Three-dimensional printing accuracy analysis for medical applications across a wide variety of printers

Joshua Ray Chen; Jonathan Morris; Adam Wentworth; Victoria Sears; Andrew Duit; Eric Erie; Kiaran McGee; Shuai Leng

doi:10.1117/1.JMI.10.2.026501

3 April 2023 Three-dimensional printing accuracy analysis for medical applications across a wide variety of printers

Joshua Ray Chen, Jonathan Morris, Adam Wentworth, Victoria Sears, Andrew Duit, Eric Erie, Kiaran McGee, Shuai Leng

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Medical Imaging, Vol. 10, Issue 2, 026501 (April 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.10.2.026501

Abstract

Purpose

Three-dimensional (3D) printing has had a significant impact on patient care. However, there is a lack of standardization in quality assurance (QA) to ensure printing accuracy and precision given multiple printing technologies, variability across vendors, and inter-printer reliability issues. We investigated printing accuracy on a diverse selection of 3D printers commonly used in the medical field.

Approach

A specially designed 3D printing QA phantom was periodically printed on 16 printers used in our practice, covering five distinct printing technologies and eight different vendors. Longitudinal data were acquired over six months by printing the QA phantom monthly on each printer. Qualitative assessment and quantitative measurements were obtained for each printed phantom. Accuracy and precision were assessed by comparing quantitative measurements with reference values of the phantom. Data were then compared among printer models, vendors, and printing technologies; longitudinal trends were also analyzed.

Results

Differences in 3D printing accuracy across printers were observed. Material jetting and vat photopolymerization printers were found to be the most accurate. Printers using the same 3D printing technology but from different vendors also showed differences in accuracy, most notably between vat photopolymerization printers from two different vendors. Furthermore, differences in accuracy were found between printers from the same vendor using the same printing technology, but different models/generations.

Conclusions

These results show how factors such as printing technology, vendor, and printer model can impact 3D printing accuracy, which should be appropriately considered in practice to avoid potential medical or surgical errors.

Citation Download Citation

Joshua Ray Chen, Jonathan Morris, Adam Wentworth, Victoria Sears, Andrew Duit, Eric Erie, Kiaran McGee, and Shuai Leng "Three-dimensional printing accuracy analysis for medical applications across a wide variety of printers," Journal of Medical Imaging 10(2), 026501 (3 April 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.10.2.026501

Received: 16 September 2022; Accepted: 13 March 2023; Published: 3 April 2023

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KEYWORDS

Printing

3D printing

3D modeling

Biomedical applications

Photopolymerization

Extrusion

Data modeling

Purpose

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