In response to the College of California, Davis (UC Davis), a groundbreaking 3D printing technique – developed by Mohsen Habibi, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering – holds the potential to restore damaged bones with out incision.
In a paper printed in Nature Communications, Habibi particulars holographic direct sound printing (HDSP), which makes use of high-acoustic strain soundwaves to venture a holographic picture and remotely print a two-dimensional model of the picture in a polymer materials like resin. The soundwaves agitated the fabric, leading to a stable construction.
HDSP makes use of an acoustic holographic image to venture and print the entire picture directly. A holographic image, explains Habibi, is solely a 3D volumetric image of an object (assume: Princess Leia showing to ship a request for assist in Star Wars: A New Hope). Whereas holographic photos are usually created with gentle, Habibi makes use of an acoustic supply to create high-pressure zones inside an outlined setting.
“With HDSP, I’ve a hologram that initiatives a holographic image of a circle at a sure location,” he mentioned. “That location is contained in the construct chamber that I stuffed with materials, and it solidifies the image I wish to solidify.”
In these experiments, a robotic arm holds the printing platform. The printing platform hovers above the transducer, which is submerged in water. The construct chamber sits between the transducer and the printing platform and is stuffed with polymer printing materials.
The transducer emits high-acoustic strain sound waves – inducing a sonochemical response referred to as cavitation, or very tiny bubbles, within the construct chamber – creating stable materials. The robotic arm strikes the printing platform alongside a fancy path to create a form whereas concurrently pulling the printed object vertically out of the construct chamber – leading to a 3D construction.
The work builds on Habibi’s earlier analysis in printing with soundwaves for direct sound printing, or DSP, which happens by making use of centered ultrasound waves to a polymer that creates cavitation – leading to a 3D printed construction.
In response to Mohsen Habibi, HDSP is a big step ahead from DSP – a breakthrough in its personal proper – relating to 3D printing contained in the human physique. HDSP prints a two-dimensional image constantly (with out layering) – making it way more time-efficient than DSP, which may solely print one level at a time and in layers like typical 3D printing.
Though solely easy shapes have been printed thus far, the approach already reveals promise relating to 3D printing tissues contained in the human physique. “Bone, cartilage, and related organic tissues aren’t actually advanced when it comes to geometry, so that they may very well be projected with just one picture,” mentioned Habibi. “When folks learn the 2022 paper in Nature Communications, they talked about that direct sound printing was science fiction. That is science over fiction.”
