polymer 3D printing techniques and materials that have been used for the development of soft robotics. Current challenges to adopting 3D printing for soft robotics are also discussed. Next, the potentials of 3D printing technologies and the future outlooks of 3D printed soft robotics are presented. Findings This paper reviews five different 3D printing techniques and commonly used materials. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique for the soft robotic application are evaluated. The typical designs and geometries used by each technique are also summarized. There is an increasing trend of printing shape memory polymers, as well as multiple materials simultaneously using direct ink writing and material jetting techniques to produce robotics with varying stiffness values that range from intrinsically soft and highly compliant to rigid polymers. Although the recent work is done is still limited to experimentation and prototyping of 3D printed soft robotics, additive manufacturing could ultimately be used for the end-use and production of soft robotics. Originality/value The paper provides the current trend of how 3D printing techniques and materials are used particularly in the soft robotics application. The potentials of 3D printing technology on the soft robotic applications and the future outlooks of 3D printed soft robotics are also presented.

A Novel Fold-Based Design Approach toward Printable Soft Robotics Using Flexible 3D Printing Materials

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1700172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ang Wee Keong ◽  
Raye Yeow Chen Hua
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Soft Robotics

Biodegradable 3D Printed Polymer Microneedles for Transdermal Drug Delivery

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Luzuriaga ◽  
Danielle R. Berry ◽  
John C. Reagan ◽  
Ronald A. Smaldone ◽  
Jeremiah J. Gassensmith
Keyword(s):  
Drug Delivery ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Transdermal Drug Delivery ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Modeling Software ◽  
Deposition Modeling ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Microfabrication Technique ◽  
Mechanical Strengths

Biodegradable polymer microneedle (MN) arrays are an emerging class of transdermal drug delivery devices that promise a painless and sanitary alternative to syringes; however, prototyping bespoke needle architectures is expensive and requires production of new master templates. Here, we present a new microfabrication technique for MNs using fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing using polylactic acid, an FDA approved, renewable, biodegradable, thermoplastic material. We show how this natural degradability can be exploited to overcome a key challenge of FDM 3D printing, in particular the low resolution of these printers. We improved the feature size of the printed parts significantly by developing a post fabrication chemical etching protocol, which allowed us to access tip sizes as small as 1 μm. With 3D modeling software, various MN shapes were designed and printed rapidly with custom needle density, length, and shape. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that our method resulted in needle tip sizes in the range of 1 – 55 µm, which could successfully penetrate and break off into porcine skin. We have also shown that these MNs have comparable mechanical strengths to currently fabricated MNs and we further demonstrated how the swellability of PLA can be exploited to load small molecule drugs and how its degradability in skin can release those small molecules over time.

Optimization of Annealing effect of 3D printed PLA samples for Rehabilitation Using FDM based 3D Printing

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58
Author(s):  
Y. R. Kim ◽  
S. W. Lee ◽  
J. H. Kim ◽  
J. W. Kwon ◽  
S. K. Lee
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Annealing Effect ◽  
3D Printed

Biomimetic Design of 3D Printed Tissue-engineered bone Constructs

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Shifeng Liu ◽  
Yunzhe Li ◽  
Peng Zhou ◽  
Qian ma
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Engineering ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Advanced Materials ◽  
Bionic Design ◽  
Material Interfaces ◽  
Precise Control ◽  
Cell Printing ◽  
Biomimetic Scaffolds ◽  
3D Printed

Abstract:: Surgery to repair damaged tissue, which is caused by disease or trauma, is being carried out all the time, and a desirable treatment is compelling need to regenerate damaged tissues to further improve the quality of human health. Therefore, more and more research focus on exploring the most suitable bionic design to enrich available treatment methods. 3D-printing, as an advanced materials processing approach, holds promising potential to create prototypes with complex constructs that could reproduce primitive tissues and organs as much as possible or provide appropriate cell-material interfaces. In a sense, 3D printing promises to bridge between tissue engineering and bionic design, which can provide an unprecedented personalized recapitulation with biomimetic function under the precise control of the composition and spatial distribution of cells and biomaterials. This article describes recent progress in 3D bionic design and the potential application prospect of 3D printing regenerative medicine including 3D printing biomimetic scaffolds and 3D cell printing in tissue engineering.

scholarly journals Design of a 3D-printed hand prosthesis featuring articulated bio-inspired fingers

2020 ◽  
pp. 095441192098088
Author(s):  
Juan Sebastian Cuellar ◽  
Dick Plettenburg ◽  
Amir A Zadpoor ◽  
Paul Breedveld ◽  
Gerwin Smit
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Design Principles ◽  
Prosthetic Hand ◽  
Hand Prosthesis ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Pinch Force ◽  
Actuation System ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Energy Dissipated ◽  
Dual Material

Various upper-limb prostheses have been designed for 3D printing but only a few of them are based on bio-inspired design principles and many anatomical details are not typically incorporated even though 3D printing offers advantages that facilitate the application of such design principles. We therefore aimed to apply a bio-inspired approach to the design and fabrication of articulated fingers for a new type of 3D printed hand prosthesis that is body-powered and complies with basic user requirements. We first studied the biological structure of human fingers and their movement control mechanisms in order to devise the transmission and actuation system. A number of working principles were established and various simplifications were made to fabricate the hand prosthesis using a fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printer with dual material extrusion. We then evaluated the mechanical performance of the prosthetic device by measuring its ability to exert pinch forces and the energy dissipated during each operational cycle. We fabricated our prototypes using three polymeric materials including PLA, TPU, and Nylon. The total weight of the prosthesis was 92 g with a total material cost of 12 US dollars. The energy dissipated during each cycle was 0.380 Nm with a pinch force of ≈16 N corresponding to an input force of 100 N. The hand is actuated by a conventional pulling cable used in BP prostheses. It is connected to a shoulder strap at one end and to the coupling of the whiffle tree mechanism at the other end. The whiffle tree mechanism distributes the force to the four tendons, which bend all fingers simultaneously when pulled. The design described in this manuscript demonstrates several bio-inspired design features and is capable of performing different grasping patterns due to the adaptive grasping provided by the articulated fingers. The pinch force obtained is superior to other fully 3D printed body-powered hand prostheses, but still below that of conventional body powered hand prostheses. We present a 3D printed bio-inspired prosthetic hand that is body-powered and includes all of the following characteristics: adaptive grasping, articulated fingers, and minimized post-printing assembly. Additionally, the low cost and low weight make this prosthetic hand a worthy option mainly in locations where state-of-the-art prosthetic workshops are absent.

3D-printed Futures of Manufacturing, Social Change and Technological Innovation in China and Singapore: The Ghost of a Massless Future?

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Heemsbergen ◽  
Angela Daly ◽  
Jiajie Lu ◽  
Thomas Birtchnell
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Law And Technology ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Political Economic

This article outlines preliminary findings from a futures forecasting exercise where participants in Shenzhen and Singapore considered the socio-technological construction of 3D printing in terms of work and social change. We offered participants ideal political-economic futures across local–global knowledge and capital–commons dimensions, and then had them backcast the contextual waypoints across markets, culture, policy, law and technology dimensions that help guide towards each future. Their discussion identified various contextually sensitive points, but also tended to dismiss the farthest reaches of each proposed ideal, often reverting to familiar contextual signifiers. Here, we offer discussion on how participants saw culture and industry shaping futures for pertinent political economic concerns in the twenty-first century.

scholarly journals A Novel Approach for a Faster Prototyping of Winter Sport Equipment Using Digital Image Correlation and 3D Printing

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Martino Colonna ◽  
Benno Zingerle ◽  
Maria Federica Parisi ◽  
Claudio Gioia ◽  
Alessandro Speranzoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Digital Image Correlation ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Sport Activity ◽  
Image Correlation ◽  
Topological Optimization ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Sport Equipment ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
3D Printed

The optimization of sport equipment parts requires considerable time and high costs due to the high complexity of the development process. For this reason, we have developed a novel approach to decrease the cost and time for the optimization of the design, which consists of producing a first prototype by 3D printing, applying the forces that normally acts during the sport activity using a test bench, and then measuring the local deformations using 3D digital image correlation (DIC). The design parameters are then modified by topological optimization and then DIC is performed again on the new 3D-printed modified part. The DIC analysis of 3D-printed parts has shown a good agreement with that of the injection-molded ones. The deformation measured with DIC are also well correlated with those provided by finite element method (FEM) analysis, and therefore DIC analysis proves to be a powerful tool to validate FEM models.

Designing Inclusion: Using 3D Printing to Maximize Adapted Physical Education Participation

2021 ◽  
pp. 004005992110101
Author(s):  
A. Chloe Simpson ◽  
Andrea Ruth Taliaferro
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Assistive Technology ◽  
Adapted Physical Education ◽  
Physical Educators ◽  
Related Service ◽  
3D Printers ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Education Participation ◽  
Individual Design

While assistive technology is often suggested as a way to increase, maintain, or improve functional ability for individuals with disabilities within physical activity (PA) settings, cost and availability of such items are often noted as barriers. In recent years, 3D printing has become available to the general public through the adoption of 3D printers in schools, libraries, and universities. Through individual design and rapid prototyping, 3D printing can support physical educators in accommodating student need for assistive technology through a multitude of modification possibilities. This article will highlight the capacity for 3D printed assistive technology within educational settings, and will illustrate how teachers, APE specialists, and other related service personnel can utilize this technology to support student success in PE and PA settings. This article will also assist practitioners with locating, uploading, and utilizing existing collections of 3D assistive technology models from open-source websites, such as Thingiverse.

scholarly journals The Direct 3D Printing of Functional PEEK/Hydroxyapatite Composites via a Fused Filament Fabrication Approach

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 545
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Rodzeń ◽  
Preetam K. Sharma ◽  
Alistair McIlhagger ◽  
Mozaffar Mokhtari ◽  
Foram Dave ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tensile Strength ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Selective Laser Sintering ◽  
Fused Filament Fabrication ◽  
Bone Apposition ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Work Samples ◽  
Viable Approach ◽  
Crystalline Domains

The manufacture of polyetheretherketone/hydroxyapatite (PEEK/HA) composites is seen as a viable approach to help enhance direct bone apposition in orthopaedic implants. A range of methods have been used to produce composites, including Selective Laser Sintering and injection moulding. Such techniques have drawbacks and lack flexibility to manufacture complex, custom-designed implants. 3D printing gets around many of the restraints and provides new opportunities for innovative solutions that are structurally suited to meet the needs of the patient. This work reports the direct 3D printing of extruded PEEK/HA composite filaments via a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) approach. In this work samples are 3D printed by a custom modified commercial printer Ultimaker 2+ (UM2+). SEM-EDX and µCT analyses show that HA particles are evenly distributed throughout the bulk and across the surface of the native 3D printed samples, with XRD highlighting up to 50% crystallinity and crystalline domains clearly observed in SEM and HR-TEM analyses. This highlights the favourable temperature conditions during 3D printing. The yield stress and ultimate tensile strength obtained for all the samples are comparable to human femoral cortical bone. The results show how FFF 3D printing of PEEK/HA composites up to 30 wt% HA can be achieved.

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