Open-source syringe extrusion head for shear-thinning materials 3D printing
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 14 March 2022
Issue publication date: 2 August 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to report the development of an open-source syringe extrusion head for shear-thinning materials. The target is to adapt open-source 3D printers to be helpful in research lines that use gels, hydrogels, pastes, inks, and bio-inks.
Design/methodology/approach
This hardware was designed to be compatible with a Graber i3-based 3D printer; nevertheless, it can be easily adapted to other open-source 3D printers.
Findings
The extrusion head successfully deposits the material during the 3D printing process. It was validated fabricating geometries that include scaffold structures, which are a possible application of bioprinting for tissue engineering. As reported, the extruded filaments allowed the porous samples' structuration.
Practical implications
This system expands the applications of open-source 3D printers used at the laboratory scale. It enables low-cost access to research areas such as tissue engineering and biofabrication, energy storage devices and food 3D printing.
Originality/value
The open-source hardware here reported is of simple fabrication, assembly and installation. It uses a Cardan coupling and a three guides system to transfer the stepper motor motion. This approach allows continuous movement transfer to the syringe piston, producing an adequate deposition or retraction. Thus, the effect of misalignments is avoided, considering that these latter can cause skipping steps in the motor, directly affecting the deposition.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: J. L. Dávila expresses thanks for the postdoctoral fellowship from FAPESP (grant # 2019/02772–7). B. M. Manzini is grateful to FAPESP for the postdoctoral fellowship (grant # 2021/07212–0). The authors acknowledge the iCan micro-enterprise by supporting and funding the iCan-X open-source extrusion head development.
J.L. Dávila is grateful to Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT/Ecuador), for admitting his stay as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Information Technology “Renato Archer” (CTI).
In the interest of transparency, data sharing and reproducibility, the author(s) of this article have made the data underlying their research openly available. It can be accessed by following the link here: 10.17632/pfbdxsfvgt.2.
Citation
Dávila, J.L., Manzini, B.M., d'Ávila, M.A. and da Silva, J.V.L. (2022), "Open-source syringe extrusion head for shear-thinning materials 3D printing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 28 No. 8, pp. 1452-1461. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-09-2021-0245
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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