Additive Manufacturing of Biomaterials

Biomaterials 1
Additive Manufacturing of Biomaterials
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Biomaterials 2
ABSTRACT
The incorporation of additive manufacturing has resulted into revolution in manufacturing and
has promoted the development of biofabircation field. AM can be defined as the process of
building 3D objects in form of a layer by the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) data. The
recent development in AM have promoted further advances in the solutions of healthcare
specific to a patient. Customization of numerous healthcare services and products like in vitro
models, medical instruments, drug delivery instrument, and implants would have been
challenging extremely without the technologies of AM. The biofabrication field is exponentially
expanding, emphasizing the capability of additive manufacturing application in healthcare. Some
of the areas like rehabilitation, surgery, oncology, and pharmacology have also shown
fascinating research and clinical application of additive manufacturing technology. This
literature assesses the application of additive manufacturing in in areas related to biomaterials
such as production of medical communication and visualization, orthotics, prosthetics, medical
instruments, implants, drug delivery systems, disease models, and tissue and organs.

Biomaterials 3
INTRODUCTION
This assessment seeks to develop a comprehensive literature review on an emerging material
being presently developed and investigated for the use in additive manufacturing. Additive
manufacturing, usually referred to as three-dimensional printing has emerged recently as a
subject of serious global attention. AM can be defined as the process of building 3D objects in
form of a layer by the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) data [1]. This process has
progressed from the rapid prototyping or basic model creation into near net shape processes and
taking over the traditional methods in complex shaped objects production gradually. AM is
important in regards to the production of metal components that are complex-shaped,
optimization of processing parameters required from powder feedstock, minimization of
production cost of small number of parts, and also deceasing the lead time [2].
Some of the techniques of additive manufacturing that have been established so far include
stereolithography, selective laser melting, electron-beam melting, fused deposition modelling,
and digital light processing. An emerging materials that are being currently developed and
investigated for use in additive manufacturing are biomaterials [3]. Biomaterials are applied to
engineer functional restoration of different tissues in quality of life and human health. These
materials can either be synthetic or natural. The combination of biomaterials and additive
manufacturing is very promising, particularly towards clinical applications specific to a patient
[4]. Numerous biomedical materials are currently being processed by the application of additive
manufacturing method with increasing accuracy. However, various processes of additive
manufacturing and the resulting products have already been accepted for clinical use by the
regulatory bodies.

Biomaterials 4
Additive manufacturing technology have been used for living tissue generation and regeneration
which can be used as disease models and regenerative implants. The biofabrication field is
exponentially expanding, emphasizing the capability of additive manufacturing application in
healthcare [2]. Some of the areas like rehabilitation, surgery, oncology, and pharmacology have
also shown fascinating research and clinical application of additive manufacturing technology.
This literature presented here cover a wide range of various application of AM ranging from
orthopedic to cardiovascular.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The additive manufacturing technology provides various prospects for the fabrication of
constructs of biomaterials with precisely and complex controlled internal and external shape.
This technology provides an extra opportunity in controlling the microarchitecture or interior
shape of the structures produced, although the macroscale and external shape of biomaterial
structures is significant, which may influence tissue integration and regeneration positively [5].
Additionally, the microarchitecture will influence the biological, physical, and mechanical
characteristics of the porous biomaterials such as permeability, fatigue behaviors, and static
mechanical characteristics of porous biomaterials [6]. The technique of AM have made it easy to
apply almost every microarchitecture design to attain the desired set of mechanical, biological,
and physical characteristics.