FLM 3D printer system

• Subject Area: Materials Science
• Term: Funded in 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554396778

Owing to a constantly aging society as a result of the correlation between demographic change and evolving medical care, the use of biomaterials is also steadily increasing. In orthopedics, dentistry, oral and maxillofacial, and other surgical disciplines, permanent or biodegradable implants are used to replace lost hard tissue following trauma, tumors, or malformations. Standardized implants are often not suitable for compensating the inadequate anatomical conditions in terms of bone geometry and quality, requiring complex implants with undercuts and structuring that cannot be produced economically or at all using conventional manufacturing processes. In the future, additive manufacturing can contribute to increased implant stability and improved long-term stability through individualized implants. To enable this, the global influence of complex structures on the mechanical properties and the challenging parameter management required to produce them must be characterized from an engineering perspective. Furthermore, an understanding must be gained of the extent to which the additive processes influence the local properties of such structures, ensuring consistent properties through knowledge-based management of the process parameters. For this purpose, a filament-based fused layer modeling (FLM) 3D printer for high-performance medical polymers will drive additive manufacturing and its in-depth microstructural and mechanical characterization at TU Dortmund University and contribute to the research strategy of the Chair of Materials Test Engineering across the range from additive manufacturing to structural analysis and fatigue behavior with corresponding measurement and test technology. Compared to conventional 3D printers for industrial applications, the targeted system offers the advantage of sterile manufacturing within the printing chamber as well as a homogeneous temperature distribution by a laminar air flow, enabling the control and increase of layer-to-layer adhesion in all axes. For monitoring and quality control, the system allows process analysis and documentation of all important parameters, so that the generated specimens and implants can be fully analyzed and adapted regarding a process-structure-property relationship. With regard to the integration of the system into current and planned research projects, an open filament system with polymers of the medical and industrial class, as well as the controllability of all relevant process parameters, is necessary and possible, so that new material classes which have not yet been the subject of research can also be processed in the future.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: FLM-3D-Druckersystem
• Instrumentation Group: 2110 Formen-, Modellherstellung und gießereitechnische Maschinen
• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität Dortmund
• Leader: Professor Dr.-Ing. Frank Walther