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Vagina, Humans, Silicone Elastomers, Equipment and Supplies, Computer-Aided Design, Female, Printing, Three-Dimensional, Bioengineering, Issue 88, liquid injection molding, reaction injection molding, molds, 3D printing, fused deposition modeling, rapid prototyping, medical devices, low cost, low volume, rapid turnaround time, Printing, Three-Dimensional, Cognitive Sciences, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Psychology

Biologically inert elastomers such as silicone are favorable materials for medical device fabrication, but forming and curing these elastomers using traditional liquid injection molding processes can be an expensive process due to tooling and equipment costs. As a result, it has traditionally been impractical to use liquid injection molding for low-cost, rapid prototyping applications. We have devised a method for rapid and low-cost production of liquid elastomer injection molded devices that utilizes fused deposition modeling 3D printers for mold design and a modified desiccator as an injection system. Low costs and rapid turnaround time in this technique lower the barrier to iteratively designing and prototyping complex elastomer devices. Furthermore, CAD models developed in this process can be later adapted for metal mold tooling design, enabling an easy transition to a traditional injection molding process. We have used this technique to manufacture intravaginal probes involving complex geometries, as well as overmolding over metal parts, using tools commonly available within an academic research laboratory. However, this technique can be easily adapted to create liquid injection molded devices for many other applications.

Phonograph, Three-dimensional printing, Cultural property, Acoustic devices, Rapid prototyping, Preservation of cultural property, and Preservation of materials

3D printing of missing parts of a cultural heritage artifact opens many possibilities and extends the challenges in the processes of intervention on cultural heritage assets. However, restoring these objects may not only mean the replacement of a missing element from its esthetic point of view, but restoring the function for which objects were created. In these processes, the replica of the object must be exact and of quality, but also specific. In this sense, the presented work is a multi-disciplinary attempt to reproduce the missing horn of a phonograph dated to the late nineteenth century. This phonograph belongs to the collection of the 'Vicente Miralles Segarra' Telecommunication Museum of the Universitat Politècnica de València. The objective was to recover its esthetic, didactic, and functional levels, i.e restoring its ability to emit sound. To this end, several models were printed with different materials, and the quality of the recorded sound with the different horns was evaluated, assessing their similarity to that obtained from an original horn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing, Additive manufacturing, Data integration, Freeform fabrication, Medicine, Rapid prototyping, Standards, and Terminology

Background:Medical 3D printing is expanding exponentially, with tremendous potential yet to be realized in nearly all facets of medicine. Unfortunately, multiple informal subdomain-specific isolated terminological 'silos' where disparate terminology is used for similar concepts are also arising as rapidly. It is imperative to formalize the foundational terminology at this early stage to facilitate future knowledge integration, collaborative research, and appropriate reimbursement. The purpose of this work is to develop objective, literature-based consensus-building methodology for the medical 3D printing domain to support expert consensus. Results:We first quantitatively survey the temporal, conceptual, and geographic diversity of all existing published applications within medical 3D printing literature and establish the existence of self-isolating research clusters. We then demonstrate an automated objective methodology to aid in establishing a terminological consensus for the field based on objective analysis of the existing literature. The resultant analysis provides a rich overview of the 3D printing literature, including publication statistics and trends globally, chronologically, technologically, and within each major medical discipline. The proposed methodology is used to objectively establish the dominance of the term "3D printing" to represent a collection of technologies that produce physical models in the medical setting. We demonstrate that specific domains do not use this term in line with objective consensus and call for its universal adoption. Conclusion:Our methodology can be applied to the entirety of medical 3D printing literature to obtain a complete, validated, and objective set of recommended and synonymous definitions to aid expert bodies in building ontological consensus.

Glass structure, Photons, Daylight, Rapid prototyping, Fabrication (Manufacturing), and Light scattering

Advances in digital fabrication and additive manufacturing have enabled the creation of geometrically complex glass structures and building components, opening up new design opportunities across scales. Quantifying and evaluating their optical performance, however, remains a technical challenge. In order to accurately predict light behavior, common approaches of daylight modeling utilizing light-backward raytracers are insufficient. This paper evaluates the use of the photon mapping approach within the Radiance render engine to simulate artificial and natural lighting conditions. 3D printed optically transparent glass components are used to benchmark the simulations. We present a workflow to gather geometric data of the glass objects and a series of validation experiments. Pairs of physical studies and digital simulations are compared to assess optical performance in the context of both indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. These experiments demonstrate that the photon mapping approach can reliably measure and predict caustic light patterns and indoor light levels with some limitations, specifically of glare and scattered light from the glass objects themselves. Image 1 • Complex glass structures cannot be simulated accurately with backward raytracing. • 3D printed glass structures are used to evaluate simulation performance. • A workflow for geometry capture and simulation is presented. • Photon mapping excels at simulating light behaviour with some limitations. • Interior light levels and caustic light patterns can be predicted reliably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotors, Torque, 3-D printers, Rapid prototyping, and Computational fluid dynamics

In this study increasing the performance of Conventional Savonius wind rotor has been investigated by a 3D (three dimensional) printer which is one of the rapid prototyping techniques. For this purpose, some design changes have been introduced to increase the performance of conventional Savonius wind rotor. Here, 3D digital designing of Savonius wind rotors have been easily manufactured tangible as a physical model by a 3D printer. Experimental data concerning produced Savonius wind rotors have been acquired by using a wind tunnel. Some numerical data have been obtained from the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis carried out under the same conditions. The effects of the additional blade end design have been examined to obtain more torque increase on improved classical Savonius wind rotor. Furthermore, by means of introducing straight blade, the effects of the flow compression inside the blade have been reduced and rotor performance increased. Based on such optimizations, optimum additional design parameters have been designated as that (1/r) ratio is 0.3, (s/r) is 1, and (α) additional straight blade angle is 135°. It has been determined that power coefficient is increased at a ratio of around 20% together with all these design changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]