Thermal Analysis of an Extrusion System of a 3-D Bioprinter

This work presents a finite element thermal analysis of a 3-D bioprinter desktop based on Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) with applications on tissue engineering, designed by the Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development-Leiria, Portugal. The purpose of this work it is compare three possibilities of temperature control of the machine during the extrusion process, considering the use of a biodegradable polyester (Polycaprolactone-PCL) as raw material. The first two configurations simulate approaches typically adopted in an attempt to keep the polymer as close as possible to 80°C and prevent its premature solidification at a critical point. The third configuration considers a hypothetical material substitution to enhance thermal conductivity. The results indicate that the first two configurations are not sufficient to achieve total control of the polymer temperature. However, the third configuration show a significant potential to improve the thermal control of the extrusion process.