Influence of Mechanical Properties of Biomaterials on the Reconstruction of Biomedical Parts via Additive Manufacturing Techniques: An Overview

Additive manufacturing (AM) is the opposite of conventional manufacturing technologies, creating an opportunity to fabricate parts using a layer upon layer approach to obtain 3D patterns. AM technology has provided an opportunity for biomaterials usage in the bio-fabrication of organs and scaffolds for tissues engineering. In recent times, AM has been well-utilized for the printing of organs, customized implants, anatomical models for surgery training kits, drug formulations, prosthetics, orthotics, dentistry, and scaffolds for tissue engineering with the use of metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites materials. Printing of biomaterial that has a suitable viscosity, enough strength, good biocompatibility, and degradability has been reported by many researchers to be an arduous task. Biomaterials printed with robust mechanical properties are considered highly essential for the fabrication of soft tissues such as cartilage and skin because the function of such tissues mainly relies on their mechanical properties that possess the capacity to support cell proliferation and extracellular matrix production. For repairing and regenerating organs or tissue, the implant must provide sufficient mechanical support to endure in vivo stresses and load-bearing cycles. This book chapter aims to document the mechanical properties of 3D printed biomaterials and provides a keys future research direction.