Multi-axis Melt Electrowriting a Novel Approach for the 3D Printing of Personalized Implants

Melt Electrowriting has become a mainstream field-assisted additive manufacturing technology to produce regenerative thin membranes. This technique requires the melting of a thermoset polymer—mostly polycaprolactone in work done to date--that is extruded by means of air pressure through a charged syringe tip into a high voltage electric field (7 – 10 kV) towards a collector of the opposite charge. The electrostatic force pulls the flowing polymer towards the collector. Through the use of a coordinated motion system, the orderly deposition of micro and even nano-sized fibers (0.9 – 25 um) can be used to form bio textiles with different pore geometries. In contrast with electrospinning, the solvent-free, highly accurate control of fiber diameter and deposition location of MEW offers great opportunities for the medical field. However, the high cost and high level of robotics expertise currently associated with a custom-built working system, limited its use to a few select research groups that can make this investment. In the work reported here, we advance tooling and machine design from the MEWron work presented by the Dalton Lab. We will present the return on investment for the various components one can use to build a MEW machine ranging from a standard 3 axis to a modular multi-axis printing system with up to 5 axes. We will also present key insights on the optimization of MEW process parameters (extrusion pressure, critical translation speed, voltage), multi-axis kinematics design, and the conversion of a low-cost fused filament deposition printer to a MEW machine.