Biocompatible Composites for Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing is a printing process that layers a material to form a part. In the medical industry, biomaterials like metals, plastics and composites are used in printing implants. There are opportunities to replace additive biomaterials that are non re sorbable, not conductive and expensive with improved biocompatible composites for printing. One such biocompatible composite is a non re sorbable nylon and polyolefin with cellulose fiber where a micropore structure can be designed and printed for optimization to compare against a printed macro pore structure made with PEEK. The optimized design for a printed biocompatible composite would be a symmetrical microporous structure incorporating 70-80 microns having 36% more mass than the implant PEEK macro pore counterpart. The symmetrical micropore structure of the composite can be easily sterilized using standard methods like autoclave. The additional mass will greatly improve implant strength, incorporate more surface area for adhesion, increase impact and compressive loads. Plus, the printed biocompatible composition has shown to have conductive properties promoting cell and tissue in growth. As for a cost reduction, the nylon based cellulose fiber composite is approx. 20% less weight than implantable PEEK, translating into more filament per spool. See www.fibretuff.us for more information.