Optimising fused filament fabrication surface roughness for a dental implant
John D. Kechagias, Stephanos P. Zaoutsos
Abstract
Medical applications of 3D Printing (3DP) have been investigated with dental implants and prosthetics since 2000. However, the use of 3DP in dental implants has been growing due to their ability to print scaffolds with functional characteristics. The present work optimizes a medical-dental implant 3D printed by the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology in terms of three 3DPprocessing parameters, i.e. the infill rate (InfR), platform temperature (PlaT) and printing temperature (PriT). Furthermore, surface roughness is outlined in each case, and the parameter effects are explained while the printing time, shape quality and surface hardness are reported for the optimized implant. Additionally, a 3D printed dental implant with 0.16 mm Layer Thickness (LT) is utilized to show the pros and cons of the FFF technology versus the Poly Jet photopolymerization with 16 μm LT. Lastly, current challenges and future directions in FFF 3DP optimization issues of dental implants are also briefly outlined.