activities

3D Printing Lab

Overview

The Lab

The core business of the 3D Printing Lab is to use cutting-edge Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies jointly with Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM), mechanical simulations, and reverse engineering to replace common production technologies for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.

The laboratory offers various 3D printers to prototype and produce customized orthoses, to carry out experimental research, and at the same time teaching through research projects in which researchers, engineers, and students are involved. In particular, the multidisciplinary research staff of 3D Printing Lab, in close synergy with the clinicians of the NeMO Clinical Centers, aims to design, prototype, and fabricate customizable orthoses, aids, and scaffolding to promote musculoskeletal functions through advanced AM technologies for neuromuscular patients.

Furthermore, a cornerstone of the laboratory is a continuous contamination, which occurs both through collaborations with universities, research centers, and companies.

equipment

Fused Filament Fabrication

FFF 3D printers with the following Key features are used:

Different print volume: 700 × 350 mm (Sharebot QXXL); 360 × 360 mm (Prusa XL); 200 × 400 mm (Delta WASP 2040 Industrial X);

Controlled chamber and cooling with “Hot and Cold Technology” mechanics;
Direct drive extruders and Bowden drive extruder with 0.4 and 0.8 mm nozzle diameter. “Nextruders” (5 independent extruders for multi-material prints). “FLEX Extruder” to print soft materials (up to shore 50A). “ZEN X Extruder”; for mono or multi-material prints.

3D printed custom-made orthoses

Our Products

The 3D printing Lab has developed a simple solution for manufacturing custom-made 3D printed orthoses.

The main features are: lightweight, breathable, washable, minimally invasive, and shape memory.

Research Activities

Our activities

The research activity at the 3D Printing Lab is divided into the following categories:

Study and optimization of the process parameters of additive manufacturing through the creation of simulation modeling with experimental validations;
Study of manufacturing parameters of 3D-printed multiscale soft architecture lattices for biomedical applications;
Design, printing parameters, and characterization of soft triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) lattices for broadening extrusion-based applications;
3D-printed metamaterials with enhanced mechanical properties using Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process;
Use of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) processes in the fields of neuromuscular diseases, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and soft robotics.

Teaching

Internships and degree thesis are offered in the laboratory, in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano – Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Contact and Scheduling

To schedule a consultation, collaboration, or just learn more about 3D printing options, please contact the lab at 3d@nemolab.it