3d printing research paper topics

85 3D Printing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best 3d printing topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ most interesting 3d printing topics to write about.

• 💡 Good Essay Topics on 3D Printings

❓3D Printing Research Questions

• 3D Printing Industry and Market One can understand the industry of 3D technologies in terms of the software technology, the hardware and the nature of the products.
• Cloning, 3D Printing, and Artificial Parts: Replacement Strategies The possibility to turn such cells into any other is the main advantage of the method. This is 3D printing, apparently; as mentioned, it continues to grow more popular in medicine, which calls for studying […]
• 3D Printing in the Medical Field The key issue in the field of bioprinting remains the areas of application in medicine and the establishment of certain boundaries for this technology.
• 3D Printing Development for Fashion Industry The fashion industry was not moved or altered by 3D printing during the earlier days because most of the inventions covered the need to modify and improve the printing capability.
• UAE Government Foresight and Scenarios Program: The 3D Concrete Printing The 3D concrete printing initiative is the future of modernised, affordable, durable, and efficient means of construction for government projects across the UAE.
• 3D Printed Food and Utensils Safety The former is typically implemented in the production of simple foods and components, whereas the latter is used in combined culinary, with the implementation of both natural and printed ingredients.
• 3D Printing Technology in Medicine Notably, doctors need to learn how to use the printer in developing organs for patients in need of them. Employees need to be trained on how to use it at the workplace.
• 3D Heart Printing and Its Future Lee and Dai attributed the probability of the success of 3D technology to the materials used since they support the cellular components during and after bioprinting procedures.
• 3D Printing: Pros and Cons The authors compare the quick advancement and loss in the price of 3D printers with the rise of the personal computers.
• 3D Printer Elements and Features The objects that can be created with this printer should be at least 5x5x5 inches. These are some of the details that should be considered by the seller.
• Technology and Business: 3D Printer Impact This paper outlines the technology used for a Form 1 3D printer, as well as the impact this technology has had on business over the past ten years, the future of technology and business, the […]
• 3D Bioprinting of Physical Organs This sort of technology can be compared to the current prostatic usage and it has proven to be extremely beneficial for people.
• 3D Printing Industry in the UK Moreover, this research related the background of Makism 3D Corporation and the future of the 3D industry in the United Kingdom.
• 3D Bioprinting of Brown Adipose Tissue
• Additive Manufacturing: 3D Printing and the Future of Organizational Design
• Charting the Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing
• 3D Printing and the Future of Nursing Education
• Current Applications and Future Perspectives of the Use of 3D Printing
• Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing
• 3D Printing and Its Effects on the World of Manufacturing
• Innovation Ecosystems Across Science, Technology, and Business: 3D Printing in China
• Financial and Funding Plan for a Biotech 3D Printing Company
• 3D Printing Food: Fiction or Reality?
• History, Future, and Applications of 3D Printing
• Limitations and Common Issues With 3D Printing
• Making Rare Materials Hands-On: 3D Printing a Possibility for Rare Materials
• Moral and Ethical Implications of 3D Printing Technology
• Nanoparticle Exposure During Processes Related to a Metal Object 3D Printing
• New Industrial Platforms and Radical Technology Foresight: 3D Printing in Europe
• 3D Printing Materials: Status, Opportunities, Market Forecasts
• Professional Skills for Information Technology for 3D Printing
• Reviewing Gun Control and 3D Printing in America
• Strategic Marketing Recommendation for the Launch of a 3D Printing Machine

💡 Good Essay Topics on 3D Printing

• Successful Business Models for 3D Printing Companies
• The Challenges and Boundaries of 3D Printing
• Overview of the Current Medical Uses of 3D Printing
• The Development and Challenge of 3D Printing
• The Different Areas and Applications of 3D Printing
• The Relationship Between Medical and Dental Industry and 3D Printing
• Biomimetic Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering: 3D Printing Techniques in Regenerative Medicine
• Tripolyphosphate-Crosslinked Chitosan & Gelatin Biocomposite Ink for 3D Printing of Uniaxial Scaffolds
• Understanding the Main Uses of 3D Printing
• The Potential Uses of 3D Printing Technology in the Modern World
• The Positive Impact of 3D Printing on Our Health and the Environment
• Why 3D Printing Service Bureaus Need to Be Automated
• The Effect of Three-Dimensional Printing on Prosthetic Limbs
• 3D Printing: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
• The Link Between 3D Printing and Bioprinting Revolutionizing Healthcare
• 3D Printing Usage to Boost Competitive Advantage of American Manufacturing
• Technology and Ecology: Inventions With 3D Printer That Will Surprise You
• Development of Direct Metal Laser Sintering Machine
• 3D Printing and Its Effects on the Economy
• Digital Printing and Its Impact on the 3D Printing Future Growth
• What Are the Positive and Negative Impacts of 3D Printing?
• How Does 3D Printing Help Society?
• Can 3D Printing Make Everything?
• What Are the Potential Uses of 3D Printing?
• Is 3D Printing Used in Business Today?
• What Could 3D Printing Be Used for in the Future?
• Does 3D Printing Use Artificial Intelligence?
• How Does 3D Printing Affect the Modern Industry?
• Who Will Benefit the Most From 3D Printing?
• How Is 3D Printing Changing the World?
• Is 3D Printing Technology Improving?
• What Problems Can 3D Printing Solve?
• Is 3D Printing the Future of Sustainable Manufacturing?
• Does 3D Printing Save Energy?
• Will 3D Printing Change the World?
• How Can 3D Printing Help the Environment?
• What Is the Use of 3D Printing in Modern Technology?
• Can 3D Printing Help the Economy?
• How Is 3D Printing Used in Medicine?
• Is 3D Printing the Future of Fashion?
• Where Is 3D Printing Used in Industry?
• How Is 3D Printing Advancing the World We Live In?
• Which Industries Use 3D Printing Most?
• Can 3D Printing Help Developing Countries?
• What Is the Future Growth of 3D Printing?
• Is 3D Printing Good for the Environment?
• What Products Are Made Using 3D Printing?
• Does the Aerospace Industry Use 3D Printing Services?
• Why Is 3D Printing Important for the Future?
• Can 3D Printing Be Used for Architecture?
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IvyPanda . (2023) '85 3D Printing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 26 September.

IvyPanda . 2023. "85 3D Printing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/3d-printing-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "85 3D Printing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/3d-printing-essay-topics/.

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IvyPanda . "85 3D Printing Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." September 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/3d-printing-essay-topics/.

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Academic insights and perspectives in 3d printing: a bibliometric review.

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1. introduction, 2. materials and methods, 3.1. global contribution and leading countries, 3.2. contribution of leading institutions, 3.3. contribution of leading research areas, 3.4. leading journals in terms of number of publications in 3d printing research, 3.5. contribution of leading authors, 3.6. patent status of 3d printing, 3.7. analysis of the most highly cited papers, 3.8. research interests and perspectives, 4. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Bai, W.; Fang, H.; Wang, Y.; Zeng, Q.; Hu, G.; Bao, G.; Wan, Y. Academic Insights and Perspectives in 3D Printing: A Bibliometric Review. Appl. Sci. 2021 , 11 , 8298. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188298

Bai W, Fang H, Wang Y, Zeng Q, Hu G, Bao G, Wan Y. Academic Insights and Perspectives in 3D Printing: A Bibliometric Review. Applied Sciences . 2021; 11(18):8298. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188298

Bai, Wenyu, Hui Fang, Yawen Wang, Qiang Zeng, Guangyao Hu, Guanjun Bao, and Yuehua Wan. 2021. "Academic Insights and Perspectives in 3D Printing: A Bibliometric Review" Applied Sciences 11, no. 18: 8298. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188298

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• NEWS FEATURE
• 05 February 2020
• Correction 07 February 2020

3D printing gets bigger, faster and stronger

• Mark Zastrow 0

Mark Zastrow is a writer based in Seoul.

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A resin printer from Chad Mirkin’s lab at Northwestern University in Illinois can create structures as large as a person in hours (image sequence sped up). Credit: Northwestern University

As a metal platform rises from a vat of liquid resin, it pulls an intricate white shape from the liquid — like a waxy creature emerging from a lagoon. This machine is the world’s fastest resin-based 3D printer and it can create a plastic structure as large as a person in a few hours, says Chad Mirkin, a chemist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The machine, which Mirkin and his colleagues reported last October 1 , is one of a slew of research advances in 3D printing that are broadening the prospects of a technology once viewed as useful mainly for making small, low-quality prototype parts. Not only is 3D printing becoming faster and producing larger products, but scientists are coming up with innovative ways to print and are creating stronger materials, sometimes mixing multiple materials in the same product.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00271-6

Updates & Corrections

Correction 07 February 2020 : An earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Relativity Space intended to do a test launch this year, and misstated the timeline for the development of the printing technique that forms a 3D object in a spinning resin.

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In this 3D printing process, the little dot of blue light triggers a chemical reaction that makes the resin harden into plastic.

Credit: Tracy H. Schloemer and Arynn O. Gallegos

Making 3D printing truly 3D

Juan Siliezar

Harvard Staff Writer

Researchers from Rowland Institute eliminate need for 2D layering

Don’t be fooled by the name. While 3D printers do print tangible objects (and quite well), how they do the job doesn’t actually happen in 3D, but rather in regular old 2D.

Working to change that is a group of former and current researchers from the Rowland Institute at Harvard.

First, here’s how 3D printing works: The printers lay down flat layers of resin, which will harden into plastic after being exposed to laser light, on top of each other, again and again from the bottom to the top. Eventually, the object, such as a skull , takes shape. But if a piece of the print overhangs, like a bridge or a wing of a plane, it requires some type of flat support structure to actually print, or the resin will fall apart.

The researchers present a method to help the printers live up to their names and deliver a “true” 3D form of printing. In a new paper in Nature, they describe a technique of volumetric 3D printing that goes beyond the bottom-up, layered approach. The process eliminates the need for support structures because the resin it creates is self-supporting.

“What we were wondering is, could we actually print entire volumes without needing to do all these complicated steps?” said Daniel N. Congreve, an assistant professor at Stanford and former fellow at the Rowland Institute, where the bulk of the research took place. “Our goal was to use simply a laser moving around to truly pattern in three dimensions and not be limited by this sort of layer-by-layer nature of things.”

The key component in their novel design is turning red light into blue light by adding what’s known as an upconversion process to the resin, the light reactive liquid used in 3D printers that hardens into plastic.

In 3D printing, resin hardens in a flat and straight line along the path of the light. Here, the researchers use nano capsules to add chemicals so that it only reacts to a certain kind of light — a blue light at the focal point of the laser that’s created by the upconversion process. This beam is scanned in three dimensions, so it prints that way without needing to be layered onto something. The resulting resin has a greater viscosity than in the traditional method, so it can stand support-free once it’s printed.

“We designed the resin, we designed the system so that the red light does nothing,” Congreve said. “But that little dot of blue light triggers a chemical reaction that makes the resin harden and turn into plastic. Basically, what that means is you have this laser passing all the way through the system and only at that little blue do you get the polymerization, [only there] do you get the printing happening. We just scan that blue dot around in three dimensions and anywhere that blue dot hits it polymerizes and you get your 3D printing.”

The researchers used their printer to produce a 3D Harvard logo, Stanford logo, and a small boat, a standard yet difficult test for 3D printers because of the boat’s small size and fine details like overhanging portholes and open cabin spaces.

The researchers, who included Christopher Stokes from the Rowland Institute, plan to continue developing the system for speed and to refine it to print even finer details. The potential of volumetric 3D printing is seen as a game changer, because it will eliminate the need for complex support structures and dramatically speed up the process when it reaches its full potential. Think of the “replicator” from “Star Trek” that materializes objects all at once.

But right now, the researchers know they have quite a ways to go.

“We’re really just starting to scratch the surface of what this new technique could do,” Congreve said.

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The Impact of Evolving Output Mediums on The Design and Creation of Graphic Images: 3d Printers

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3D Printing - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

3D Printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process of creating three-dimensional objects from a digital file. Essays on 3D printing could explore its evolution, various applications across industries like healthcare, automotive, and aerospace, and its potential to revolutionize manufacturing. Discussions could also include the environmental impact and ethical implications of 3D printing. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of 3D Printing you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

The Importance of 3d Printing these Days

We board a fast world wherever everything is needed quickly then, will be} wherever 3D printing can extremely build a distinction. one amongst the massive benefits of 3D printing is that components and product will be factory-made plenty faster than they'll mistreatment ancient ways. complicated styles will be created as a CAD model then reworked into a reality in precisely some hours. This delivers style ideas during a manner that allows them to be verified quickly and designed during a […]

3D Printing and the Future of Nursing Education

With the progress in technology, the contemporary world has become much more advanced than it was even ten years ago. Thus, the existing technology now serves the population in numerous industries and areas, and its assistance makes the lives of people more convenient and simpler. Moreover, the positive impact of technological progress appears to play a vital role in the life of the entire population, as people have been using various technologies specifically in the field of healthcare for many […]

3d Printed Guns It is Constitutional

Even though this is an incredibly new technology, politicians and even presidents around the globe makers have recognized 3D printed guns and what’s behind it. Regardless of what their actual thoughts are on the topic, the laws that they have tried to put into place that obstructs the progress of the technology has risen the number of questions that deal with it. Questions such as whether or not it is constitutional to make them, distribute them or even use them. […]

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3D Printing and Bioprinting Revolutionizing Healthcare

3D bioprinting is one of the most anticipating and promising technological advancements of all time. According to the US National Library of Medicine, 3D bioprinting is "a manufacturing method in which objects are made by fusing or depositing materials? such as plastic, metal, ceramics, powders, liquids, or even living cells? in layers to produce a 3D object" (Ventola, 2014, para 2). Is With the capability of using real cells, 3D bioprinting will make it possible to create living tissue. This […]

3D Printing Yesterday Today and Tomorrow

There are a few 3D printing key terms that need to be mentioned prior to going into full detail of the subject. These terms and/or abbreviations may be mentioned throughout this project. (ABS) Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene- ABS is a thermoplastic that is the material that some 3D printers use when modeling 3D printers. On a side note some do not like using it because it gives off a foul odor from the burning of the plastic filament. Filament- Filament is […]

Virtual Reality: Game Transfer Phenomena

Imagine if you were you were floating through space, watching a horror film,s or perhaps playing a video game, and it seemed like you were actually there. With the invention of virtual reality (VR), people are able to explore the illusion of this reality. Virtual reality is computer-generated technology used to create a manufactured environment. There is a range of systems that are used for this purpose such as special headsets and fiber optic gloves. The term virtual reality means […]

Why 3D Printing Service Bureaus Needs to be Automated

According to Research and Markets forecast, 3D printing services market expected to grow to more than $13 billion from 2017 to 2022. With this rapidly increasing and overwhelming demand for 3D printing services holds enormous potential and business opportunities for 3D printing service bureaus. However, as the 3D printing market grows, employees are facing the challenge of scaling their current process, especially when quoting or delivering unmanaged services. To overcome this problem and stay on track with the competitors, many […]

3D Printing in Business

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The Effect of Three Dimensional Printing on Prosthetic Limbs

Most of the population takes having working limbs for granted. Around 2 million people need prosthetic limbs to function in their daily life. Patients with prosthetic limbs sometimes have problems with the prosthetic piece either not fitting them or being uncomfortable. The small steps in the prosthetic industry have made some problems go away; three-dimensional printing is a big leap in personalized prosthetics. Three-dimensional printing, a more personal and efficient way to make prosthetic limbs compared to traditional methods, is […]

3d Printing Dilenma

The case study discusses the moral issues raised about 3D printing of human organs. According to the case study, one of the moral dilemmas is the social implications of 3D printing versus its importance in improving the quality of life of human beings. The second dilemma concerns the ethics of prolonging life beyond the current life expectancy considering issues such as overpopulation that threaten the world. In the following paper, the moral dilemmas will be discussed, and solutions identified that […]

The Execution of 3-D Printing

Environmental Factors. The execution of 3-D printing in the manufacturing process could prevent some types of harmful environmental issues since its production produces nearly zero waste. Also, the capability of 3-D printing in manufacturing will decrease the harmful environmental effects which come from the transportation of goods around the world. Bringing 3-D printing into manufacturing would significantly reduce environmental damage during the shipment of goods. (Reichardt, 2014) The environment stands to gain much from the emerging technology of 3-D printing. […]

The Viability of 3D Printers as a Consumer Shopping Solution

As technology advances around the world, there has become a need for instinct gratification. The easy availability of materials has allowed society to have everything people ever desire at the tips of their fingers. Every year, more proposals for updates on technology are invented in hopes to expand the industrial science world. In today's world, there is a huge discussion over the topic of 3D printing becoming a regular program for shopping and consumer goods from the convenience of homes. […]

3D Bioprinting of Brown Adipose Tissue

The vascularized tissue that I would like to 3D bioprint is brown adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue is a fatty tissue that is used in the body to generate heat from energy stored in the form of lipids (5). Brown adipose tissue is primarily found in human babies, hibernating animals, and human adults that are in need of an extra source of heat. In most adults however, a majority of the brown adipose tissue that was prevalent as a child […]

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Walter Mischel, a psychologist famed for the 1960's Marshmallow Test, which he elucidated the virtue of delayed gratification for youngsters. Today, the data economy promotes the dichotomy of an on-demand culture. Enabled by AI on divinatory consumer demand and predictive supply chain, front-line companies are charged up to provide a See-Now-Buy-Now (SNBN) experience to the consumers. Amongst the US retail categories, grocery ranks first with $770 billion (30% of dollar share), while apparel second at $310 billion. After the acquisition […]

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Accelerating the discovery of new materials for 3D printing

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The growing popularity of 3D printing for manufacturing all sorts of items, from customized medical devices to affordable homes, has created more demand for new 3D printing materials designed for very specific uses.

To cut down on the time it takes to discover these new materials, researchers at MIT have developed a data-driven process that uses machine learning to optimize new 3D printing materials with multiple characteristics, like toughness and compression strength.

By streamlining materials development, the system lowers costs and lessens the environmental impact by reducing the amount of chemical waste. The machine learning algorithm could also spur innovation by suggesting unique chemical formulations that human intuition might miss. 

“Materials development is still very much a manual process. A chemist goes into a lab, mixes ingredients by hand, makes samples, tests them, and comes to a final formulation. But rather than having a chemist who can only do a couple of iterations over a span of days, our system can do hundreds of iterations over the same time span,” says Mike Foshey, a mechanical engineer and project manager in the Computational Design and Fabrication Group (CDFG) of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and co-lead author of the paper.

Additional authors include co-lead author Timothy Erps, a technical associate in CDFG; Mina Konaković Luković, a CSAIL postdoc; Wan Shou, a former MIT postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas; senior author Wojciech Matusik, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT; and Hanns Hagen Geotzke, Herve Dietsch, and Klaus Stoll of BASF. The research was published today in Science Advances .

Optimizing discovery

In the system the researchers developed, an optimization algorithm performs much of the trial-and-error discovery process.

A material developer selects a few ingredients, inputs details on their chemical compositions into the algorithm, and defines the mechanical properties the new material should have. Then the algorithm increases and decreases the amounts of those components (like turning knobs on an amplifier) and checks how each formula affects the material’s properties, before arriving at the ideal combination.

Then the developer mixes, processes, and tests that sample to find out how the material actually performs. The developer reports the results to the algorithm, which automatically learns from the experiment and uses the new information to decide on another formulation to test.

“We think, for a number of applications, this would outperform the conventional method because you can rely more heavily on the optimization algorithm to find the optimal solution. You wouldn’t need an expert chemist on hand to preselect the material formulations,” Foshey says.

The researchers have created a free, open-source materials optimization platform called AutoOED that incorporates the same optimization algorithm. AutoOED is a full software package that also allows researchers to conduct their own optimization.

Making materials

The researchers tested the system by using it to optimize formulations for a new 3D printing ink that hardens when it is exposed to ultraviolet light.

They identified six chemicals to use in the formulations and set the algorithm’s objective to uncover the best-performing material with respect to toughness, compression modulus (stiffness), and strength.

Maximizing these three properties manually would be especially challenging because they can be conflicting; for instance, the strongest material may not be the stiffest. Using a manual process, a chemist would typically try to maximize one property at a time, resulting in many experiments and a lot of waste.

The algorithm came up with 12 top performing materials that had optimal tradeoffs of the three different properties after testing only 120 samples.

Foshey and his collaborators were surprised by the wide variety of materials the algorithm was able to generate, and say the results were far more varied than they expected based on the six ingredients. The system encourages exploration, which could be especially useful in situations when specific material properties can’t be easily discovered intuitively.

Faster in the future

The process could be accelerated even more through the use of additional automation. Researchers mixed and tested each sample by hand, but robots could operate the dispensing and mixing systems in future versions of the system, Foshey says.

Farther down the road, the researchers would also like to test this data-driven discovery process for uses beyond developing new 3D printing inks.

“This has broad applications across materials science in general. For instance, if you wanted to design new types of batteries that were higher efficiency and lower cost, you could use a system like this to do it. Or if you wanted to optimize paint for a car that performed well and was environmentally friendly, this system could do that, too,” he says.

Because it presents a systematic approach for identifying optimal materials, this work could be a major step toward realizing high performance structures, says Keith A. Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University.

“The focus on novel material formulations is particularly encouraging as this is a factor that is often overlooked by researchers who are constrained by commercially available materials. And the combination of data-driven methods and experimental science allows the team to identify materials in an efficient manner. Since experimental efficiency is something with which all experimenters can identify, the methods here have a chance of motivating the community to adopt more data-driven practices,” he says.

The research was supported by BASF

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Polymer 3D Printing Review: Materials, Process, and Design Strategies for Medical Applications

Polymer 3D printing is an emerging technology with recent research translating towards increased use in industry, particularly in medical fields. Polymer printing is advantageous because it enables printing low-cost functional parts with diverse properties and capabilities. Here, we provide a review of recent research advances for polymer 3D printing by investigating research related to materials, processes, and design strategies for medical applications. Research in materials has led to the development of polymers with advantageous characteristics for mechanics and biocompatibility, with tuning of mechanical properties achieved by altering printing process parameters. Suitable polymer printing processes include extrusion, resin, and powder 3D printing, which enable directed material deposition for the design of advantageous and customized architectures. Design strategies, such as hierarchical distribution of materials, enable balancing of conflicting properties, such as mechanical and biological needs for tissue scaffolds. Further medical applications reviewed include safety equipment, dental implants, and drug delivery systems, with findings suggesting a need for improved design methods to navigate the complex decision space enabled by 3D printing. Further research across these areas will lead to continued improvement of 3D-printed design performance that is essential for advancing frontiers across engineering and medicine.

1. Introduction

Polymer 3D (three-dimensional) printing has advanced rapidly in recent years with many areas of research now translating to engineered products, especially in medical fields [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Polymer printing is advantageous for a broad range of medical areas that benefit from the diversity of polymer material characteristics and processing approaches [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. 3D printing is a highly desirable fabrication approach because it enables the construction of designs with complex geometries and architectures that are not possible with conventional manufacturing processes. For instance, tissue scaffold structures fabricated with polyjet and stereolithography printing can achieve hierarchical forms that mimic bone, thereby providing a mechanical and biological niche to support tissue regeneration [ 9 , 10 ]. Additionally, the selection of polymers has advantages over metal printing approaches, that result in metal implants that do not degrade in the body and lead to mechanical issues such as stress shielding [ 11 ]. In areas of safety equipment, polymer-printed lattices achieve efficient energy absorption with a rapid fabrication process that bypasses the supply chain limitations of bulk manufacturing [ 12 , 13 ]. Polymer printing is possible using extrusion, resin, and powder 3D printing processes that provide versatility for material selection and supporting designs with diverse architectures, responses, and layouts [ 14 , 15 ]. Because of the large design space offered by 3D polymer printing, and its opportunities for improving medical applications, we carried out a critical review by considering recent advances in materials, processes, and design strategies that all influence an application’s outcome [ 16 ], as illustrated in Figure 1 for a tissue scaffold example.

Material, process, and design considerations for medical applications, illustrated for a tissue scaffold example [ 17 ]. Images adapted with permission.

The Figure 1 schematic highlights a hierarchical tissue scaffold constructed from beam-based unit cells with interconnected considerations in materials, process, and design for ensuring appropriate mechanical and biological functioning [ 17 ]. In this example, a design strategy for mimicking the hierarchical structure of bone largely drove the need for a suitable printing process and material selection to support the application. The material choice was dictated by a need for appropriate stiffness to ensure structural integrity while retaining biocompatibility to promote tissue growth, which was fulfilled with a methacrylic acid-based polymer. The printing process requires the formation of layers for building the complicated hierarchical truss structure, which was achieved by stereolithography printing. However, once these factors are selected, there is a need to iterate and refine the structure’s design based on performance variability attributed to uncertainty and part variation in the 3D printing process [ 9 , 18 ].

Comparative studies for tissue scaffolds can achieve widely different design strategies based on different material/printing process decisions. For instance, tissue scaffolds constructed from polycaprolactone (PCL) using fused deposition modeling have more compliant structures with biodegradability, while titanium scaffolds printed with selective laser sintering have a higher stiffness, but no biodegradability [ 19 , 20 ]. These choices then influence the scaffold’s topological design, since it is generally not feasible to print polycaprolactone as a truss-based structure, whereas selective laser sintering processes are able to produce titanium in forms to achieve mechanically efficient truss-based structures that promote high porosity for large void volumes for tissue growth.

Generally, decisions across material, process, and design strategies occur in a nonlinear and integrated fashion that requires careful consideration and knowledge of their relation to an application. Here, materials, process, and design strategies for polymer printing are reviewed in the context of medical applications, with a critical assessment for how each of these decision factors influence applications and one another. Initially, materials are reviewed to highlight their capabilities and properties, with data presented to compare diverse materials available for mechanical applications. Reviews on printing processes include extrusion, resin, and powder printing, which are among the most common approaches for polymer printing, with considerations for how processing influences part fidelity and functionality. The investigation of design strategies provides an overview for organizing processed materials that is advantageous for tuning application performance. Considered applications include prosthetics, safety equipment, and drug delivery, which provide context for how fundamental research in these areas translates to medical scenarios. The review concludes with considerations and challenges for researchers to consider as polymer printing continues advancing, with a particular need for new methodological design approaches to improve engineering outcomes in medicine.

2. Material Capabilities

Material capabilities of polymers for 3D printing are informed by their molecular structures, and also depend on a material’s processing during printing. The selection of materials for design applications is often conducted by considering measurable properties, such as mechanical properties, with ranges based on processing and testing methods that provide further complications in predicting part performance during the system design.

2.1. Material Structure

There is a broad range of polymer materials for 3D printing, with capabilities informed from their molecular structure, with polymers processed in different manners for each printing process. In extrusion processes, thermoplastics are commonly used for 3D printing where they are melted for extrusion followed by hardening after deposition [ 21 ]. For example, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) is a common thermoplastic that exhibits favorable impact strength and improved chemical resistance compared to pure polystyrene [ 22 ]. The properties of ABS are tunable based on the ratio of its three monomers, for instance, its density may range from 1.05 mg/m 3 to 1.07 mg/m 3 with resulting tensile moduli from 2.5 GPa to 2.7 GPa. Acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) is an alternative to ABS with improved heat resistance and exceptional ultraviolet stability [ 23 ], while polylactic acid (PLA) is another popular thermoplastic with biocompatibility but a lower glass transition temperature.

PLA is also suitable for further types of printing processes, such as resin curing with stereolithography [ 24 ], which enables the construction of more complex part architectures than is generally possible with extrusion processes. Although PLA is biocompatible, there is some concern for toxicity in stereolithography printed PLA because of the addition of photopolymers to the resin solution, which is necessary for cross-linking monomers to form polymers in the presence of ultraviolet light. However, when properly printed and post-processed, resin curing processes have been demonstrated as safe for medical applications, depending on the particular combination of chemical components [ 25 ]. These considerations for linking the chemical structure of a polymer to its functioning and printing are essential in pairing printing processes with materials to achieve a desired set of properties for a specified application.

2.2. Material Properties

There are diverse material properties necessitated by medical applications that are achievable through 3D printing. Often, medical applications drive the need for specific material capabilities, such as the need for energy absorbing materials in impact resistance, multicolored parts with suitable textures for modeling surgical anatomies, or specified material properties to mimic biological tissues. Figure 2 highlights recent research in medical polymer materials with a focus on mechanical capabilities for toughness [ 26 , 27 ] and flexibility [ 28 , 29 ], biological capabilities for biocompatibility [ 24 , 30 ], and further capabilities such as electrical conductivity [ 31 , 32 ].

Materials with highlighted properties for ( A ) toughness [ 26 ], ( B ) flexibility [ 28 ], ( C ) biocompatibility [ 30 ], and ( D ) conductivity [ 31 ]. Images adapted with permission.

Toughness in a material refers to its capability to absorb energy and plastically deform without fracturing, which is calculated from a combination of the material’s strength and ductility. Recently, a 3D-printed tensile bar with crosshatch structures was printed from a tough polyurethane material with comparisons including physically cross-linked Carbothane AC-4095A in pellet form and chemically cross-linked polyurethane with 68A hardness in liquid resin form ( Figure 2 A) [ 26 ]. Results demonstrated elastomeric polyurethanes are relatively tolerant of architectures and notches, which also promotes their use in a variety of design strategies. A further example of toughness for biomedical materials was demonstrated with a methacrylic polymer printed using the resin curing process with a tensile strength of 41 MPa and a general elongation up to 50% before breaking [ 27 ]. The material was used for printing a shaft coupling for an assembly without any post-treatment necessary due to the high accuracy of the printing process.

Flexible materials have been constructed recently that are useful as prosthetics, and enable the optimization of a specified form for a person’s unique physiology through scanning and fitting technologies ( Figure 2 B) [ 28 ]. The patient of interest for the study was 27 years old and had a topographic scan of their face that used 3D mapping software to print the nose shape using a Stratasys polyjet printer with TangoPlus flexible material. The TangoPlus material had a 26 to 28 Shore A Hardness, 0.8 to 1.5 MPa tensile strength, and 2 to 4 kg/cm tear resistance, while having a feel similar to rubber. Recoloring was necessary to match the patient’s skin tone. Flexible materials have also been used to print complex structures, such as an Eiffel tower model printed with temperature-stimulated flexible polymer printed using stereolithography [ 29 ]. The model distorts at lower temperature and as the temperature increases to 70 °C, the print regains its original form. This temperature-dependent functionality provides possibilities for medical applications with heat-initiated actuation, which could be initiated by body heat or devices.

Biocompatibility is a necessary material property for printed devices that interact with the body, such as hearing aids and retainers, or are implanted in vivo, such as artificial joints or tissue scaffolds. Depending on the application, biocompatibility can have differing criteria, but generally refers to the need for the material to do no harm to the body while facilitating its intended function. For tissue scaffolds, biocompatibility typically refers to a need for non-cytotoxicity, biodegradability, and promotion of tissue growth. Polyjet printing uses Stratasys MED610 material, which is an acrylic-based polymer that has recently had success for printing tissue scaffolds of complex topologies ( Figure 2 C) [ 30 ]. Biological testing was conducted by measuring cell viability using Saos-2 cells that survived, with no difference between the 3D-printed materials and controls after 48 h. Further testing demonstrated growth on tissue scaffold surfaces; however, the growth was limited compared to other tissue engineering materials. An alternative approach is the use of stereolithography for 3D-printed lattices using polylactic acid that can reliably form lattice structures with microscale features [ 24 ]. Further testing is required to determine the benefits of 3D-printed polymers to conventional tissue engineering approaches; however, polymers provide immediate advantages over metals due to their ability to degrade safely in vivo.

Electrical conductance is another material property that is useful for medical applications and has been used for fabricated, sensorized tissue analogues through the 3D printing of an organogel. The technology was used to create a suture training pad fabricated with embedded piezoresistive strain sensors and conductive threads as electrodes to quantify the performance of the trainee ( Figure 2 D) [ 31 ]. Fabrication steps included fixing nylon fabric to the bottom of a PLA mold, then pouring and curing skin-colored liquid PDMS, inserting conductive threads into the 3D-printed organogel, encapsulating sensors, adding a fat layer, and cutting the sample to form a suture pad. Further polymer electrical conductivity has been demonstrated with thermoplastics mixed with conductive carbon black fillers for 3D printing a chess rookie that enables turning on an LED light [ 32 ]. These printing capabilities enable new types of design applications that could provide feedback in different medical scenarios through embedding sensors in fabricated designs, possibly activating when certain mechanical triggers are reached.

2.3. Material Capabilities

Properties of 3D-printed parts are dependent on both their material structure and printing process, and therefore require extensive testing of combinations of materials/process parameters to determine material capabilities for a given application [ 33 ]. For instance, a part’s mechanical response when fabricated with fused deposition modeling is alterable based on the printed layer thickness, processing temperature, and orientation [ 34 , 35 ]. In Table 1 a summary is provided that highlights the measured mechanical properties of some common polymer 3D-printed materials tested as solid samples; additional notes in the table provide context for how testing was carried out to provide ranges of process-dependent properties. Material properties include strength- and stiffness-related metrics that are key properties for selecting suitable materials in mechanical applications.

Measured 3D-printed part properties organized by material and printing process. Further details included to provide relevant context.

In Table 1 , multiple studies are reported for comparisons of ABS materials that all demonstrated similar, but slightly different mechanical properties [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], such as tensile strength ranging from 15 MPa to 38 MPa. These differences are accounted for in part because of the different processing temperatures and printing parameters used to construct parts, the slightly different proportions of monomers in ABS’s structure, and the tested part’s orientation. For instance, the low tensile strength measurement of 15 MPa for ABS was due to testing in the transverse loading direction compared to the higher measurements of tensile strength closer to 30 MPa based on the build layer orientation. Similar differences were observed for polycarbonate materials based on their processing and chemicals used to manufacture the material [ 35 , 36 ]. One study concluded that a blend of polycarbonate referred to as a bio-based polycarbonate had a slightly higher strength of 65 MPa and significantly higher elastic modulus of 2100 MPa than a polycarbonate manufactured using fossil fuels with 62 MPa strength and 1500 MPa elastic modulus [ 35 ]. Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and polylactic acid (PLA) are commonly used biocompatible materials with relatively high mechanical strength and stiffness among polymers, and are also manufacturable with fused deposition modeling [ 37 , 38 ]. PEEK is generally the more expensive of the two materials with an elastic modulus up to 4100 MPa, while PLA has an elastic modulus of 4400 MPa; both are the highest values among the surveyed Table 1 materials.

Numerous 3D-printed biocompatible materials have been recently investigated for use as bone tissue scaffolds, with several methacrylic/acrylic-based materials included as examples in Table 1 [ 9 , 16 , 17 ]. These materials were printed with varied resin curing processes and all demonstrated similar elastic moduli around 1500 MPa to 2000 MPa, with some dependency on build orientation. In comparison to the fused deposition modeling parts, these resin prints have a lower stiffness, although their stiffness is tunable based on the curing time per layer and post-processing curing time that has been demonstrated for lattice structures [ 16 ]. Overall, the highlighted materials from Table 1 demonstrate how a single material can achieve varied properties based on its processing, and that varied processes enable material selection with similar property ranges. Further considerations for selecting a material/process combination are fabrication accuracies and consistency, which further add complexity to design decisions when selecting a 3D printing approach for a given application.

3. Printing Processes

The most common techniques for polymer 3D printing include extrusion-, resin-, and powder-based processes ( Figure 3 ) [ 1 ]. Each type of process enables the additive deposition of layers to form parts and carries out fabrication using unique processing steps that restrict processes to different material selections and capabilities to form designs.

3D printing schematics for ( A ) fused deposition modeling, ( B ) stereolithography, and ( C ) selective laser sintering that are representative of extrusion, resin, and powder processes, respectively.

In extrusion processes such as fused deposition modeling, the material is melted and extruded through a nozzle where it is directed for deposition to form part layers ( Figure 3 A) [ 41 , 42 ]. The filament feed generates nozzle pressure that is used to control material flow during part construction. In direct ink writing, which is another extrusion process, material is pushed through a nozzle according to an applied external shear stress such as air pressure or piston movements [ 43 ]. Resin 3D printing relies on applying ultraviolet light in specified patterns to form a part layer by layer by curing deposited liquid resin, which is commonly used for stereolithography printing [ 44 , 45 ]. In direct laser writing, ultraviolet light is directed towards a vat of photosensitive resin to form solid layers with a moving build platform ( Figure 3 B). Resin curing also occurs in polyjet printing, with the deposition of ink/resin on a surface with subsequent ultraviolet curing [ 9 , 17 ]. Powder 3D printing relies on fusing powders of a selected material using lasers in selective laser sintering [ 46 , 47 ] ( Figure 3 C) or by chemical means in binder jetting. In these processes a bed of powder is solidified and replenished layer by layer to form a part.

3.1. Extrusion

Among extrusion 3D printing processes, fused deposition modeling is the most commonly used ( Figure 3 A) [ 41 , 42 ]. In fused deposition modeling material is fed into the printer as a continuous filament. The extruder body is heated to melt the filament that is extruded by the pressure generated by the filament feed. After filament extrusion, the filament cools down and solidifies to form a solid geometry. Some of the most common printing materials for fused deposition modeling are polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Support materials are also available that are removed during post-processing and include water-dissolvable materials such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), breakaway materials, and wax. The performance of the printed parts depends on material selection and process parameters such as layer thickness, build orientation, raster angle, infill density, nozzle temperature, and printing speed [ 48 ]. In fused deposition modeling, the nozzle temperature is generally maintained at a few degrees higher than the melting point of the polymer, since further increasing the nozzle temperatures may affect the performance for materials like PEEK and polyetherimide (PEI). It has been reported that the elongation percentage before failure and impact strength of a PEI part starts reducing when the temperature increases beyond an optimal nozzle temperature [ 49 ]. On the other hand, lower temperatures may result in extrusion difficulty and poor print quality due to the formation of porous volumes between the layers [ 49 ]. Additionally, layer size presents trade-offs in print resolution, part performance, and printing speed while resulting in variable amounts of anisotropy in final part properties introduced by patterning of layers in specified directions.

Direct ink writing, also known as robocasting, is another extrusion 3D printing process that avoids the heating requirements of fused deposition modeling, and rather deposits a shear, thinning viscoelastic material via a nozzle by applying external shear stress [ 50 , 51 , 52 ]. Since the process enables printing in ambient conditions, it is ideal for printing soft materials. As the shear stress increases, the viscosity of the ink reduces and enables extrusion through the nozzle. As the ink is extruded, it regains its viscosity to form a 3D structure. The filaments are stacked to additively form the final part. The printed part is cured in a different environment as per the material requirement. Direct ink writing is used to print different materials including bio-inks [ 43 ], fiber-suspended inks [ 50 , 53 ], electro/magnetic inks [ 54 ], and multi-material inks [ 55 ]. The capability of printing different materials in direct ink writing has made it possible to produce designs for diverse applications [ 50 , 52 ]. Some of the most widely used polymers for direct ink writing are polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), thermoplastics, and epoxy. The major factors in determining the printability are the viscosity and shear thinning property of the material.

3.2. Resin Curing

Resin 3D printing processes expose photosensitive monomers to controlled ultraviolet light or other high energy light sources [ 56 ]. Resin curing processes typically benefit from high resolutions and quality part finishing in comparison to other printing methods in comparable price ranges. Ultraviolet curing strategies include stereolithography with direct laser writing (SLA; Figure 3 B), digital light processing (DLP) [ 57 , 58 ], continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) [ 58 ], and continuous digital light manufacturing (CDLM) [ 59 ], which all have varied strategies of exposing a vat of resin to light to form a part. Stereolithography printing with direct laser writing includes a resin tank, a high energy light source, and a reflecting mirror to control the resin exposure to a laser. The resin in the tank is exposed to a computer-controlled laser that solidifies the resin to form a solid layer. After exposure to one layer, the printing platform moves vertically for printing the next layer [ 56 ]. After all the layers are printed, the part is washed and cured under ultraviolet light to strengthen the structure, which provides fine tuning for specific applications [ 60 ]. The duration of curing alters the printed part mechanics, for instance, when comparing parts that were post-cured for 30 h to those that had no post-curing, the post-curing with ultraviolet light was more time-efficient and improved mechanical properties, such as elastic modulus, and promoted material homogeneity through higher crosslinking [ 61 ]. Though stereolithography printing has a high resolution and printing speed, in general, it lacks multi-material printability.

Polyjet (also known as inkjet) printing is an alternate resin curing process that uses a nozzle to deposit droplets of material that are immediately cured by an ultraviolet beam upon deposition to form a layer [ 62 ]. Polyjet printing is advantageous for printing multimaterial models rapidly with multi-nozzle jetting, which also enables printing with support materials [ 63 , 64 ]. However, materials should generally still have shear thinning properties, which limits availability [ 58 ]. Inkjet printing has applications in fields ranging from prototyping to electronics to bio-printing [ 62 , 64 ], and has been demonstrated recently for use in biomedical devices using mechanically efficient lattice structures [ 9 ]. Lattices were printed using a network of beams with diameters of approximately 400µm, with fabrication defects depending on topology design and build direction. Further studies are required to determine whether polyjet printing is suitable for tissue engineering applications, with a need to further demonstrate its capabilities by producing structures with cell seeding and proliferation capabilities [ 30 ]. However, the technology provides a potential for the rapid fabrication of large sets of structures that are customizable for specific patients in applications such as safety equipment.

3.3. Powder Fusion

Powder fusion processes rely on depositing powder layers that are either melted or bonded to additively fabricate parts. Two common powder fusion techniques for polymer printing are selective laser sintering and binder jetting [ 65 ]. Figure 3 C demonstrates the working principles of selective laser sintering, which relies on a powder stock leveled to enable fusion of one layer through exposure to a laser that follows a specified path. Once a layer is printed, the platform is lowered, and the process is repeated. One of the major advantages of selective laser sintering is the leftover powder in the platform acts as a support during part construction. Therefore the process does not require printing a separate support material and enables complex part and assembly fabrication [ 47 ].

In binder jetting printing, a jetted material binds powder as an alternative to laser melting [ 65 ]. The powder is spread on the printing platform within a predetermined thickness and then the binding material is injected to form a bonded layer. The binder jetting technique uses multiple nozzles to inject the binding material, which is potentially faster than laser melting. Binder jetting is generally an efficient process capable of printing multicolor, multi-material, and functionally graded materials [ 66 ]. Since the binding material acts as an adhesive to hold the powder together and form a printed geometry, the achieved properties of the printed parts depend on the binding material in addition to the shape and size of the powder [ 67 , 68 ].

4. Design Strategies

Design strategies that are application independent provide a means for 3D-printed parts to support a desired functionality that extends beyond simply printing a solid part. Investigated strategies are presented in Figure 4 including (A) architected materials [ 14 ], (B) responsive polymers [ 15 ], (C) multi-material combinations [ 69 ], (D) functionally graded materials [ 70 ], and (E) customization [ 71 ], which all provide a means for improving the functionality and performance of printed parts. These layout strategies are beneficial for medical applications because they provide further refinement of functionality and properties for designed devices beyond the selection of materials and printing processes.

Design strategies including a (A) hierarchical architected lattice [ 14 ], ( B ) thermo-responsive container [ 15 ], ( C ) multi-material structure [ 69 ], ( D ) functionally graded lattice [ 70 ], and ( E ) customized mandible template [ 71 ]. Images adapted with permission.

4.1. Architected Materials

Architected materials are designed structures engineered with a regular patterning of subunits, such as a lattice with unit cells following a designated topological distribution that takes advantage of organized material placement to improve mechanical properties for a given structural density. The synthesis of architected materials has become efficient with the emergence of 3D polymer printing that enables the printing of complex geometries with high resolution and precision [ 72 ]. The material organization throughout the structure determines the properties of the part, which are scaled from the base material properties used to construct the architected structure [ 73 , 74 ]. Constructing architected materials opens the possibility to engineer designs across a wide range of elastic modulus and density values through considering varied strategies for topological material distribution.

Stretch dominated beam-based lattice structures are architected materials commonly used for carrying loads in medical applications due to their high mechanical efficiency, although bending-dominated foams are also desirable for their energy absorption properties [ 75 ]. Patterning unit cells provides a simple way of configuring an architected material by first designing a single unit cell consisting of beams and then placing unit cells adjacent to one another to form a lattice structure [ 76 ]. The beam diameter and the topology of beams within a unit cell additionally inform the biological functionality of the architected material [ 77 ], such as supporting mechanobiological processes for tissue growth [ 5 ]. Hierarchical strategies are a more sophisticated approach to producing architected materials for improved mechanics [ 78 ], and are demonstrated in Figure 4 A for a tissue scaffold application [ 14 ]. Hierarchical architected materials have a moderately decreased elastic moduli and a highly increased nutrient transportation capability due to larger pores introduced by the hierarchy [ 17 ], therefore providing potential performance improvements for tissue scaffolds in regenerative medicine applications.

4.2. Stimuli-Responsive

Stimuli-responsive designs rely on the coordinated placement of printed parts that have a directed state change when an external stimulus, such as light, heat, or force, is applied [ 79 ]. The application of external stimuli modulates the energy in the system that drives a desirable mechanical action [ 80 ]. A common strategy for stimuli-responsive parts is the combination of contrasting materials with different reaction levels to a stimulus. The combined material reactions throughout the system provide a directed response, as exemplified in Figure 2 B with a combination of shape memory polymers to form a self-folding box [ 15 ]. Thermal energy was used to drive shape changes on the basis of the time-dependent behaviors of each polymer to close the box. Additionally, a single material may be cleverly distributed throughout a system to react with shape memory to form different shapes according to stimuli. Key considerations in stimuli-responsive material design are how the mechanics and interaction of materials control the change in part shape and the duration of time for responses when external stimuli are applied.

The combination of materials with contrasting levels of response to stimuli was explored recently with a glassy polymer coupled with an elastomer using extrusion printing to form a rod shaped structure [ 81 ]. Here, the glassy polymer was more prone to change shape in response to external heating stimuli. The result demonstrated that by carefully tuning the stimuli the thermomechanical behavior can induce more than 300% of the failure strain. High-resolution and high-contrast microdisplays have also been used for high-resolution photocuring that has enabled the manufacturing of 3D-architected photo-shape memory alloys [ 82 ]. In one of the studies, a new 4DMesh method was introduced using a thermoplastic actuator for shrinking and bending a 4D print to form a non-developable surface [ 83 ]. The study also validated the aesthetic, mechanical, and geometric properties of the print and demonstrated its application in industrial packaging and molds.

4.3. Multi-Material

Multi-material 3D prints are increasingly investigated for improving overall functionality and performance in printed parts through combining materials with contrasting properties [ 64 ]. Multi-material printing has been commonly incorporated with printing processes including fused deposition modeling, direct ink writing, and material jetting. Multi-material printing uses either a single nozzle extrusion that prints materials one at a time, or a separate nozzle for each material [ 50 , 84 ]. The mechanical properties of multi-material periodic composites are unique compared to single-material structures. For instance, fused deposition modeling has been used to combine a stiff periodic structure embedded in a hyperplastic material to reach a high compliancy and rate of strain recovery [ 85 ]. The performance was achieved through the embedded highly flexible matrix facilitating a uniform distribution of the applied load throughout the periodic structure, therefore enhancing the overall mechanical response. Multi-material printing has also been used to fabricate medical phantoms that reproduce mechanical properties of biological tissues while recreating anatomically accurate models [ 86 ].

The possibility of multi-material 3D printing for a functional and shape-morphing structure using direct ink writing has been recently demonstrated [ 87 ]. Multi-material printing is also advancing the field of metamaterial printing through the use of a tunable negative Poisson ratio for a uniform cell structure ( Figure 4 C) [ 69 ]. Instead of using the geometric parameters to control the Poisson ratio, the application of different elastic behaviors of the printed material was demonstrated by printing the beams with flexible and rigid polymers [ 69 ]. The multi-material technique has also been applied in the field of fiber-reinforced composites printing, where fiber orientation in a polymer-fiber composites was studied using direct ink writing [ 50 ]. In this study, an epoxy-resin-based ink was proposed to control the fiber orientation and demonstrated an up to 10-fold improvement in mechanical strength. Multi-material printing with multiple nozzles is an efficient and fast way of printing multiple materials simultaneously. A direct ink writing multi-material and multi-nozzle print head is able to print up to eight different types of material, with capabilities of controlling deposition of each material at the scale of individual voxels that enables printing parts for diverse applications [ 84 ].

4.4. Functionally Graded

Functionally graded materials are architected materials that have been engineered with a gradual geometric or material transition throughout the structure [ 88 ]. Functionally graded materials prevent the drastic transition of mechanical properties at interfaces and provide a smooth transition of properties. Thus, functionally graded materials mitigate stress concentrations over interfaces and provide durability, especially as load-bearing supports [ 89 ]. Functional gradients are additionally useful in medical applications since they provide a complex structural diversity of bioinspired gradients and facilitate more control over fluid flow, mass transport, biodegradation, and mechanical properties, such as stiffness, strength, and hardness, throughout a designed structure, which are beneficial for biomedical implants [ 90 ].

Figure 4 D shows a functionally graded lattice structure where beams have varied thicknesses based on their location [ 70 ]. The structure is lightweight and has excellent energy absorbing capabilities due to its deformation behavior. The structure demonstrates deformation at the lowest density layer first, and then the deformation continues with a layer-by-layer collapse in sequence, except for the last layers that collapse concurrently or very shortly after one another. This sequential deformation of layers is enabled by the density gradient and provides desirable behaviors in mechanical responses for applications where sudden mechanical failures are a concern.

4.5. Customization

Customization enables printing parts with geometries altered on a per-print basis that is particularly useful for patient-specific fabrications for personalized medicine, where the configured layout matches a specific patient’s anatomy. For instance, in bone tissue engineering, implant devices are printable based on the patient’s bone geometry that has been imaged and provides a better interface to improve host-bone compatibility [ 91 ]. Such customization is additionally important for dental implants to ensure proper fits [ 92 ]. Customized layouts are also used for model printing that is representative of a patient’s unique physiology, as demonstrated in Figure 4 E for a 3D-printed mandible model made of polylactic acid [ 71 ]. The printed model can aid in complex mandibular reconstruction by providing the opportunity of planning medical operations using the physical part. Planning using the 3D-printed model can help in improving the quality and precision of surgery, while also providing overall time savings.

Manual customization is often cumbersome due to the number of layout possibilities to consider when fitting a part for a patient, which is why image-based techniques are commonly applied for automated design customization [ 93 ]. For instance, a set of 2D images of a patient’s CT scan are converted to a 3D image. Then, 3D imaging data is converted to virtual 3D surface shape that is matched with optical scan data to form a 3D-printed object blueprint or a variety of other imaging techniques [ 94 ]. Further strategies by engineers can use imaging data combined with optimization techniques to create 3D-printed parts that are fine-tuned for a patient’s specific geometry, while also improving performance in comparison to traditional manufacturing processes.

5. Medical Applications

The consideration of materials, processes, and design strategies enables tailored 3D-printed part fabrication, which is particularly beneficial for the medical industry. Throughout Section 5 , we consider how recent advances in polymer 3D printing are enabling new capabilities in medicine as demonstrated in Figure 5 for a (A) spinal fusion cage [ 95 ], (B) dental model [ 96 ], (C) prosthetic hand [ 97 ], (D) personal protection equipment [ 12 ], (E) sacral surgery planning [ 8 ], and (F) drug-delivering microneedles [ 98 ].

Medical 3D printing applications for ( A ) spinal fusion cage [ 95 ], ( B ) dental model [ 96 ], ( C ) prosthetic hand [ 97 ], ( D ) personal protection equipment [ 12 ], ( E ) sacral surgery planning [ 8 ], and ( F ) drug-delivering microneedles [ 98 ]. Images adapted with permission.

5.1. Tissue Scaffolds

3D polymer printing has recently gained interest in tissue engineering applications, where materials, process, and design strategies all play a role in the tailoring of scaffold structures [ 1 ]. Polymeric scaffolds are used in tissue engineering for synthesis of organs and have a primary purpose of restoring function or regenerating tissues [ 99 , 100 ]. Targeted tissues include bone, cartilage, ligament, skin, vasculature, neurons, and skeletal muscle. 3D printing is beneficial to provide personalization to patients and produce structures that are fine-tuned for clinical applications through efficient modular designs [ 101 ].

Scaffold optimization and design tuning is challenging, and in the case of bone tissue engineering, also requires the tuning of both biological and mechanical characteristics [ 102 ]. There is also the need to consider scaffold features across scales, such as hierarchical networks of pores for tissue growth and nutrient transport, with topology optimization as a commonly used configuration approach [ 10 ]. Figure 5 A demonstrates a 3D-printed scaffold created with polyjet printing configured from the investigation of multiple topology layouts, beam diameter sizes, unit cell sizes, and localized reinforcements for spinal fusion applications [ 95 ]. The study used a computational approach to compare relative trade-offs among designs to find viable scaffold configurations for bone growth. Further works have investigated trade-offs using tissue growth simulations and considering asymmetric unit cell structures generated with computational design [ 5 , 76 ]. Computational design and automated approaches are generally useful for 3D printing applications in medicine, since designs often benefit from unique configurations for specific patients.

5.2. Dental Implants

There are about 276 million persons throughout the world that suffer from tooth loss and could benefit from new solutions for dental implantation [ 103 ]. The emergence of 3D-printed polymers has provided economic and precise dental implants. In these treatments, 3D-printed polymers, such as polylactic acid, are fabricated and implanted in an oral cavity since they are resistant against impact and are non-toxic [ 104 ]. 3D-printed polymers also have little surface roughness, which is beneficial since surface roughness promotes biofilm formation that attracts harmful bacteria to the implant [ 105 ]. Figure 5 B demonstrates a polymer dental cast using polyjet printing from a study that compared 3D-printed dental casts to those made of dental stone; the 3D-printed cases were investigated with multiple printing processes and materials [ 96 ]. Results demonstrated that polyjet and stereolithography printing processes provided accuracies similar to conventional dental stone implants, with differences of means in measurements on x, y, and z axes being generally less than 15 µm for the best prints.

3D-printed polymers are implemented as crowns and bridges for provisional and fixed dental restoration. Fabricated crowns and bridges provide a low amount of internal discrepancies while also providing accurate occlusal fits [ 106 ]. Previously, metal structures were used as removable denture components and frameworks, but recently, PEEK polymers have replaced metals because of their high mechanical resistance with good biocompatibility [ 107 ]. Recently, researchers and medical professionals have developed and successfully implanted a patient-specific 3D-printed biopolymeric tooth [ 108 ]. The tooth was customized to the patient and provided further advantages of being high quality and low cost.

5.3. Wearable Prosthetics

3D printing offers a wide variety of approaches for new prosthetics that benefit from a range of material availability and customization for a person’s needs. In Figure 5 C, a 3D-printed prosthetic hand is demonstrated that is a combination of PLA and ABS materials for children with upper limb issues [ 97 ]. The wearable hand is low cost and provides a broad range of motion for users. Stretchable prosthetics with embedded actuators, signal processors, and sensors have also been tailored for individuals [ 109 , 110 ]. For instance, a smart wearable therapeutic device was fabricated with an embedded temperature sensor and programmable heater for self-activation according to a patient’s body temperature [ 111 ]. Recently, a pressure sensor-integrated 3D-printed elastomer-based wearable device was developed [ 112 ]. The device detects and monitors human body movement, external pressure, and the direction of external forces, which implies its potential as an electronic skin.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer from spinal cord injury around the world who could benefit from prosthetics [ 113 ]. Spinal cord injury can affect hand-function and locomotion. A polylactic acid (PLA) based 3D-printed wearable hand orthosis has been designed and fabricated to aid patients [ 114 ]. The device acts on the electromyography signal and works for the grasping function of the patient. Bone fracture is another prevalent medical problem where high density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropylene (PP) based 3D-printed personalized wearable casts have been proposed and implemented for successful bone recovery [ 115 ].

5.4. Safety Equipment

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of polymer 3D-printed safety equipment, as the conventional safety equipment supply was inadequate in certain regions when the need for personal protection equipment vastly exceeded demand. Polypropylene 3D-printed particle filters and masks were proposed as an alternative resource to help meet demand and avoid supply chain issues [ 116 ]. Additionally, in one study, a 3D-printed respirator was developed using TPU, ABS, and PLA filaments [ 13 ]. This respirator was reusable, easy to clean, and usable with an arbitrary number of filtration units. Figure 5 D demonstrates a 3D-printed helmet for use as personal protection equipment [ 12 ]. The primary helmet component integrates a breathing filter with a conventional safety helmet to provide an efficient means of creating safety equipment locally.

Studies have confirmed that 3D-printed architected materials are usable as helmet liners for protection from head injuries and provide advantageous energy absorption performance [ 117 ]. The energy absorption capabilities are tunable by using functionally graded materials. Architected helmet liners perform well for the multi-impact loading that is commonly experienced during motorcycle crashes [ 118 ]. Helmet testing has demonstrated that the liners have achieved standards for impact testing, while design variations in hole sizes provide tuning for optimal performance.

5.5. Surgical Planning

Surgical planning models have been 3D printed with rigid plastics including PLA and ABS for visualizing patient-specific organ models prior to operation. 3D-printed organ models are fabricated on a patient-specific basis at low cost, and have been applied in several medical fields including cardiology [ 119 , 120 ], neurology [ 121 , 122 ], urology [ 123 , 124 ], and osteology [ 8 , 125 ]. Figure 5 E demonstrates a patient-specific 3D-printed sacral model using PLA [ 8 ]. This model is used for refining techniques for sacral anomalies and for training new surgeons.

ABS filaments have been used in cardiology to fabricate the anatomical structure of patient-specific hearts for improving inflow in a device implantation procedure [ 120 , 126 ]. Studies have also fabricated anatomically accurate 3D-printed models for the pulmonary trunk and ventricular outflow tract using thermoplastic polyester resins [ 127 ]. PLA filaments and photosensitive liquid resins have been used to fabricate 3D-printed aneurysm models with hollow craniums and rigid walls [ 121 , 122 ]. These aneurysm models replicate patient-specific anatomies used to study the hydrodynamics in the system. Rigid photopolymers have been implemented to fabricate 3D-printed kidney models and prostates [ 123 , 128 ]. Patient-specific modeling was also conducted for a kidney with a removable tumor [ 129 ]. As a whole, these printing applications provide surgeons a way to experience and plan a surgery in a minimally invasive way prior to performing an actual surgery.

5.6. Drug Delivery

3D-printed drug delivery enables the fabrication of drugs for patient-specific needs, uniform drug distribution, and solvent-free drug-containing material production [ 130 ]. 3D-printed polycaprolactone and tricalcium phosphate meshes have demonstrated that micro-architecture influences drug delivery efficacy [ 131 , 132 ]. In vivo and in vitro studies demonstrate that these drug delivery constructs are resistant against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, while also potentially delivering a higher percentage of the incorporated drug to the body.

Drug delivery is also possible through application of 3D prints outside of the body. Figure 5 F demonstrates a 3D-printed microneedle array that drives drugs directly through the skin for microcirculation in the body [ 98 ]. These delivery approaches generally remain pain-free while promoting efficient transport that requires sophisticated geometric fabrication at a microlevel enabled by 3D printing. The microneedles are fabricated with a tip width between 65 and 84 µm, a pitch of 700 µm, and heights between 422 and 481 µm.

Polymeric 3D printing is also applied for fabricating drug delivery systems with multi-active dosage forms [ 133 ], time-tailored release tablets [ 134 ], and multilayer caplets [ 135 ]. The technology has been demonstrated for personalized drug delivery that can control release rate, drug combination, and dosing intervals [ 136 ]. Dosing requirements vary in patients based on their physiological functioning, which motivates personalization to improve patient responses. 3D-printed polymeric microcapsules and nanocapsules remain stable in the liquid suspension and biological fluids that improve drug efficiency [ 137 ], thereby motivating their use for controlled drug release.

Although there are numerous successes in translating polymer 3D printing research to medical applications, many challenges remain. Some of the key considerations in advancing research in material, process, and design strategies for 3D polymer printing are presented in Figure 6 , which additionally includes highlighted areas for researchers to address. Although issues are separated by material, process, and design, there is a large overlap between factors, such as material properties being influenced by process parameters and design performance being dependent on fabrication consistency. The development of new, integrated design strategies and computational approaches that holistically consider materials, process, and design in the development of new products is therefore essential for improving 3D-printed polymer performance in medical applications.

Key research challenges for 3D printing polymers using materials, process, and design strategies for medical applications.

Though numerous 3D printable polymer materials have been developed in recent years, it is not always straightforward to select materials for specified applications. Material selection is a critical aspect of achieving a print with desirable properties, but it is challenging, since 3D-printed polymers have uncertainty and ranges in performance based on the printing process and parameters [ 138 ] For example, parts printed with fused deposition modeling exhibit anisotropy with higher mechanical strength in the printing direction compared to the transverse direction [ 49 ]. Additionally, applications often require materials with multiple properties, such as the need for highly stiff materials for bone tissue engineering that also exhibit biocompatibility for tissue engineering [ 1 ]. The need for both material capabilities simultaneously limits the scope of possible materials. For instance, the polymer selected must have suitability for in vivo implantation, which creates difficulties when considering photopolymer resins that are potentially toxic if not fully cured, and many other materials with desirable mechanics that are not biocompatible.

Design strategies can help mitigate these material deficiencies, possibly through combining two contrasting biocompatible materials or through clever architected configurations to reach an overall beneficial, global system performance. When combining materials or considering the development of new materials, there are rigorous requirements of testing and validation of the printed parts, especially when considering the need for testing for all print process parameter combinations [ 139 ]. Improved modeling approaches could aid in predicting part performance to reduce the number of experiments required, which could benefit from new computational approaches and efficient design of experiments.

Research and advancement of suitable printing processes is also necessary due to the limitations and trade-offs associated with each 3D printing approach. For instance, there is an inherent trade-off for all printing processes between resolution, printing speed, and fidelity that affects the manufacturing logistics, mechanical performance, and surface finish of printed parts [ 140 , 141 ]. Generally, as resolution is increased, the quality of a part improves but requires more time to print. The trade-off between resolution and printing time differs on the basis of the printing process. For instance, processes such as fused deposition modeling and direct laser writing stereolithography, which have to follow a specified path to solidify each layer of a part, have print duration scaling according to part size and number of parts, whereas stereolithography processes, which project light that solidifies an entire layer of material at once in a resin vat, have print duration scaling with only the height of the part. Post-processing such as washing, curing, and support removal can also affect production times and performance [ 61 ]. In general, fused deposition modeling and selective laser sintering do not require washing and curing, while stereolithography requires washing to remove liquid resin and post-curing that additionally affects part mechanics. Support material removal can also increase part finishing time, resulting in broken parts or reduced performance from introduced cracks. Selective laser sintering and other powder processes may require brushing to remove excess powder from parts, which increases post-processing time and requires extra equipment such as powder removal stations. Further advancements in multi-nozzle printers could potentially improve production speeds while retaining part quality, or as the technology continues maturing, prices could drop that enable greater amounts of simultaneous part printing, since some printing speeds are limited by physics dictating how fast materials can be deposited and solidified, which often cannot be increased to improve speeds for single part production.

Printing reliability is crucial for ensuring parts operate as expected and to reduce the need for disposal of parts printed with major defects. Printing processes can introduce defects related to residual stress [ 142 ], porosity [ 143 ], and impurities [ 144 ]. The residual stress can cause permanent deformation, warping, delamination of layers, and lack of adhesion to the build plate. These process limitations indicate that research studies should be done on reducing fabrication errors that can lead to the near-error-free fabrication of 3D-printed polymer parts suitable for sensitive microscale medical devices. Further, for ABS fused deposition modeling parts, build orientation has been additionally demonstrated to influence reliability, which means design decisions for part layouts will also affect print process outcomes [ 145 ]. Fabrication errors can emerge from layouts of filament to form solid structure and are subject to greater possibility of failure around areas that lead to stress concentrations or geometries, such as holes that lead to the poor bonding of filaments.

The selection of a printing process for an application is also driven by their capabilities for printing specified geometries [ 138 ]. In general, extrusion processes have difficulties in forming overhangs that are necessary for many lattice structures, resin processes require support material or self-supporting geometries [ 146 ], while powder processes have unused powder that supports parts during printing to promote complex geometry formation [ 47 ]. Some support material strategies in extrusion printing and polyjet printing enable more complex part geometries than otherwise possible, but require further post-processing and the possibility of damaging prints during support removal [ 147 ]. Fused deposition modeling tends to be a cheaper process that can produce parts with sound mechanical performance [ 148 ]. Direct ink writing is suitable for printing in ambient conditions [ 50 ], although it has limitations in tuning part performance during printing since there is no heating involved. Resin printing processes are known for having high resolution, surface finish, and printing speed [ 138 , 149 ]. However, stereolithography printing lacks multi-material functionality, while polyjet printing leads to inconsistent surfaces for parts printed at its resolution limits [ 30 ]. Powder printing techniques are suitable for printing entire assemblies with powder acting as support, while being generally more expensive and having resolution limits based on the powder particle size. These considerations suggest a need for suitable design strategies for applications that maximize performance for prints based on the strengths and limitations of each printing process, and a need for improved printing processes and methods to bypass the inherent deficiencies of each process.

The design strategy selected for an application requires consideration of available materials and processes in relation to the medical application of interest. If complex geometries are necessary for constructing lattices or anatomically complex models, then stereolithography or powder processes may work best. If multiple materials are necessary, then fused deposition modeling or polyjet printing may be the most appropriate. Although it is possible to print complex geometries with multiple processes, it is difficult to determine an optimized configuration because of the wide-ranging possibilities in material choice, process parameters, and design decisions. For instance, a multi-material lattice structure may consist of thousands of beams that could all have individually specified materials and diameters [ 150 ]. New computational and experimental methods are necessary to aid design approaches for finding optimal solutions and fully leveraging 3D printing technologies [ 9 ]. Some researchers have developed Voronoi lattices to introduce bio-mimetic morphological scaffolds that can be fabricated by polymer 3D printing, which necessitates new tools for tuning Voronoi lattices for specific trade-offs [ 151 , 152 ]. Further considerations that could improve design opportunities are combinations of varied strategies, such as architected multi-material strategies or the creation of 3D-printed assemblies from different processes to leverage the strengths and limitations of each approach.

Engineering design approaches are necessary for navigating the multi-objective trade-offs common in medical engineering applications, such as mechanical and biological functionality in regenerative medicine [ 1 , 5 ]. Solving multi-objective problems requires weighing the importance of different variables for tuning a design for higher or lower performance in different situations. Such trade-offs are also inherent to navigate in 3D printing processes between speed, time, and mechanical performance, which are affected by fabrication artifacts. Finding high-value solutions in complex design space searches remains a challenge for 3D printing applications that could benefit from computational design approaches with improved navigation of search spaces [ 153 ]. Computational approaches could also aid in predication of part performance which is necessary for design search evaluations. For instance, the construction of multi-material parts has opened new possibilities in combining materials to create entirely new systems that operate differently than their individual components, and may exhibit advantageous emergent behaviors. Design customization on a per-print basis opens new doors for personalized medicine, but again, there is a need for new computational approaches for automatically tuning designs to a patient’s specified needs [ 154 ]. Future advances in design are necessary to aid nonlinear and integrated decision making across materials and processes for specified applications, where there is much room to explore new methods for fully leveraging the capabilities 3D polymer printing.

7. Conclusions

A review of polymer 3D printing for medical applications was conducted, and highlighted how material, process, and design decisions influence application performance, therefore necessitating designers to carefully consider all factors when configuring parts. Recent research has demonstrated a diversity of polymer materials with varied properties according to 3D printing processing parameters. Design strategies enable the directed placement of materials to achieve improved performance with configurations such as architected or multi-material structures. Because of the complexities involved in considering all factors that influence application performance, it is recommended that researchers conduct further experiments considering the interactions of materials, processes, and design strategies, while developing new methodologies to handle decision making and configuration for applications. Overall, advances in 3D polymer printing have demonstrated many successes for implemented designs, with a need for continued research to fully leverage the technology for wide-ranging applications in engineering and medicine.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, A.M.E.A., N.R.K., N.K., and P.F.E.; resources, P.F.E.; writing—original draft preparation, A.M.E.A., N.R.K., N.K., and P.F.E.; writing—review and editing, A.M.E.A., N.R.K., N.K., and P.F.E.; supervision, P.F.E.; project administration, P.F.E. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

A 3d printing short course: a case study for applications in the geoscience teaching and communication for specialists and non-experts.

• Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

3D printing developed as a prototyping method in the early 1980s, yet it is considered as a 21st century technology for transforming digital models into tangible objects. 3D printing has recently become a critical tool in the geoscience research, education, and technical communication due to the expansion of the market for 3D printers and materials. 3D printing changes the perception of how we interact with our data and how we explain our science to non-experts, researchers, educators, and stakeholders. Hence, a one-day short course was designed and delivered to a group of professors, students, postdoctoral fellows, and technical staff to present the application of 3D printing in teaching and communication concepts in the geoscience. This case study was aimed at evaluating how a diverse group of participants with geoscience and engineering background and no prior experience with computer-aided modeling (CAD) or 3D printing could understand the principles of different 3D printing techniques and apply these methods in their respective disciplines. In addition, the course evaluation questionnaire allowed us to assess human perception of tangible and digital models and to demonstrate the effectiveness of 3D printing in data communication. The course involved five modules: 1) an introduction lecture on the 3D printing methods and materials; 2) an individual CAD modeling exercise; 3) a tour to 3D printing facilities with hands-on experience on model processing; 4) a tour to experimentation facilities where 3D-printed models were tested; and 5) group activities based on the examples of how to apply 3D printing in the current or future geoscience research and teaching. The participants had a unique opportunity to create a digital design at the beginning of the course using CAD software, analyze it and 3D print the final model at the end of the course. While this course helped the students understand how rendering algorithms could be used as a learning aid, educators gained experience in rapid preparation of visual aids for teaching, and researchers gained skills on the integration of the digital datasets with 3D-printed models to support societal and technical objectives.

Introduction

3D printing is a 21st century technology for transforming digital models into physical objects. This technology is rapidly evolving, with more access to 3D printing machines and materials ( Wohlers Report, 2019 ). This is an innovative tool in medical ( Baden et al., 2015 ) and biomedical sciences ( Hoy, 2013 ), engineering ( Meyers et al., 2016 ; Boyajian et al., 2020 ), and communication ( Baden et al., 2015 ; Malmström et al., 2020 ). 3D printing revolutionizes how we interact with our data and how we explain our science to non-experts ( Horowitz and Schultz, 2014 ). Creating repeatable, tangible models is emerging in the geoscience education and research as well as in the related industries, such as petroleum recovery, groundwater storage, and carbon dioxide sequestration ( Ishutov et al., 2018 ). One of the biggest advantages of 3D printing is that all the processes involved in the creation of a 3D object, from generating the design to obtaining the printed part, facilitate the learning of concepts and tools, which also develops creativity and communication skills. Earth science data are often modeled in 3D, and 3D printers can provide this 3D visualization and tangible aspect of digital data ( Figure 1 ).

FIGURE 1 . Major benefits of using 3D printing in geosciences. It is useful for developing creativity and design skills through 3D modeling. 3D printing is a convenient tool for rapid manufacture of learning and teaching aids. Any 2D or 3D model can be replicated for a better communication, especially among non-specialists. Any digital data can be reproduced with 3D printing, even if the physical sample does not exist anymore. Research ideas and concepts can be repeatedly tested on the 3D-printed samples. All data can be retrieved or repeated from the digital repositories, which include files of 3D-printed models.

3D printing or so-called additive manufacturing of an object involves deposition of a material layer by layer ( Squelch, 2017 ). Therefore, this technology enables manufacturing models in various sizes and proportions (e.g., small objects can be printed large, so that more details are visible or large objects can be scaled down, so that one can hold the planet in the hand). Sustainable learning through a tangible approach is critical for understanding of complex geologic ideas, where learners can collect, gather and evaluate information about the exterior of the model and internal structures ( Szulżyk-Cieplak et al., 2014 ). Moreover, the same model can be used to communicate these ideas to others, including non-experts in a technical subject ( Dadi et al., 2014 ). 3D printing is essential for commination with impaired people, especially students who require special needs for education ( Kostakis et al., 2015 ; Jo et al., 2016 ; Pantazis and Priavolou, 2017 ; Koehler et al., 2018 ). In the Earth science curriculum, those students can learn common topics such as volcanoes or plate tectonics by using 3D-printed models in the classroom or at home. Buehler et al. (2016) demonstrates an example of a short course for students with intellectual disabilities in an inclusive context that results in enhancing digital literacy skills and reducing stigmas about these individuals at a community level.

Application of 3D printing in high-school education has already shown enhanced haptic perception of the learning material. Elrod (2016) emphasized that if 3D printing would be used in the K-12 environment, students could be better prepared for careers in emerging fields of technology [e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM disciplines)]. Schelly et al. (2015) demonstrated that even a 3-day short course for middle- and high-school teachers from a variety of disciplines (sciences, engineering, and arts) gained a high interest in utilizing this technology in their classrooms. Chiu et al. (2015) presented a successful model for learning, self-learning, and mastery learning approaches for freshman students with different levels of technological literacy using 3D printers. Reggia et al. (2015) suggested that providing engineering students with an opportunity to perform a project-based design course using 3D printing was an essential curricular element in many engineering programs. Chien and Chu (2018) proposed that 3D printing could enable high-school students to improve their ability to transform from STEM to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) using 3D printers and to create a bridging curriculum with respect to high-school and college students.

Roy and Brine (2017) developed a coursework model to build intellectual capital for the next generation who would vastly depend on 3D printing, because they would shape a smart community in both developing and developed economy context. Martin et al. (2014) explained an idea of “think globally, produce locally,” where 3D printing would become more affordable with the versatility of machines and the ability to engage students with many different STEM-based activities. Gatto et al. (2015) showed that engineering education is on the course of adapting to the social and industrial revolution brought by additive manufacturing, because the latter allowed for sharing digital data in repositories and repeatedly reproducing the data to test ideas and concepts ( Figure 1 ).

For the geoscience education, not many examples are found in the literature for using 3D printing in any full-time curriculum or short courses. Ford and Minshall (2019) demonstrate how teaching models of terrains, fossils, and mineral crystals can complement digital models for a better perception of 3D features. 3D printing is currently used in four geoscience areas, primarily for research and communication: paleontology, geomorphology, porous rocks, geomechanics ( Figure 2 ). These 3D-printed models help organizing a full description, classification, and preservation of geologic specimens. Resolution of 3D printers determines the accuracy of internal and external features of 3D-printed models and hence affects the repeatability of the digital design in different materials ( Figure 2 ). These characteristics are critical not only for creating teaching aids in the Earth Science curriculum, but also for conducting experimental research with 3D-pritned specimens ( Ishutov et al., 2018 ). 3D printing also has value for communication of geoscience to non-specialist audiences to convey technical information, to support legal arguments, and to provide general knowledge of the nature. Currently, there is no universal short course that can provide fast, but positive learning experience of digital modeling and 3D printing to understand and explain geologic concepts among both experts and generalists.

FIGURE 2 . Applications of 3D printing in the geoscience research areas: (A) paleontology, (B) geomorphology, (C) porous rocks, and (D) geomechanics. A blue chart indicates the characteristics of 3D-printed models that are critical for each of the geoscience areas. Materials used in a specific application have different physical and chemical properties, which affect the resolution of a 3D-printed model. 3D printer’s hardware and post-processing of 3D-printed models determine the accuracy of external and internal features. A combination of the three previous characteristics affects the repeatability of a digital design 3D-printed in multiple copies.

This course was developed to test how a group of participants from STEM disciplines, but with various academic backgrounds could perceive the fundamentals of available 3D printing techniques and materials and their relative merits. With little or no prior knowledge of CAD modeling and 3D printing, participants learnt about applications of 3D printing in studies of reservoir rocks ( Squelch 2017 ), fossils ( Rahman et al., 2012 ), geomechanics ( Hodder et al., 2018 ), geomorphology ( Hasiuk and Harding, 2016 ), and porous media ( Ishutov, 2019 ). This one-day short course was divided into five modules and involved students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and professors interested in current advances of 3D printing in research and teaching. In addition, participants explored the application of 3D printing in a technical communication. The objectives of the study included: 1) to evaluate if learners with versatile educational and cultural backgrounds could perceive the basic concepts of 3D printing techniques and material properties to provide an assessment of 3D-printed models for research in their respective discipline; 2) to test if fast learning of CAD modeling and 3D printing could help the participants utilize 3D-printed models to explain geologic concepts to generalist audiences; and 3) to prove that 3D-printed models were effective tools for the geoscience education.

Materials and Methods

The short course was designed for the participants without prior experience of CAD modeling or 3D printing. In addition, the course was open for students, professors, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and research associates from the geoscience and engineering disciplines. The short course took place at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and involved 50 participants. The course learning outcomes were: 1) to understand capabilities and limitations of different 3D printing techniques; 2) to demonstrate how to digitally design 3D-printable models using CAD software, web platforms, and computed tomography data; 3) to provide the assessment of digital models and their relative replicas 3D-printed from real data; and 4) to characterize how 3D printing can increase the effectiveness of teaching and data communication.

Course Organization and Materials

The short course was organized in five modules: 1) an introduction lecture on the 3D printing methods and materials; 2) an individual CAD modeling exercise; 3) a tour to 3D printing facilities with hands-on experience on model processing; 4) a tour to experimentation facilities where 3D-printed models are tested; and 5) group activities based on the examples of how to apply 3D printing in current or future geoscience research and teaching ( Table 1 ). Each module was taught by one of the four instructors, and facility tours were led by four instructors, two instructors per facility. All instructions on how to complete each module were organized in a digital e-book (pdf).

TABLE 1 . A brief description of topics covered in each module of the short course.

Module 1 included a lecture on the history of “rapid prototyping” and how 3D printing evolved as a tool for engineering industries. In addition, the workflow of creating a digital model and transferring it into a tangible object was covered. The model preparation for 3D printing was explained with examples of using printing specifications, such as the thickness of each layer, the vertical and horizontal dimensions, and the print speed. The lecture also contained post-processing methods, such as ultraviolet (UV) light curing or removal of support material that held the internal porous structure and external elements during printing to avoid deformation or damage of intricate designs. Instructors discussed 3D printing methods that differed by power source, resolution, precision, accuracy, build volume, materials, and price. The importance and applications of 3D-printed models were covered briefly for the areas of geoscience and engineering. At the end of the lecture, participants had a discussion session with instructors ( Figure 3A ).

FIGURE 3 . Photographs of the short course modules. (A) Module 1 “Overview of the 3D printing technology.” Course instructors presented a lecture on common additive manufacturing methods and materials and showed examples of 3D-printed models. (B) Module 2 “The art of making 3D-printable models.” Participants learned basic skills of CAD modeling using TinkerCAD. (C) Module 3 “Elko Garage Tour.” Live 3D printing process was shown to participants. (D) Module 4 “GeoPrint Tour.” Participants were shown industrial scale printing and experimental program performed with 3D-printed models. (E) Module 5 “Application of 3D printing in the geoscience.” Discussion of specific applications of geoscience models in edication and research.

Module 2 involved an individual CAD modeling exercise using an online platform on laptops or tablets ( Figure 3B ). The scale of 3D-printed models varied over the orders of magnitude: from nanometer-size features to the size of the 3D printer’s build volume. This activity was aimed at teaching the participants to create complex geological models (like rocks and fossils) using common shapes (e.g., cylinders, cubes) or multi-scale elements, which were then translated for 3D printing. At the end of this exercise, participants were able to export their model of choice for 3D printing and receive at the end of the course.

Module 3 represented a tour to the Elko Engineering Garage (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada) that introduced the participants to the activities associated with creating and 3D printing digital designs as well as post-processing of 3D-printed models ( Figure 3C ). Participants were exposed a variety of 3D printers and post-processing tools, as well as they had an opportunity to investigate a 3D laser scanner. Instructors made connections of the material covered in the lecture, such as material properties, 3D printing resolution, and model dimensions with the real applications in workspace. Participants were able to observe the 3D printing process of the digital models that they designed in module 2 and had a hands-on experience on post-processing their models to make give them a smooth, finished look.

Module 4 involved a visit to the GeoPRINT facility (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada), where an industrial-grade sand printer and a high-resolution stereolithography printer were located ( Figure 3D ). This tour introduced participants to two specific 3D printers used for geomechanical and flow research at Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group. Participants explored about the differences in material preparation, printing, and post-processing between these two technologies.

Module 5 included a group exercise on the comparison of CAD models for porous rocks, fossils and geomorphic features with their 3D-printed counterparts ( Figure 3E ). Participants assessed the differences in material finishes, accuracy of external and internal elements, and scales of 3D printing (using criteria in Figure 2 ). In addition, there was a discussion of potential application of 3D-printed models in the geoscience experiments to validate numerical simulations and complement existing laboratory tests. Instructors facilitated the discussion of 3D-printing techniques that participants have seen in modules 3 and 4 and how they could be applied to fundamental research in the areas of multi-phase fluid flow and reactive transport, discrete fracture networks, geomorphology, and paleontology ( Figure 3E ).

3D Printers and Software

Out of seven ASTM categories of 3D printing, four methods were shown in this short course: stereolithography, binder jetting, material extrusion, and material jetting. All 3D printers belonging to these categories were demonstrated in Modules 3 and 4. Materials used for demonstration of 3D printing techniques included polymers, plastics, sand, and resins.

The software used in module 2 for CAD modeling exercises was Autodesk TinkerCAD ( https://www.tinkercad.com ). It is a free online platform that requires only registration with email. The software used for processing of digital designs before 3D printing was Autodesk Meshmixer ( http://www.meshmixer.com ). It is a freeware that can be installed on most operating systems.

Post-Course Questionnaire

The course survey is proved to be one of the effective forms of analysis of the short course efficiency ( Chiu et al., 2015 ; Schelly et al., 2015 ; Meyers et al., 2016 ; Pantazis and Priavolou, 2017 ; Ford and Minshall, 2019 ; Assante et al., 2020 ). The surveys are usually conducted before and after the course to assess how learning objectives are fulfilled. In each module, the following criteria were used to build the course evaluation survey:

• fundamentals of 3D printing and its basic operating principles;

• advantages and disadvantages of 3D printing technologies;

• performance and functional constraints of 3D printing for specific applications.

• complete 3D-printing sequence of designing, fabricating, and measuring models;

• source of mismatch between digital and 3D-printed models.

• causes of errors and irregularities in 3D-printed models;

• hands-on experience of 3D printing in class for improved student understanding of subject matter.

• important 3D printing research challenges;

• resources to support experiments for teaching and classroom projects.

• understanding if humans learn better when using 3D-printed models;

• current and future 3D printing applications.

At the end of the course, instructors distributed an electronic evaluation form to all participants and asked them to complete it within 1 h. The questions in the survey were composed in a Google Docs form to allow for anonymous and individual response from each participant, who was required to indicate only their academic level. The post-course questionnaire was segmented into sections: 1) overall recommendation for the short course; 2) assessment of course materials (e-booklet, lecture slides, exercise instructions; 3) course content (cohesiveness of modules, ease of learning the material, laboratory tours, and visual aids); 4) time spent on each module; and 5) evaluation of instructors’ teaching abilities; 6) effectiveness of course learning outcomes. Section 1 responses were based on Yes/No scale. Responses in sections 2, 3, 5 were collected using the following scheme: strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. Responses in section 4 were registered using the following scheme: not enough, adequate, too much, no opinion. The last section was evaluated using Likert scale out of 5, where a higher value is a more positive response.

Results and Discussion

The short course involved 50 participants from geosciences and engineering ( Figure 4A ); it was expected to receive mixed comments about the course contents and organization of modules. Nonetheless, 97% of all participants responded that the course would be recommended to others ( Figure 4B ). In this case, others were referred to peer students, colleagues, and other academic staff. This outcome was positive to propose the course to various professional organizations as a customized workshop, e.g., for industry professionals interested in the use of 3D printing in research and technical communication. The instructors observed that despite the differences in age and academic background, the participants communicated with each other in a friendly manner. Based on the results of the post-course questionnaire, the short course outcomes were assessed for the adequacy and organization of the course materials, structure, and coherence of the course modules, and efficiency of the course instructors and learning objectives.

FIGURE 4 . Demographics of the short course participants. (A) Indication of the academic level and/or position. (B) Responses of participants from (A) to the question: “Will you recommend this short course to others?”

Course Materials

An e-book contained a set of short, descriptive instructions with images and figures about each module ( Figure 5 ) that was useful to most participants. Course objectives were clear, so that the short course agenda was understood by learners with different backgrounds (24 positive responses out of 32 responses in total). In addition, the survey showed that the e-book was a valuable component of the course as it helped navigating through activities and exercises (27 positive responses out of 33 responses in total). On the other hand, not all participants found the e-book visually appealing and suggested adding pseudo 3D cartoons that would visually simplify and outline different 3D printing processes (20 positive responses out of 33 responses in total; Figure 6 ). Other comments pointed out on the use of bolded text, underlining or different colors to highlight the key information in the e-book. Also, more than half of the class noted that activities were clearly defined by the instructors and suggested to include more details about the operation of software as numbered bullet points so there would be a step-by-step tutorial (21 positive responses out of 35 responses in total; Figure 6 ). A few additional notes were that the introductory lecture slides in module 1 were cohesive and well organized. For the next run of the course, instructors will prepare a short workflow with bullet points for each activity and exercise and will place them in the e-book as a support material. More images and snapshots will be added for each activity to allow the participants to navigate between the exercises.

FIGURE 5 . An example of the module instructions from the course e-book. The full version of the e-book was available for participants a day before the course. Each module contained synopsis and a set of exercises.

FIGURE 6 . Responses of participants for evaluation of the course materials, such as e-booklet and slides. All the course activities were described in the e-booklet provided on the short course day.

Course Content

The course content was developed using several approaches: lecture slides, individual exercises, group exercises, and facility tours. The majority of the class responded that modules were cohesive (29 positive responses out of 33 responses in total; Figure 7 ). Participants were mostly engaged during the visits to the Elko Garage and GeoPrint facilities (modules 3 and 4), because these tours improved their understanding of the 3D printing process (30 positive responses out of 32 responses in total). Observing the printing methods and interaction with 3D-printed models provided a motivation for the learners to incorporate this technology in their research, teaching, or other activities (29 positive responses out of 34 responses in total; Figure 7 ). In addition, the majority of participants could understand all aspects of digital design, processing, and post-processing of 3D-printed models via the CAD modeling exercise (module 2) (31 positive responses out of 34 responses it total). Instructors observed that even those participants who did not have any experience with digital modeling of simple shapes could learn it fast, because at the end of the exercise everyone was on the same level.

FIGURE 7 . Responses of participants for evaluation of the course content. Participants assessed each activity at the end of the short course. *A question about the advanced 3D printing course is whether participants would like to have a short course on the applications of 3D printing in their respective discipline (not geoscience).

The group exercise involving comparison of digital models with their 3D-printed counterparts and the discussion of applications in the geosciences (Module 5) was expected to be challenging, because the participants were divided into mixed groups of 10 people to avoid accumulating representatives of the same department and academic level in one group. E.g., one group might have consisted of two undergraduate students from civil engineering and geology, three professors from electrical engineering, computer engineering and geophysics, three postdoctoral fellows from mechanical engineering, and petroleum engineering, and two research associates from atmospheric science and computer science, respectively. Most of the class responded positively to such combination of groups, because it allowed them to share a broader spectrum of ideas given the versatility of backgrounds (32 positive responses out of 35 responses in total; Figure 7 ). Some participants responded that they would prefer to classify the groups by the department, so that they would share the same interest in 3D printing and might make the group work more cohesive. This model could be another option for the group activity, where the groups could be formed by the department only, but the course contents would need to be more general, rather than focusing on the geoscience and engineering applications.

Participants would also asked to have more group activities to share the knowledge learnt, which confirmed that this intentional split into mixed groups worked well for leaning the unknown concepts. A few people were not interested in the geoscience applications and would have liked to participate in the content related to their discipline only or in a more generic content. This was a viable comment, and more than half of the class responded that they would like to have an advanced 3D printing course to explore the applications in their relative subjects of interest (26 positive responses out of 30 responses in total; Figure 7 ). Perhaps a separate short course covering specific applications of 3D printing in STEM disciplines might be developed to satisfy this interest. The most expected comment was that participants were thinking of getting their own 3D printer to manufacture models for research, teaching, and communication.

Each module had a different time period for completion, because it depended on the speed of the instructor’s delivery and the pace of participants ( Figure 8 ). It was designed to spend more time on individual and group exercises (Modules 2 and 5), so that the pace between the participants could be averaged as some people needed more time to learn new tools. In general, almost all learners (29 out of 33) agreed that the 50-min lecture in module 1 was sufficient to grasp the main concepts. Some participants (12 out of 33) noted that they would need more time to go through the functionalities of the software in Module 2 to complete the CAD exercises. In future, this module could be timed in a different way, where the participants would have an extensive, detailed introduction into the software and then they would be given a set of exercises to complete. Also, for those who could complete a mandatory set of exercises faster, additional activities would be provided. For the group exercises (module 5), about half of the class completed their assignments on time, while a quarter of the class felt that the time could be reduced ( Figure 8 ). To adjust this module, more exercises would be provided, specifically a small section discussing case studies in the geoscience.

FIGURE 8 . Responses of participants for evaluation of the time spent on each module of the short course.

Efficiency of Instructors

The next set of questions in the survey was aimed at revealing any flaws in the style and structure of the instruction. It was found that the majority of the class was satisfied with the teaching style and delivery of the modules by instructors (28 positive responses out of 33 responses in total; Figure 9 ). One participant noted that it would be useful to have solutions for each exercise, mainly for the ones related to the group activity. The answers could not be compiled for each activity as they varied by the group and the amount of material covered in each case. A few participants would like to have more one-to-one communications with instructors, but it might not always possible, given the size of the class and time allocated for each activity. It is foreseen that the class size will be reduced to have more time assisting each participant in all activities, even though the majority of participants (31 out of 33; Figure 9 ) felt supported during the course.

FIGURE 9 . Responses of participants for evaluation of the instructors’ delivery of the short course.

The survey showed that instructors were knowledgeable (32 positive responses out of 33 responses in total) and well-prepared (30 positive responses out of 34 responses in total) for the course, which fulfilled the course objective of sustainable learning and communication through tangible models. It is confirmed that 3D printing promoted the curiosity among the learners and facilitated an interest in creation of a model simultaneously with the instructor. Developing creative potential entailed improving a problem-based approach to demonstrate theoretical concepts that could be accessible by different groups of participants. This short course demonstrated that diverse groups were able to assimilate, apply, and describe new knowledge more effectively, including collaborative and individual learning. There is a need in studying how these methods can complement traditional instruction in terms of retention of material and motivating learners to study and develop their communication and problem-solving skills.

Efficiency of Learning Objectives

The course learning objectives were evaluated during interactive exercises of the course as well as post-course questionnaire. After completion of each module, participants were asked to complete the same set of three questions based on the course objectives. Their responses were averaged using Likert scale, where more positive responses were approaching 5 and less positive responses were approaching 1 ( Table 2 ). Participants were scoring how each of the three objectives was fulfilled when they completed modules subsequently. It was evident that more confidence was gained toward the end of the short course when all three course objectives were assessed (increasing scores from Module 1 to Module 5 in Table 2 ). While not all participants had geoscience background, collaborative learning is proven to be effective in enhancing creativity and hence enabling a large class to adopt the new technology. Post-course questionaries demonstrated that faculty, students, research fellows, and technicians could effectively work in teams to understand basic concepts of 3D printing techniques and material properties. They used this information to provide an assessment of 3D-printed models and to generate ideas for research in their respective disciplines.

TABLE 2 . Comparison of student responses on fulfilling the course learning objectives.

Individual CAD modeling exercise (module 2) helped the participants understand how geological and engineering models could be designed and utilized to explain ideas and concepts to generalist audiences. In module 5, instructors provided an example of 3D-printed porous rock created from a digital model ( Figure 10 ). All participants were asked to use this workflow to characterize how the rock porosity could have been formed and to explain why the rock grains had angular or rounded geometry and how they were transported to form a larger formation. Participants with a geoscience background were assessing responses of participants that did not have any background in the geoscience. It was noted that comparison of images, 3D digital models, and 3D-printed samples altogether provided better understanding of the rock properties rather than each model separately. Also. participants with good technical background in CAD within the team could help teaching other teammates, providing additional peer learning element in the process.

FIGURE 10 . Workflow for generation of 3D-printed samples from digital models. Source data are either optical or CT images of natural rocks (e.g., Berea sandstone). Images are segmented into pores and grains; the grain volume is transferred to 3D printing software as a CAD model. Selected 3D printer creates a tangible model layer-by-layer (polymer in this example). Pore space is filled with support material (soft polymer) that is removed by post-processing.

Module 5 was very useful for synthesizing previous modules and providing exercises linking CAD modeling from module 2 with 3D printing methods presented in module 1 and materials observed in modules 3 and 4. Participants were asked to choose one model for which both CAD and 3D-printed models were available ( Figure 11 ). Their task was to prepare a 1-min presentation of the model intended for general audience. The exercise was aimed at evaluating if 3D-printed models could improve geoscience learning for non-specialists. This collaborative learning approach demonstrated that expertise from students with different backgrounds could contribute to the cognitive process. Instead of learning under the instructions of tutors, participants collaboratively worked and learnt together. Participants noted that those teammates without geoscience background provided more intuitive and comprehensive description of selected models. It might be due to the fact that specialists could not often formulate higher-level explanation of concepts and phenomena.

FIGURE 11 . Examples of 3D-printed models used in course exercises. (A) Fossil and rock specimens. (B) Geomorphology and porous models.

Post-course questionnaire showed that 3D printing was an efficient tool in teaching and communication geological data and hypotheses to many types of diverse audiences. This study proved that non-specialists could learn, understand, and explain scientific concepts without prior knowledge about them. This finding is important because 3D printing can be used in many university curricula where students with any background can learn sciences in any environment. In particular, tangible aspect of 3D-printed models is vital for the geoscience education where most of the data are in a 3D format. Future development of the short course will involve several examples of non-geoscience data (e.g., engineering, medicine) to challenge participants in interpretation of concepts that are far beyond their expertise. This approach will help identifying if 3D-printed models are useful in communicating more complex phenomena to non-specialist audience.

3D printing is an emerging technology in the geoscience that provides additional teaching support, enhances technical communication using visual aids, and enables repeatable experimentation in research. While the process of incorporating this technology into the regular curriculum in academic institutions may take years, short courses can help this process by improving student and faculty engagement and by developing skills for a more qualitative knowledge acquisition. The short course presented in this study was useful for a diverse group of participants including professors, students, postdoctoral fellows, and technicians from the geoscience and engineering disciplines, because it allowed them to communicate geological concepts using digital models and their tangible counterparts. Participants demonstrated that this technology allowed them having the capacity for modification and sharing digital data and supporting educators who wanted to produce teaching models without prior expertise and in a rapid manner.

While this one-day short course had five modules, participants acknowledged that the time spent on each module was adequate as the modules contained the right amount of instructions and activities. It was designed in a way that participants would create their digital model, learn about different 3D printing techniques, observe how these techniques worked live and how 3D-printed models were experimented with in the laboratory, and finally 3D print their own model and discuss its properties. It was noted by the participants that course materials, such as e-booklet and slides with instructions, helped them digesting technical information in a cohesive way.

The main objectives of the short course was fulfilled, because the majority of participants responded that they would start using 3D printing for their research, teaching, or communication. Moreover, many participants had an interest in taking an advanced short course on the applications of this technology in their respective disciplines and to recommend this short course to others. Each module can certainly be modified and adjusted according to the background of the audience. This short course can be a primer for educators willing to introduce creative modeling in their teaching schedule and prepare students for problem-solving skills using tangible models. Making testable analogs of natural phenomena for the geoscience researchers is critical and can be achieved through acquiring CAD modeling skills in this course. Besides creating visual and teaching aids, this technology is a powerful tool in communication, as shown in the short course, because the participants with diverse academic backgrounds could discuss ideas and concepts without prior knowledge about them, only using 3D-printed models.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics Statement

Written informed consent was obtained from the relevant individuals for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.

Author Contributions

SI was the primary designer of the short course contents and the paper outline. He presented a poster at 2019 American Geophysical Union Conference on that study. SI developed exercises for the short course and prepared introduction and methods sections. KH developed presentation slides for the short course and wrote sections on results and discussion. RC was responsible for the introduction and conclusions. Figures were collected and analyzed by all authors. GZ-N was responsible for the lab tours.

The course was partially funded by MIP-CONACYT-280097 Grant, Mexico and NSERC 549236, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The funds covered the costs of 3D-printed models for participants of the short course.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the University of Alberta and Faculty of Engineering for the opportunity to host this short course on campus. Our special gratitude is to the Elko Engineering Garage for providing a demonstration tour and 3D printing the short course models. We are grateful to the Reservoir Geomechanics Research Group [RG] 2 for support in preparation of this course. We also thank NSERC for support in continuous running of GeoPRINT GeoInnovation Environment at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

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Keywords: 3D printing, learning aid, visualization, reservoir, porous rock, geomodeling, fossils, geomorphology

Citation: Ishutov S, Hodder K, Chalaturnyk R and Zambrano-Narvaez G (2021) A 3D printing Short Course: A Case Study for Applications in the Geoscience Teaching and Communication for Specialists and Non-experts. Front. Earth Sci. 9:601530. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.601530

Received: 01 September 2020; Accepted: 13 May 2021; Published: 28 May 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Ishutov, Hodder, Chalaturnyk and Zambrano-Narvaez. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Sergey Ishutov, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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A critical review of 3D printing in construction: benefits, challenges, and risks

• Review Article
• Published: 10 March 2020
• Volume 20 , article number  34 , ( 2020 )

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• S. El-Sayegh   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9127-0318 1 ,
• L. Romdhane   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8509-2386 2 &
• S. Manjikian 1  

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This paper provides a critical review of the related literature on 3D printing in construction. The paper discusses and evaluates the different 3D printing techniques in construction. The paper also discusses and categorizes the benefits, challenges, and risks of 3D printing in construction. The use of 3D printing technology offers several advantages over traditional methods. However, it comes with its own additional challenges and risks. The main benefits of 3D printing in construction include constructability and sustainability benefits. The challenges are categorized into seven groups. The main challenges, found through the literature, are material related. The most cited challenges are material printability, buildability, and open time. Additionally, scalability, structural integrity, and lack of codes and regulations are frequently cited as major challenges. The additional risks are categorized into seven groups: 3D printing material, 3D printing equipment, construction site, and environment, management, stakeholders, regulatory and economic, and cybersecurity risks. The paper fills a gap in the literature as it addresses a new aspect of 3D printing, which is risk. The paper also provides some insights, recommendations, and future research ideas.

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El-Sayegh, S., Romdhane, L. & Manjikian, S. A critical review of 3D printing in construction: benefits, challenges, and risks. Archiv.Civ.Mech.Eng 20 , 34 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43452-020-00038-w

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Review, Analysis, and Classification of 3D Printing Literature: Types of Research and Technology Benefits

2019, AI Publication

This paper presents a review, analysis and classification about 3D printing. Through the CAPES Sucupira platform, 124 articles with a high degree of relevance published between the years 2014 and 2018 were selected. Each of these articles was classified by means of 9 categories: study types, affiliation, approach, origin of the study, geographic scope, unit of analysis, scope, benefits and negative points. Through the results obtained, it was verified that the number of articles on 3D printing is increasing every year, which indicates its importance and popularity. Most of the time, scientific research is conducted and led by people connected to universities in Europe, Asia and the Americas. And finally, the number of citations related to the benefits of 3D printing are greater than the number of citations on the negative points of the process.

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The 37 Most Useful & Cool Things to 3D Print

Table of Contents

1. Desiccant Can

2. toothpick dispenser, 3. flower-pot tissue box, 4. cactus toothpick holder, 5. personality bonsai, 6. illusion toys, 7. floating coffee cup sculpture, 8. two-color decorative cat, 1. mini trebuchet, 2. mammoth puzzles, 3. rocket bowling, 4. brain teasers, 5. soccer snack arena, 6. pendulum wave toy, 1. customizable phone holders, 2. smartphone flame simulators, 3. apple watch macintosh stands, 4. the airpod pillow, 5. the mobile exo-suit, 6. the spartan sd card holder, 1. mother's day mementos, 2. dragon boat delights, 3. easter's star keeper, 4. the geared-up fish automaton, 1. personalized keychains:, 2. mechanical iris container, 3. fidget toys, 4. ribbit rhythms for relaxation, 1. the dart launcher, 2. the butterfly knife trainer, 3. the reattore ark iron man kit, 4. the woodpecker toy, 1. the q-tip catapult, 2. the upcycled filament art box, 3. burp, the derpy amphibian, 4. the gear-brain twister, jump into the 3d printing adventure.

Picture this: a mini catapult on your desk, ready to launch rubber bands at unsuspecting coworkers. Or how about a cactus-shaped toothpick dispenser that'll make guests do a double-take? Welcome to the world of 3D printing, where everyday items get a serious upgrade and "I wish I had that" becomes "I just made that!" It's not just about trinkets, though. From phone stands that look like tiny robots to handy gadgets you never knew you needed, 3D printing is revolutionizing the way we solve little life problems and add some fun to our spaces. We're about to dive into 37 of the most useful (and, let's be honest, pretty cool) things you can create with a 3D printer.

Eight 3D-Printed Home Essentials and Decor

With 3D printing, your home can become a showcase of both practicality and personality.

Say goodbye to damp spaces with this handy little helper. This 3D-printed can holds moisture-absorbing materials, perfect for keeping closets, bathrooms, or storage areas dry. It's like a mini dehumidifier that never needs plugging in!

Click to download Desiccant Can .

No more digging through drawers for toothpicks! This clever dispenser makes it easy to grab a toothpick while looking great on your table. Whether it's shaped like an animal or a modern sculpture, it's both useful and eye-catching.

Click to download Toothpick Dispenser holder .

Who said tissue boxes have to be boring? This creation turns your tissue box into a cute little flower pot. It's a sneaky way to keep tissues handy while adding a touch of nature to your room.

Click to download Flower-Pot Tissue Box Model .

Bring some desert charm to your dining table with this prickly pal. This cactus-shaped holder keeps your toothpicks organized and adds a fun, southwestern touch to your decor.

Click to download Cactus Toothpick Holder model .

Enjoy the calming presence of a bonsai tree without the hassle of caring for a real one. These 3D-printed bonsais can be customized to fit your style, bringing a touch of tranquility to any room.

Turn your coffee table into a mini magic show with these mind-bending toys. From shapes that seem impossible to little gadgets that play with your perception, they're great for amusing guests or giving your brain a fun workout.

Click to download these Illusion Toys .

This sculpture looks like a coffee cup frozen in mid-spill. It's a cool optical illusion that'll make your guests do a double-take and wonder how it works.

Click to download Floating Coffee Cup Sculpture model .

Add some feline flair to your space with these stylish cat sculptures. Printed in two colors, you can mix and match to fit your room's color scheme. Perfect for cat lovers and anyone who wants to add a pop of color to their decor.

With these 3D-printed creations, you can add your personal touch to every corner of your home. Each item is not just useful but also adds a splash of fun and creativity to your living space.

Click to download Two-Color Decorative Cat model .

Six 3D-Printed Items for Entertainment and Hobbies

3D printing opens up a world where learning feels like play and everyday objects become gateways to adventure.

Ever wanted to lay siege to your office supplies? Now you can with a 3D-printed mini trebuchet! This desktop-sized medieval war machine is not just a cool conversation starter; it's also a hands-on way to learn about physics and historical warfare. Launch rubber bands, paper clips, or tiny marshmallows across your desk. Just don't aim at your coworkers!

Click to download Mini Trebuchet model .

Step back in time with 3D-printed mammoth skeleton puzzles. These intricate models let you play paleontologist, assembling the bones of ancient beasts piece by piece. It's a challenging and educational activity that brings natural history to life. You might discover a hidden talent for fossil reconstruction!

Click to download mammoth skeleton puzzles model .

Take your bowling game to new heights with this cosmic twist on a classic. 3D-printed rocket pins and a spaceship ball transform your living room into an intergalactic bowling alley. It's out-of-this-world fun that's sure to be a hit at your next game night.

Click to download Rocket Bowling Model .

Challenge your mind and keep your hands busy with these addictive puzzles:

• Gear Cube : This mechanical marvel will have you spinning and aligning gears to solve the puzzle. It's a perfect blend of engineering and entertainment.
• Fidget Pixels: A colorful, tactile toy that lets you create pixelated designs. It's like a fidget spinner meets digital art - a great stress reliever and creativity booster.

Click to download Fidget Pixels Model .

Combine your love for soccer and snacks with this clever creation. This 3D-printed snack bowl is shaped like a mini soccer stadium, complete with goals for dipping sauces. It's the perfect centerpiece for your World Cup viewing party or weekend match.

Click to download Soccer Snack Arena model .

Witness the mesmerizing dance of physics with this 3D-printed pendulum wave. Watch as the pendulums swing in and out of sync, creating beautiful patterns. It's not just a stunning visual display; it's also a great tool for understanding the principles of motion and resonance.

Click to download Pendulum Wave Toy model .

Whether you're a history buff, a game enthusiast, or just someone looking to add a dash of excitement to their day, there's a 3D-printed adventure waiting for you.

Six 3D-Printed Gadgets and Tech Accessories

3D printing breathes new life into our gadgets. From retro-inspired stands to futuristic phone armor, these accessories blend form and function in surprising ways.

You might be tired of propping your phone against a stack of books. Enter the 3D-printed phone holder. These versatile stands come in countless designs, from sleek minimalist options to elaborate character-based creations. Whether you're following a recipe in the kitchen or binge-watching your favorite series, these holders keep your device at the perfect angle.

Click to download the 3D-printed phone holder model .

This clever 3D print turns your smartphone into a miniature hearth. Simply play a fireplace video, slip your phone into this specially designed holder, and voila! You've got a portable, flameless fireplace that adds ambiance to any room.

Click to download Smartphone Flame Simulators model .

Blend the old with the new using this charming Apple Watch stand. Designed to look like a miniature Macintosh computer, it transforms your modern smartwatch into a tiny version of Apple's iconic 1984 release. It's a perfect bedside companion that'll have you dreaming in pixels.

Click to download Apple Watch Macintosh Stands Model .

Give your AirPods a cozy home with this adorable 3D-printed pillow case. Not only does it protect your precious earbuds, but it also adds a touch of cuteness to your desk or nightstand. It's the perfect blend of function and fun for any audio enthusiast.

Click to download The AirPod Pillow model .

Transform your smartphone into a miniature mecha with this 3D-printed exo-suit. More than just a protective case, it's a statement piece that turns heads and sparks conversations. Perfect for sci-fi fans or anyone who wants their phone to stand out from the crowd.

Click to download Mobile Exo-Suit model .

Keep your digital memories safe with this warrior-inspired SD card holder. Designed to resemble a Spartan helmet, it's a stylish way to organize and protect your memory cards. It's not just storage; it's a noble guardian for your precious data.

Click to download The Spartan SD Card Holder model .

These 3D-printed accessories prove that practical doesn't have to mean boring. With a dash of creativity and a 3D printer, even the most mundane gadget can become extraordinary.

Four 3D-Printed Celebrations and Festive Creations

Holidays just got an upgrade! These 3D prints add a special touch to your celebrations, mixing old traditions with new tech.

Make Mom smile with a 3D-printed gift. Create custom photo frames or pretty jewelry boxes. It's a special way to show you care, made just for her.

Click to download Mother's Day gift model .

Bring the Dragon Boat Festival home with tiny 3D-printed boats and dumplings. Set up a fun tabletop race or decorate your space with festival-themed prints.

Click to download Dragon Boat Model .

Add some SpongeBob fun to Easter with this Patrick Star pen holder. It's a silly way to keep your desk tidy and brighten up your day.

Click to download Patrick Star pen holder model .

Bring the beach home with this moving fish sculpture. Turn the crank to watch the fish "swim". It's a cool way to add some summer fun to your room.

3D-printed creations add a personal touch to your celebrations. They prove that with a little creativity and some filament, you can create festive magic right at home.

Click to download Fish Automaton Model .

Four 3D-Printed Office and Study Enhancements

Transform your workspace with these clever 3D prints! From organizing your keys to giving your fingers a fun break, these creations make work and study more enjoyable.

Never lose your keys again with custom 3D-printed keychains. Print your name, favorite shapes, or even functional designs like mini bottle openers. It's a simple way to add personality to your keyring while keeping everything organized.

Click to download Personalized Keychains model .

Impress your coworkers with this sci-fi inspired container. Its smooth iris mechanism opens and closes to keep small items safe and hidden. It's perfect for storing office supplies, USB drives, or anything else you want to keep secure with a touch of futuristic flair.

Click to download Mechanical Iris Container Model .

When you need a quick mental reset, reach for these 3D-printed concentration aids. From gear cylinders that spin and align to mesmerizing gyro spinners, these quiet toys help you stay alert without disturbing others. They're perfect for those moments when you need to think through a problem or take a short break.

Click to download Fidget Toys.

This isn't your ordinary desk ornament. This 3D-printed frog doubles as a unique percussion instrument. Run a stick along its ridged back for a satisfying croak sound. It's a fun way to de-stress during long work sessions or add some whimsy to your brainstorming meetings.

With these 3D-printed office enhancers, your workspace becomes more efficient and much more interesting.

Click to download 3D-printed frog .

Four 3D-Printed Adventure and Outdoor Gadgets

Your 3D printer is about to turn your living room into an adrenaline-pumping playground. No mountains to climb or rivers to cross - just fire up that printer and let the adventures begin.

Transform any room into a target practice range with this 3D-printed dart launcher. It's a fun way to improve your aim and hand-eye coordination without the need for a full-sized dartboard. Challenge your friends to a accuracy contest or use it to de-stress after a long day. Just remember to aim responsibly!

Click to download Dart Launcher model .

Master the art of butterfly knife manipulation without the risk. This 3D-printed trainer mimics the weight and feel of a real butterfly knife, but with a dull edge for safety. It's perfect for learning impressive flipping techniques and developing dexterity. Impress your friends with your new skills, all while staying safe.

Click to download Butterfly Knife Trainer model .

Bring your superhero fantasies to life with this 3D-printed Iron Man-inspired kit. While it won't actually let you fly, it's a great cosplay piece or display item for Marvel fans. The intricate details and glowing elements (with added LEDs) make it a standout decoration for any room.

Click to download Iron Man-inspired kit Model .

Experience the soothing sounds of nature with this charming woodpecker toy. This 3D-printed creation mimics the pecking motion and sound of a real woodpecker when you spin its base. It's a delightful way to bring a touch of the forest into your home. Use it as a calming background noise while you work or as a unique conversation piece.

From flipping fake knives to channeling your inner woodpecker, these prints prove one thing: adventure isn't a place - it's a state of mind. And sometimes, that state is "covered in plastic shavings."

Click to download woodpecker toy model .

Four 3D-Printed Oddities

Forget sensible prints - we're diving into the deep end of the filament pool! These creations prove that sometimes, the best use of 3D printing technology is to make absolutely no sense at all.

Ever wished your cotton swabs could fly? Well, wish no more! This quirky contraption turns ear cleaning into a carnival game. Load it up, take aim, and watch as your Q-tips soar gracefully across the bathroom. Just don't blame us if your mirror suddenly needs extra wiping.

Click to download Q-tip Catapult model .

Turn trash into treasure with this clever creation! This shadow box puts the "fun" in "functional art" by repurposing your 3D printing leftovers. Fill it with colorful bits of waste filament, failed prints, or support materials. The result is a unique, abstract piece that showcases the beauty in imperfection. It's a great way to reduce waste and create a conversation starter that tells the story of your 3D printing journey.

Click to download Upcycled Filament Art Box model .

Meet Burp, the cross-eyed frog with a heart of gold and a brain of... well, plastic. This goofy little guy is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, even on the dreariest Monday morning. Pop him on your desk and watch as coworkers stop by just to give him a squeeze.

Click to download Burp Model .

For those who like their desk toys with a side of engineering, this gear cylinder is a match made in fidget heaven. Spin, twist, and manipulate intricate gears in a mesmerizing dance of plastic precision. It's like a stress ball for your inner mechanic.

Click to download Gear-Brain Twister model .

Whether you're looking to organize your keys with style, add a touch of whimsy to your decor, or even launch Q-tips across your bathroom, there's a 3D-printed creation waiting to bring a smile to your face. These 37 ideas are just the beginning - the real magic happens when you fire up your printer and let your imagination run wild. So why wait? Grab some filament, queue up a design, and watch as your ideas come to life, one layer at a time. Your next favorite thing might be just a print away!

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