Design and develop a portable bioprinting pen

• Main Author: Tan, Victor Jun Long
• Other Authors: Yeong Wai Yee
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72111
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

3D printing is a highly promising technology with a large number of potential applications in the medical industry; ranging from development of complex biomedical devices using computer generated patient-specific anatomical data to point-of-care tissue engineering and diagnostics. Presently, with easy access to more affordable and viable printing options such as the 3D bioprinting pen, the technology is poised to find new applications in the field of regenerative medicine through the fusing of custom 3D tissue scaffolds with living stem cells to promote and enhance tissue regeneration treatments. From portability, ease of use, to cost effectiveness, precision of patterning and freedom of direct writing, the 3D bioprinting pen features a myriad of advantages over the conventional desktop bound printing devices. Exploring the design and features of the new 3D bio printing pen and comparing it with those of the existing technologies such as inkjet printers will likely open up a whole new perspective of progressing the 3D bioprinting technology. In the current market, there is a lack of biopens that print filament where hydrogels or liquid based resins are one of the most common form of materials for the biopens. The pen discussed is designed to hold and extrude thin filament. Typical 3D pen which extrude filament uses rollers to extrude the material but that method will be difficult if the filament is too thin. The designed biopen loads the filament onto a screw pin and using a stepper motor mounted on top of the pen, the screw pin will rotate and dispense the filament. The filament will pass through a heating element which will turn it into semi-molten state. This pen has potential to be one of the first 3D bio pen that extrude filament without the use of rollers and application for thin filament can be explored since thin filament allows 3D printing at a nanometre level and even more precise in printing.