EDKiM – Development of a print head and its kinematics for medical devices
Design of an expansion-free kinematics and investigation of the flow behaviour of polymers in the nozzle.
Project Partners
Kumovis GmbH
Duration
01.10.2019 – 30.09.2021
Funding authority
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Motivation
The production of medical implants involves a great deal of work. This is due to the individual adjustment effort. For this reason, additive manufacturing is predestined for the manufacture of such implants. Previous approaches have used laser sintering processes and primarily metallic materials for this purpose. Due to the high process and material costs, implants remain relatively expensive. Changing to extrusion-based processes with polymer-based materials can greatly reduce costs. In order to be able to process the necessary high-temperature thermoplastics, far-reaching adaptations to the plant technology are necessary compared to the state of the art. The greatest challenge is maintaining process accuracy despite the highly heated working space.
Method
The aim of the project is to develop the print head and its kinematics for the 3D printer of Kumovis with regard to a certification for medical products and user friendliness. To achieve this goal three central challenges have to be solved. Firstly, material residues in the print head caused by splitting or changing material must be completely avoided. The kinematics should guarantee a high accuracy with low calibration effort. This is to be achieved by avoiding thermal expansion at high installation temperatures. A force sensor on the nozzle or the print head should continuously measure the force that the filament exerts on the nozzle. This is intended to monitor the internal pressure of the nozzle and, by means of a control system, to achieve a uniformly high quality of extrusion even if the filament quality fluctuates. This will bring Kumovis printers one step closer to a certification for medical products, which is absolutely necessary for marketing in the target segment.
Acknowledgement
The chair thankfully acknowledges the funding provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy under the scheme “Central Innovation Programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)” on Development of a print head and its kinematics for medical devices (“Entwicklung eines Druckkopfs und dessen Kinematik für Medizinprodukte – EDKiM”)
Contact Persons
Dr.-Ing. Swen Zaremba