Effects of Printing Sequence on the Printing Accuracy of Melt Electrowriting Scaffolds

Fucheng Zhang, Kai Cao, Ahmadreza Zaeri, Ralf Zgeib, Robert C. Chang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Melt electrowriting (MEW), an emergent additive manufacturing process, shows significant potential in fabricating high-fidelity fibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. However, fiber deviation can deteriorate the printing accuracy of MEW. To evaluate the printing accuracy, an evaluation protocol along with an index (Ip) is proposed. For the first time, 0–90 patterned and 0–θ patterned scaffolds with varying inter-fiber distances along different printing directions are fabricated to establish the dependence of Ip on two distinct printing sequences. One sequence is the small–large sequence, which first prints the fibers separated by a small inter-fiber distance, followed by fibers separated by a large inter-fiber distance. Alternatively, for the large–small sequence, the fibers separated by a large inter-fiber distance are printed prior to the fibers separated by a small inter-fiber distance. The small–large sequence contributes to larger Ip results compared to the large–small sequence. Moreover, the printing sequence has more significant effects on the Ip for the 0–θ pattern compared to the 0–90 pattern. These differences can be attributed to different fiber morphologies at the intersection points, accompanied by resultantly varying charge amounts, which gives an insight into the cause of fiber deviation phenomena.

Original languageEnglish
JournalMacromolecular Materials and Engineering
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2022

Keywords

  • fiber deviation
  • melt electrohydrodynamic process
  • printing accuracy
  • printing evaluation
  • printing sequence

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