Investigation of the effective factors on manufacturing calcium phosphates prototypes using 3D printing

Calcium phosphate ceramics has been widely used in the present due to their chemical similarity to bone and good biocompatibility in the physiological environmental and a compatibility with synthetic and natural polymers Recent advancements in additive manufacturing have enabled the fabrication of 3D prototypes with controlled architecture resembling the natural bone. Binder jetting is a versatile method for production of bone scaffolds. In this method the solid is created by the reaction of a liquid selectively sprayed onto a powder bed. The article aims at understanding the link between powder parameters include flow ability, particle size and particle size distribution and printing quality. In this study the powder bed included hydroxyapatite and carboxymethyl chitosan as a mineral and organic constituent of bone respectively. For this purpose, we synthesized carboxymethyl chitosan which is a derivation of chitosan and it is soluble in water. Hydroxyapatite powder and carboxymethyl chitosan was mixed and the properties of the final mixture optimized.