Additive Manufacturing of Biomedical Devices
The broad goal of this
project is to design and develop patient specific, customizable as well as
complex 3D anatomical shapes from biodegradable ceramics, metals and
biodegradable metal-polymer composites with hierarchical porous structures
mimicking the macroscopic and internal microstructure of various and specific
organs and tissues while also providing the temporary functional mechanical and
structural attributes as well as mass transport properties using the
binder-jetting 3D printing technique. We
have utilized 3-D inject printing, Selective Laser Melting (SLM) and extrusion
methods to fabricate various resorbable bone scaffolds. The materials that were
used to print these bone scaffolds include iron and magnesium based alloys,
ceramics and biopolymers. For examples, we have used calcium phosphate powders
in a 3D inject printer to generate rod-shaped scaffolds having interconnected
pores on the center and surface of the implants. In-vivo results clearly demonstrated the efficacy of these porous
scaffolds for bone-regeneration. Research has been focused on assessing the in
vitro degradation, mechanical, and cytocompatibility properties of the 3D-printed
samples fabricated using novel patent pending biodegradable Fe based alloy
powders. Fe powder was also used to study the mechanical properties of novel
engineered biomimetic rotating plywood designs. We applied the rotated plywood
structure of bone tissue to generate a biomimetic 3-D printed scaffold with the
goal of improving the mechanical performance compared to an orthogonal mesh
design commonly used in tissue scaffold applications. Electron beam melting
(EBM) of pure Mg powder was also carried out and the results demonstrated the
feasibility of this technique to generate 3D constructs of Mg.

3D printed scaffolds.
- ACTA BIOMATERIALIA 9(10), 8593 (2013).
- ACTA BIOMATERIALIA 45, 375 (2016).
- ACS BIOMATER. SCI. ENG. 3, 648 (2017).