Pellet Extruder-based Industrial 3D Printer for Custom-fit Military Respirators and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Masks using Soft Thermoplastic Elastomers.

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Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has emerged as a core component of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Among other types of AM technologies, extrusion AM technology offers the potential to modify the print-head, allowing multi-material printing of engineering polymers that melts at an elevated temperature. Most of the commercially available extrusion AM systems (or 3D printers) use polymer filaments as feedstock and are limited to only rigid or semi-rigid polymers. These systems can not print soft polymers. Some commercial extrusion AM systems consist of a small pellet extruder directly mounted on the print-head. These pellet extruder-based offer potential to print soft polymers; however, these systems exhibit either a very slow print speed (~ 100 g/hour) or a coarse print resolution (~ 400 µm). Because these systems do not have an active flow control mechanism in their print heads, thus limit their suitability for industrial applications. Recently our team has developed a new technology, fused pellets printing (FPP) which allows 3D printing of extremely soft, stretchable polymers. This technology also enables multi-material printing of both soft and rigid thermoplastics directly from raw pellets at a significantly higher print speed (~ 1 kg/hour) suitable for industrial applications. The soft polymer that has been successfully printed using FPP technology has a stiffness similar to the human muscle. Therefore, it opens up a new horizon of applications that were not possible before because of the limitation to print soft polymers. For instance, military personnel is required to wear respirators on the battlefields for a prolonged period which often creates discomfort and limits their performance. Not only that but the patients with sleep apnea are also required to wear continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) masks during nighttime sleeping. Both the military respirator and CPAP masks can cause distress because they are not personalized and designed to serve the specific user. Since our technology allows 3D printing of soft polymers, custom-fit respirators and masks can be 3D printed by 3D scanning the user's face which will significantly enhance their performance and comfort.