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SHORT COMMUNICATION

Novel High-Speed 3D Printing Method Using Selective

Oil Sintering with Thermoplastic Polyurethane Powder

Printing

Jun Yi-Wu , Chih-Hua Hsieh *, Zheng-Ying Lin 2
1
2
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology, No. 229, Jianxing Rd., Zhongli
Dist., Taoyuan City 320312, Taiwan
2 High Speed 3D Printing Research Center, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Keelung Rd.,
Sec. 4, Da’an Dist., Taipei 10607, Taiwan

Abstract: Present methods used in three-dimensional (3D) printing, such as selective laser sintering (SLS) and multijet fusion
(MJF), have limited applications, especially in relation to the manufacturing of biomedical products. The speed of SLS printing
is too low, and high-speed 3D printing technology with MJF uses carbon black particles as a fusing agent, which cannot
be removed from the completed 3D printed products. Carbon black and high-energy lasers are not suitable for biomedical
applications, especially human implants. A new high-speed 3D method is therefore required. In this study, we used hot oil
droplets (175°C) as a new type of fusing agent to melt the biomaterial thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) powder particles to
define the print area. This method replaces lasers and the carbon black fusing agent in high-speed 3D printing technology and
is more energy efficient. In addition, this method can be used to not only print on TPU, but also on other flexible materials.

Keywords: Selective oil sintering; Fusing agent; Food oil; Powder bed; Thermoplastic polyurethane

*Correspondence to: Chih-Hua Hsieh, High Speed 3D Printing Research Center, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43,
Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, Da’an Dist., Taipei 10607, Taiwan; d9603205@mail.ntust.edu.tw

Received: November 24, 2021; Accepted: January 07, 2022; Published Online: January 7, 2022
Citation: Wu JY, Hsieh CH, Lin ZY., 2022, Novel High-Speed 3D Printing Method Using Selective Oil Sintering with Thermoplastic
Polyurethane Powder Printing. Int J Bioprint, 8(2):521. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v8i2.521

1. Introduction Fast 3D printing has been recently developed, and
fast 3D printing processes such as MJF accelerate the
Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) has become a key printing process. MJF uses a “2D-to-3D” process, and
biomaterial for medical products, because it has good the printing speed is thus fundamentally higher than that
biocompatibility and can be used for human implants . of SLS. High-speed 3D printing technology uses infrared
[1]
Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a new manufacturing (IR) light as the energy to melt the polymer particles
method that can be applied to the manufacturing of to obtain a 3D pattern . The process is as follows: (i)
[8]
customized biomedical products , with methods Depositing a powder layer on a platform; (ii) defining the
[2]
including fused deposition modeling , selective laser print area on the powder surface after a fusing agent is
[3]
sintering (SLS) , direct light processing , and multijet deposited; and (iii) finally, irradiating the defined powder
[5]
[4]
fusion (MJF) . SLS and MJF are types of powder surface using an IR lamp . The fusing agent contains
[6]
[9]
bed fusion (PBF) 3D printing. Fast 3D printing can be carbon black, which is a strong IR absorber. The powder
defined as a printing process of the form “face (slice) is then sintered by exposing the entire part bed to IR
→ body” . The printing process used by SLS is of the radiation. However, according to reference , the carbon
[7]
[10]
form “dot→line→surface (slice)→body”; however, the black particles are not uniformly deposited on the powder
processing speed is limited by this complex procedure. particle surface, which influences the sintering process,
Thus, only MJF constitutes a fast 3D printing method. and the finished 3D-printed product still contains carbon
© 2022 Author(s), This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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