Abstract

Patient-specific surgical guides are increasingly demanded. Material Extrusion (ME) is a popular 3D printing technique to fabricate personalized surgical guides. However, the ME process usually generates deleterious surface topography which is not suitable for orthopaedic emergencies. We designed and optimized parametric combinations of a laser polishing approach as post process to improve the surface quality of ME-made poly-lactic acid (PLA) objects. In this study, we investigated the contribution of processing variables to the mechanical properties and the biocompatibilities in vitro of the ME-made PLA objects. Conventional surface grinding was conducted as comparison. The results demonstrate that the ME-made PLA samples exhibit good mechanical properties and favourable biocompatibility after being post processed using laser polishing. The post laser polishing, as a powerful tool in manufacture of ME-made PLA objects, will open a new approach with a great promise in its applications in personalized and timely management of medical emergencies.

Details

Title
Laser polished fused deposition poly-lactic acid objects for personalized orthopaedic application
Author
Chai, Yuan 1 ; Chen, Xiao-Bo 2 ; Zhang, Donghai 1 ; Lynch, Joseph 1 ; Birbilis, Nick 3 ; Qin, Qing-Hua 3 ; Smith, Paul N. 4 ; Li, Rachel W. 5   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 The Australian National University, Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, Department of Surgery, The Medical School, Canberra, Australia (GRID:grid.1001.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2180 7477) 
 RMIT University, School of Engineering, Carlton, Australia (GRID:grid.1017.7) (ISNI:0000 0001 2163 3550) 
 Australian National University, Research School of Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Canberra, Australia (GRID:grid.1001.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2180 7477) 
 The Canberra Hospital, Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Unit, Garran, Australia (GRID:grid.413314.0) (ISNI:0000 0000 9984 5644) 
 The Australian National University, Trauma and Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, Department of Surgery, The Medical School, Canberra, Australia (GRID:grid.1001.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2180 7477); The Australian National University, Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Acton, Australia (GRID:grid.1001.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2180 7477) 
Pages
1838
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Nov 2020
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
ISSN
25233963
e-ISSN
25233971
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2788437256
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.