Abstract Scope |
Biological additive manufacturing (Bio-AM) has received attention as a potential means of biocompatible scaffold formation. This technology holds promise, but its study is primarily focused on material development, scaffold design, and printability analysis. While these are vital assessments, researching solely those aspects leaves the process itself as a “black box” where the inputs and outputs are known, but how the printing process affects the scaffold is unknown. Due to this deficiency of in-process knowledge, the printing process lacks repeatability. Further, without active in-situ monitoring, parts can only be determined as good or bad after the conclusion of the print, potentially wasting valuable time and resources on defective products. Therefore, it is our goal to gather in-process knowledge of one form of Bio-AM, extrusion-based Bio-AM, through the incorporation of a heterogenous sensing system to assess various indicators of scaffold quality. |