Dysphagia affects many people worldwide. Modifying foods to standard consistencies, and manual design and assembly of foods for the daily requirements of people with dysphagia is challenging. People with dysphagia may develop a dislike for pureed foods due to the unattractiveness of the appearance of the foods, the lack of variety in daily meals, and the diluted taste of meals. Three-dimensional (3D) food printing is emerging as a method for making foods for people with special mealtime needs. Very few efforts have been made to apply 3D food printing to improving the lives of people with special mealtime needs such…
The demand for rapid and accurate fabrication of light-weight, biocompatible, and soft actuators in soft robotics has perused researchers to design and fabricate such products by rapid manufacturing techniques. The self-folding origami structure is a type of soft actuator that has applications in micro electro mechanical systems, soft electronics, and biomedical devices. 3-dimentional (3D) printing is a current manufacturing process that can be used for fabrication of involute soft self-folding products by means of shape memory polymer materials. This paper presents, for the first time, a method for developing a photo thermal self-folding soft actuator using a 3D bioplotter. Easily…
A variety of different approaches have been employed to enable implantation of electronic medical microdevices. A novel method of producing low-cost, rapidly fabricated implantable enclosures from biocompatible silicone is presented in this paper. This method utilises 3D computer-aided design software to design and model the enclosures prior to fabrication. The enclosures are then fabricated through additive manufacturing from biocompatible silicone using a 3D bioprinter. In this paper, four different implantable enclosure designs are presented. A prototyping stage with three different prototypes is described, these prototype enclosures are then evaluated through submersion and operation tests. A final design is developed in…
This paper discusses design and fabrication processes in the development of a wearable and flexible conductive resistive sensor. The design and development of the sensor involve the use of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC)plated Nylon fabric, precisionfused deposition modeling(FDM) using silicone and petrolatum for etch-resistant masks using the EnvisionTEC GmbH Bioplotter, and wet etching using Chromium, Ammonium Persulphate, and Salt-Vinegar etching solutions. Preliminary testing with other mask types, development processes, and sensor design approaches for various applications are discussed.
A number of methods have been used to make electronic medical microdevices biocompatible. This paper presents a novel approach for design and fabrication of biocompatible silicone enclosures for implantable medical microdevices. The approach involves design and formation of a 3D model of the enclosure using a computer-aided design software tool, followed by 3D printing of the enclosures using a bioplotter. Three different implantable enclosure designs are presented. The fabrication of the three enclosures is given. An evaluation of the suitability of the enclosures for implantation of a deep brain stimulation microdevice is discussed through submersion and operation tests. The evaluation…