Review of 3D Printing Applications for Biomedical Industry

This report presents a review of 3D printing applications within the biomedical industry. It highlights the core principles of additive manufacturing, emphasizing layer-by-layer material accumulation controlled by CAD models or computer tomography. The review explores the current state of 3D printing in medicine, covering organ models, implants, scaffolds, and direct tissue printing. It delves into the use of various materials, including medical metal materials (Ti alloy, stainless steel), polymer materials (collagen, fibrin), and ceramic materials (HA, TCP), for creating implants, scaffolds, and dental applications. The report also includes tables and figures illustrating the properties of printed and non-printed materials and cellular changes in 3D constructs. Finally, it outlines avenues for further work, such as developing new equipment for high porosity and dimensional precision, creating unified standards, and researching high-performance materials for diverse medical applications.

REVIEW OF
“3D PRINTING APPLICATIONS FOR THE BIOMEDICAL INDUSTRY”
YOUR NAME
Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD4222, Australia
This paper presents a review of 3D printing applications for the biomedical industry. 3D printing is also known as
additive manufacturing and normally works on the principle of layered manufacturing where materials are overlapped
layer by layer. The technology is usable in quick fabrication of components using any complex shape through precisely
accumulating the material with the aid of solid modelling as per the computer aided design model or otherwise computer
tomography can which is under the control of computer.
Keywords: 3D Printing, Biomedical material,
CAD, implant, scaffold
1. The Research Context
Tissue or organ transplantation that are needed by
defects lesion tend to be the most urgent problems
experienced in clinical medicine and the problems are
still in place with references to the adoption of the
current approaches that are among them xeno-
transplantation, auto-transplantation as well as
implantation of artificial mechanical organs [1].
2. The Literature Review
The industry of 3D printing has currently undergone an
explosion owing to the reduction in the costs of
manufacturing of 3D printers as well as their enhanced
printing precision alongside speed which enable major
advances in the medical equipment, cell printing as well
as implant material.
2.1. Levels of 3D printing for medical
applications
There are four levels of 3D printing for medical
applications including:
 Organ models to help preoperative planning as
well as surgical treatment analysis
 Permanent non-bioactive implants [3]
 Fabrication of local bioactive as well as
biodegradable scaffolds
 Direct printing of tissues and organs
2.2. Medical Metal Materials
These are mainly applicable to the preparation of
permanent implants among them orthopedic or even
dental implants which contain Ti alloy, stainless steel,
cobalt-chromium alloy
2.3. Medical Polymer Materials
Polymer materials are composed of natural as well as
synthetic biomaterials and are used in the preparation of
biodegradable scaffolds as well as medical models. The
most commonly and widely used natural medical
polymeric materials include collagen, fibrin and
chitosan
2.4. Medical Ceramic Materials
Ceramic materials mostly HA and TCP are commonly
used for dental implants and artificial joints owing to
their stable physicochemical features, osteoconductivity
as well as biocompatibility. They are also applicable as
dental materials owing to the controllable shapes and
sizes and the ability to be colored easily during 3D
printing [2].
In comparison with metals and polymers, most of the
ceramic materials have a varied consolidation
mechanism as well as obvious residual stresses upon
sintering that may affect the mechanism strength as well
as the morphologies of the pores
1

2.5. Tables
Table 1: Properties of Printed and Non-printed
PEDGMA with and without human chondrocytes
PEGDMA content
(% (w/v))
Mass-
swelli
ng
ratio
Equilibriu
m water
content
(%)
Compressiv
e modulus
(kPa)
Non-
printed
10 (without human
chondrocytes)
12.54 ± 0.3
0
9.02 ± 0.19 37.75 ± 7.18
10 (with human
chondrocytes)
11.80 ± 0.0
7
91.53 ± 0.0
5
30.14 ± 4.41
20 (with human
chondrocytes
6.19 ± 0.10 83.85 ± 0.2
6
395.73 ± 80.4
0
20 (without human
chondrocytes)
6.10 ± 0.05 83.60 ± 0.1
4
321.06 ± 43.9
9
Printed 10 (without human
chondrocytes)
12.18 ± 0.0
1
91.74 ± 0.0
6
47.61 ± 2.80
10 (with human
chondrocytes)
12.51 ± 0.0
4
92.00 ± 0.0
3
36.12 ± 8.44
20 (with human
chondrocytes)
6.68 ± 0.15 85.04 ± 0.3
4
483.75 ± 29.4
7
20 (without human
chondrocytes)
6.75 ± 0.10 85.19 ± 0.2
3
372.40 ± 37.8
5
2.6. Figures
Figure 1: Cellular morphological changes in a 3D
construct and 2D planar culture
Figure 2: PLGA-collagen gel with chondrocytes
implanted for 12 weeks under a light microscope
Figure 3: Fluorescence microscope images of MG63
cells with CoCrW
Data Collection and Presentation
3. Avenues for Further Work
Future works include encompass the development of
new equipment to assure the high porosity as well as
2

dimensional precision of scaffolds, creation of unified
standards of 3D printed scaffolds, research on high
performance materials for different medical oriented
3D printing techniques.
References
1. Yan, Q., Dong, H., Su, J., Han, J., Song, B.,
Wei, Q. and Shi, Y., 2018. A Review of 3D
Printing Technology for Medical
Applications. Engineering.
2. Wang, X., Jiang, M., Zhou, Z., Gou, J. and Hui,
D., 2017. 3D printing of polymer matrix
composites: A review and
prospective. Composites Part B:
Engineering, 110, pp.442-458.
3. Wu, P., Wang, J. and Wang, X., 2016. A
critical review of the use of 3-D printing in the
construction industry. Automation in
Construction, 68, pp.21-31.
3