{"id":1017,"date":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","slug":"3d\/4d-printing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"3D\/4D Printing"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D and 4D Printing<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 3D printing<\/span><\/a>, technologies are used to make objects, by adding layers of material in accordance with digital designs, allowing little waste and being more energy & material efficient than technologies that use conventional methods. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This ‘additive manufacturing’, as opposed to the expensive and limited ‘subtractive’ business of cutting, drilling and hammering material away, allows for a rapid explosion in innovation and mass-customization of objects in new and existing fabrication facilities, using the digital infrastructure<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

BIO-Printers churning out LIVING tissues<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To repair a human body part, a 3D printer is now as valuable as an x-ray machine, microscope, or a sharp scalpel. Bioengineers are using 3D printers to make more durable hip and knee joints, prosthetic limbs, and produce living tissue attached to a scaffold of printed material.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently, bio-printed tissue can be used to test the effects of drug treatments, with a goal of printing entire organs that can be grown and then transplanted into a patient. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The latest step toward 3D-printed replacements of failed human parts is a bio-printed section of the spinal cord that can be custom-fit into a patient’s injury.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Small implants were made of softgel and then filled with neural stem cells, using a printer. The implants were then surgically placed inside a tiny gap in a rat’s spinal cord. Over time the new nerve cells and axons grew and formed new connections across the cut spinal cord of the animal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These nerve cells connected not only with one another but with the host spinal cord tissue and the circulatory systems of the patient, which helps ensure their survival in the body. The precision 3D printing allowed the softgel and cellular matrix to fit accurately into the wound.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bio-printers use a computer-guided pipette to layer living cells, referred to as bio-ink, on top of one another to create artificial living tissue in a laboratory. Most bio-printers can only print down to 200 microns, but this group developed a method of producing tissue down to 1 micron. This higher resolution meant they were able to more accurately reconstruct the mixture of gray and white matter that makes up the spinal cord.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n