Processing Biodegradable Polycaprolactone through 3D Printing

An initial study of processing biodegradable Polycaprolactone (PCL) through 3D printing technology was conducted using Fujifilm Dimatix DMP-2800 material printer. The aim of this work was to investigate a potential method of preparing and processing biodegradable polycaprolactone through 3D printing. PCL inks with a concentration of 5wt% and 10wt% were prepared to investigate their processability. The influences of waveform peak height, time gap, printing voltage, droplet velocity, substrate temperature and droplet spacing on PCL ink droplet formation as well as final deposition quality were investigated. Multi-layer PCL structures were printed and characterized with the geometric quality of deposited PCL measured using a Talysurf 2000 and Bruker ContourGT-I. It was found that PCL solvent ink can reach relative stable droplet formation and deposition when plate temperature was 30 ºC and droplet velocity was 6m/s. Printed PCL solvent ink showed ‘coffee ring’ effect after solidification. When deposition droplet spacing equals to 40µm, printed PCL film showed the lowest surface roughness.