Advancing fused deposition modelling

这项研究的目标是开发一种制造策略，允许以成本效益的方式设计和生产针对患者的特定塑料植入物，用于医院内的肌肉骨骼疾病。传统制造有太多的设计限制，不符合成本效益，因此我们的研究集中在3D打印上。3D打印技术有几种，但由于其材料简单，挤压3D打印是一种有吸引力的技术。这里，塑料细丝被提供给被加热到半液态的挤出喷嘴。然后，半熔融的塑料通过喷嘴挤出并层层铺设。喷嘴的位置由一个跟随所需零件形状的数字控制机构控制。这种制造技术的简单性使其非常易于使用，并允许在办公室环境中打印各种塑料。然而，这种3D打印技术是为了创建原型而不是功能部件而开发的，因此有几个限制。因此，我们的短期目标是研究和提升这种基于塑料挤出的3D打印技术，以确保能够制造出坚固可靠的植入物和其他塑料部件。除了广泛的材料测试外，我们还将生成数值模型，以便预测打印植入物和部件的长期性能和强度，以确保安全和可靠。通过一种创新的方法，我们将改进印刷工艺并解决其一些局限性，这将进一步提高印刷植入物和部件的可靠性和强度。我们还将在打印过程中加入连续的碳纤维，从而产生非常坚硬和坚固的部件，这些部件可以用于许多其他行业，包括航空航天。我们设想的未来是，定制植入物由外科医生根据医学成像数据直接设计，然后在医院打印和消毒。这些定制的植入物将改善手术结果，因此减少翻修手术的数量，并大幅降低植入物成本，将显著降低这些程序的医疗保健成本。虽然拟议的研究只是迈向这一目标的第一步，需要克服许多监管障碍，但从这项研究中获得的知识可以立即应用于其他监管较少的行业。公司可以设计和生产定制产品，并快速制造创新产品，并对快速发展的行业做出反应。将不需要存储部件和产品，它们可以在需要的地方制造，这将降低成本和环境食品印刷。

The over goal of this research is to develop a manufacturing strategy that allows to cost-effectively design and produce patient specific plastic implants for musculoskeletal conditions within a hospital. Conventional manufacturing poses too many design restrictions and would not be cost-effective for this purpose and therefore our research focuses on 3D printing. Several 3D printing technologies exist but due to its simplicity material extrusion 3D printing is an attractive technology. Here, a plastic filament is supplied to an extrusion nozzle which is heated to a semi-liquid state. The semi-molten plastic is then extruded through the nozzle and laid down in layers. The position of the nozzle is controlled with a numerically controlled mechanism that follows the shape of the desired part. The simplicity of this manufacturing technology makes it very accessible and allows to print a wide variety of plastics in an office setting. However, this 3D printing technology has been developed to create prototypes and not functional parts and therefore has several limitations. Therefore, our short term goal is to investigate and enhance this plastic extrusion based 3D printing technology to ensure that strong and reliable implants and other plastic parts can be manufactured. In addition to extensive material testing, we will generate numerical models, which allow to predict the long term performance and strength of the printed implants and parts to ensure safety and reliability. With an innovative approach we will enhance the printing process and address some of its limitations, which will further increase reliability and strength of the printed implants and parts. We will also include continuous carbon fiber into the printing process resulting in very stiff and strong parts that can be used in many other industries, including aerospace.We envision a future where custom implants are designed directly by the surgeons based on medical imaging data and then printed and sterilizes in the hospital. These custom implants will enhance the surgical outcomes, and therefore reducing the number of revision surgeries and together with substantially reduced implant costs will significantly reduce health care costs for these procedures. Although the proposed research is only the first step towards this goal and many regulatory hurdles need to be overcome, the knowledge gained from this research can be immediately applied for other, less regulated industries. Companies can design and produce custom products and quickly, manufacture innovative products and respond to fast developing industries. There would be no need to store parts and products and they can be manufactured where needed, which will decrease costs and the environmental food print.