Bio-Printer

Improvements to the Bioprinter

By Ali Etezadkhah – Project Manager While were able to print structures that were well within our stated tolerances, the process is cumbersome at the moment.  There are several features that are missing from the current design, most of which can be easily added to the printer. The aluminum printing plate is too thin and […]

Tolerance of 3-D BioPrinter

By Omair Tariq, Systems and Test Engineer Purpose The purpose of this blog post is to determine the tolerance of our 3-D Bioprinter. Our level 1 requirement was that the printed object’s measurement should be within 0.7 mm of the value specified in the 3-D model of the object. Equipment Needed   Equipment Quantity 3-D […]

Fine Tuning the Printer

By Omair Tariq, Systems and Test Engineer Scope There are two issues to ensure correct flow of the mixture: Volume and Temperature Control of extrusion apparatus. The extrusion apparatus consists of a syringe and a needle attached to the base of the syringe. Temperature control was addressed by attaching a heater to the body of […]

A System Overview of 3-D BioPrinter

By Omair Tariq,  Systems and Test Engineer   Fig. 1 System Block Diagram of the 3-D BioPrinter Following is a system engineering perspective of the 3-D BioPrinter 1.)    A 3-D Model is sent as instructions known as G-Code from the Computer to the Primary Arduino (Arduino MEGA) that are then translated by the Arduino, using […]

Gel Point Test Plan Excuted

By Omair Tariq Purpose The purpose of this test plan was to carry out the test plan here and determine the gel point of 1% Agarose gel. This test plan would also serve to verify the specification already provided by the manufacturer of the powder. Equipment needed Equipment Quantity Spatula 1 Mesuring balance accurate to […]

Temperature Control at the Tip & Base of the Syringe

By W. Mevan Fernando & Ali Etezadkhah After pouring the agarose gel into the syringe it was found that the gel solidified at the base of the syringe  and at the tip of the needle due to lack of heating in those specific areas. Initially we decided to use 0.5Ω, 5W wire wound resistors to […]

Thermoelectric Peltier Cooler Secondary Testing & Print Bed Installation

By W. Mevan Fernando Due to the first set of TECs we purchased being faulty, we decided to purchase a single high quality TEC with a current rating of 10A. This would provide enough cooling by itself to cool the print bed.   The video below shows the print bed setup. A much larger heat […]

Thermoelectric Peltier Cooler Explained & Initial Testing

By W. Mevan Fernando Peltier cooling modules are solid-state active heat pumps that transfer heat from one side to the other based on the Peltier effect. A TEC has two plates, the cold and the hot plate. Between those plates are several thermocouples. All those thermocouples are connected together and two wires, the negative and […]

Resolution And Software Summary

By: Anh Nguyen I/ X,Y,Z Resolution The object of this experiment is to calculate the resolution of the x, y and z axis of the 3D bio printer. First, the theoretical values from the manufacture’s specification sheet are used for the resolution calculation. Then the experimental values are used to calculate resolution. We will use […]

Gel Point Test Plan

By Omair Tariq Scope It was determined that agarose gel will be used as the “ink” for the 3-D bioprinter. Agarose gel was chosen primarily because of its low cost and its use as an overlay for cells in tissue culturing. [1]. The gel point is the temperature at which the gel mixture transitions from […]