The principle and process of digital fabrication of biomedical objects

Abstract

Biomedical objects are used as prostheses to repair damaged bone structures and missing body parts, as well as to study complex human organs and plan surgical procedures. They are, however, not economical to make by traditional manufacturing processes. Researchers have therefore explored the multi-material layered manufacturing (MMLM) technology to fabricate biomedical objects from CAD models. Yet, current MMLM systems remain experimental with limited practicality; they are slow, expensive, and can only handle small, simple objects. To address these limitations, this chapter presents the multi-material virtual prototyping (MMVP) technology for digital fabrication of complex biomedical objects cost-effectively. MMVP integrates MMLM with virtual reality to fabricate biomedical objects for stereoscopic visualization and analyses to serve biomedical engineering purposes. This chapter describes the principle of MMVP and the processes of digital fabrication of biomedical objects. Case studies are presented to demonstrate these processes and their applications in biomedical engineering.