Design and fabrication of 3D-printed hard-soft interfaces made from PLA and hydrogel

The mechanical properties of biological hard-soft interfaces change gradually over a small surface area to prevent the formation of stress concentrations through variations in the interface’s chemical composition, microstructure and geometry. The bone-tendon/ligament and bone-cartilage interface are the most prominent hard-soft interfaces within...

The Structural Feasibility of 3D-printing houses using printable polymers

At this point in time, 3D-printing techniques in general, but especially applied for the building industry, still are in a phase of early experiments. One of the experimental attempts is to print a full-scale, three-story high, house in Amsterdam, using an up scaled version of a FDM-printer that is able to print blocks of 1.8 x 1.8 x 3.0 meters...

Design and evaluation of 3D-printed fluid-controlled actuators with integrated valves

Fluid-controlled actuators are widely used in lower limb prostheses. Most fluid-controlled actuators have valves integrated into the cylinder systems and require complex manufacturing steps, making these systems expensive. A cost-effective production method for these complex actuator valve systems is 3D-printing. The goal of this research is to...