Manufacturability Characterization of Digital Light Processing of Bone Scaffolds

In recent years, additive manufacturing has been used in the biomedical field to manufacture biocompatible medical implants. One such application is the manufacturing of bone scaffolds to encourage the growth of bone cells in damaged bone areas. Additive manufacturing (AM) processes used to manufacture bone scaffolds include stereolithography and digital light processing (DLP). Both AM technologies can print biocompatible bone scaffolds by using compatible resin materials but DLP has better prospects for developments of biocompatiblc AM bone scaffolds because of short printing duration and higher quality prints of smaller objects. Prior research has focused on exploring printer settings, scaffold structure, and biocompatibility, but more research on scaffold quality and process yield is needed as this application moves towards commercialization. This study characterizes changes of DLP-printed bone scaffolds made with hydroxyapatite to observe the relationship between process inputs (exposure time) and output measurements (dimensional error and yield). Significant differences were observed between 37, 42, and 52 seconds exposure time for dimensional error of the printed and cured parts. The total yield varied from 33% to 100% depending on exposure setting. The study provides a better understanding on how changes in process parameters can affect the quality of DLP-printed scaffolds to enable further improvements in scaffold manufacturability.