Desktop HealthThe Medical 3D Printing arm of Desktop Metal, has announced the launch of PrintRoll, a rotating build platform that can produce intelligent tubular solutions for the body’s vascular, digestive, respiratory and reproductive channels on the 3D-Bioplotter bioprinting system.
Desktop Health reports that the 3D Bioplotter, an extrusion based 3D Printer, processes liquids and melts as well as pastes and gels. Cells can also be processed through a needle-tip on a Swiss-made 3-axis Gantry System with high precision and temperature control.
3D-Bioplotter offers eight printheads with what the company says is the widest range of temperatures in bioprinting, from 2°C to 500°C, enabling complex, multi-material medical parts. PrintRoll, an add-on to the Bioplotter, has been under development since 2019. It is part of a collaborative effort with Johanes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal said: “We are proud to offer the first bioprinting tool specifically designed to develop medical solutions for the thousands of miles of channels found in the human body. Desktop Health is dedicated to delivering 3D printing technologies that improve the lives of patients. We believe that PrintRoll – offered exclusively on 3D-Bioplotter – will lead to new regenerative innovation. We look forward to seeing what our customers will create next with this exciting new tool.”
PrintRoll attaches directly to the 3D Bioplotter’s modular build plate. It has a rotating mandrel powered by a motor and drums with different sizes that can be easily swapped. PrintRoll rotates the printhead back and forth, depositing the material onto the surface.
The product is available in a 10mm drum. Other sizes are also available: 20mm, 40mm, and 50mm. These sizes allow for the development of solutions that can be tailored to different age groups and genders.
“Up until now, the creation of thin-walled cylindrical devices with complex structured walls has been challenging to accomplish with regenerative materials, such as hydrogels,” said Nicole Black, Ph.D., VP of Biomaterials and Innovation at Desktop Health. “With the PrintRoll, materials are patterned directly on top of a substrate that rolls as the printhead also moves, supporting the deposited layers and therefore expanding the palette of materials that can be 3D printed into these important structures, Following printing, devices can be removed from the PrintRoll, leaving high-resolution and reproducible parts that customers have come to expect from the 3D-Bioplotter.”