Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
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- Additive manufacturing (2)
- 3D-Printing (1)
- Additive Manufacturing (1)
- Alpha-tricalcium phosphate (1)
- Binder Jetting (1)
- Bio Ceramic (1)
- Bioceramics (1)
- Gas flow assisted powder deposition (1)
- Hardystonite (1)
- Preceramic Polymers (1)
Organisationseinheit der BAM
The possibility of creating patient-specific individual implants makes Additive Manufacturing technologies of special interest for the medical sector. For substitution of bone defects, powder based Additive Manufacturing by Binder Jetting is a suitable method to produce complex scaffold-like structures made of bioceramics with easily adapted geometries and controlled porosity. The process inherent residual porosity in the printed part, even though desired as it supports bone ingrowth, also leads to limited mechanical strength. Currently, bioceramic scaffolds made by Binder Jetting feature suitable biocompatible and biodegradable properties, while a sufficient mechanical stability is rather challenging. The purpose of this work is to apply the gas flow assisted powder deposition introduced in 2014 by Zocca et al., to the powder bed during printing of bioceramic tablets and scaffolds using α-TCP powder as feedstock. This enables exploiting the advantages of an increased powder bed density, thereby improving the mechanical properties of the printed parts.
Wollastonite (CaSiO 3 ) – diopside (CaMgSi 2 O 6 ) glass-ceramic scaffolds have been successfully fabricated using two different additive manufacturing techniques: powder-based 3D printing (3DP) and digital light processing (DLP), coupled with the sinter-crystallization of glass powders with two different compositions. The adopted manufacturing process depended on the balance between viscous flow sintering and crystallization of the glass particles, in turn in fluenced by the powder size and the sensitivity of CaO – MgO – SiO 2 glasses to surface nucleation. 3DP used coarser glass powders and was more appropriate for low temperature firing (800 – 900 °C), leading to samples with limited crystallization. On the contrary, DLP used finer glass powders, leading to highly crystallized glass-ceramic samples. Despite the differences in manufacturing technology and crystallization, all samples featured very good strength-to-density ratios, which bene fit theiruse for bone tissue engineering applications. The bioactivity of 3D-printed glass-ceramics after immersion in simulated body fluid and the similarities, in terms of ionic releases and hydroxyapatite formation with already validated bioactive glass-ceramics, were preliminarily assessed.
Capsule summary
THE MATERIALS
Manufacturers can use preceramic polymers to produce ceramic components in a range of compositions using a variety of additive manufacturing technologies. Preceramic polymers even can overcome some of the problems that are intrinsic to additive manufacturing in general.
THE APPLICATION
Modifying the composition, molecular architecture, and molecular weight of preceramic polymers allows adaptation of these materials to specific processing requirements of individual additive manufacturing technologies.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Further development of new additive manufacturing technologies, in addition to improvement of existing technologies, will enable manufacturing of advanced ceramic components with enhanced mechanical characteristics and new functional properties.
In this work, we demonstrated that the hardystonite (Ca2ZnSi2O7) bioceramics can be produced withhigh phase purity, starting from different preceramic polymers and suitable fillers (precursors for CaOand ZnO) after heating at 1200◦C in air. Open-celled hardystonite foams were easily prepared from a filler-containing silicone resin using hydrazine as foaming agent. The fabrication of cellular structures using a preceramic polymer and fillers was possible because the polymeric melt allowed for the entrapment of the gases generated by the decomposition of hydrazine, and the simultaneous cross-linking of the preceramic polymer enabled the retention of the foam structure. Samples with a well-developed hierarchical porous structure, with an open porosity ranging from ∼65 to ∼81 vol% and an average cell window size ranging from 150 to 500 µm were produced. The hardystonite components possessed a compressive strength ranging from ∼1.4 to ∼2.1 MPa.