A team of American scientists has developed a new 3D printing method called Crystallinity Control in Additive Manufacturing of Thermoplastics (CRAFT), which helps produce realistic human body parts.
A team of American scientists has developed a new 3D printing method called Crystallinity Control in Additive Manufacturing of Thermoplastics (CRAFT), which helps produce realistic human body parts.
Interesting Engineering emphasizes that the CRAFT method offers an excellent alternative to medical cadavers, modeling the connections between bones, ligaments, and muscles within a single model.
Thus, using an affordable 3D printer and the CRAFT method, researchers created an extremely realistic model of a human hand that accurately mimics the hardness and flexibility of human skin, ligaments, tendons, and bones.
«We can control order at the molecular level in three-dimensional space, and thus completely change the mechanical and optical properties of the material,» said Zach Page, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Texas.
He added that the material, similar to the human body, is made from very simple and inexpensive raw materials by simply changing the intensity of light.
«It’s that simplicity at the heart of it that’s really captivating,» Page added.
The CRAFT method transforms a common liquid resin called cyclooctene into complex solid objects by projecting different «light patterns» using a commercial 3D printer.
Under normal circumstances, cyclooctene is just plastic, but a team of scientists has discovered that by precisely manipulating the intensity of light, they can control the «molecular order» of the material as it hardens.
By adjusting the intensity of the light, researchers can make one part of an object hard and transparent, while the neighboring part remains soft—all within a single fragment.
The publication explains that the direct impact of this invention will be felt in medical schools and universities, because currently, students practicing complex surgeries rely on cadavers for their training, which is expensive, difficult to access, not to mention some ethical issues.
The difference is that existing high-end 3D printers often have difficulty bonding different materials, leading to structural failure at the joints, but the CRAFT method creates realistic transitions that mirror natural human tissue.
«This provides medical students with realistic, durable practical models without the high costs and logistical difficulties associated with finding biological samples,» the material notes.
In addition to medical uses, the CRAFT method can be used to create protective materials, as well as materials for sound insulation.
The scientists' work has already been supported by a number of government agencies and foundations, including the US Department of Energy.
Meanwhile, as we wrote, Oxford University has already learned how to print nerve cells on a 3D printer.
Instead, the Kyiv-based 3D Metal Tech team creates titanium implants on a 3D printer for the military and civilians.
