METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING PRINTOUT HAVING CROSS-SECTIONAL PATTERN

Abstract

The present invention is a printing device using multiple inks and a printing method using thereof, and more specifically, relates to a three-dimensional printing method of a printed product with a cross-sectional pattern comprising a step of providing different inks into each partitioned spaces and applying the same pressure condition to the inks retained in the ink-receiving part, thereby extruding the inks into a single extruding port to prepare and print an extruded ink product, using the printing device comprising an ink extruding member comprising an ink-receiving part receiving the multiple inks in each partitioned space, and an ink-extruding part equipped with a single passage in which the multiple inks received in the ink-receiving part are passed together.

Claims

1. A three-dimensional printing device of a printed product with a cross-sectional pattern, comprising an ink extruding member comprising a partitioning member providing two or more partitioned spaces, an ink receiving part that receives different ink in the spaces partitioned by the partitioning member, and an ink-extruding part which is positioned in the lower part of the ink-receiving part and is equipped with a single passage in which the inks received in the ink-receiving part pass and extrude, a nozzle connected to a terminus of the ink-extruding part, and a pressing member applying pressure to the inks retained in each partitioned spaces, wherein the different inks are printed through the ink-extruding part equipped with the single passage so as to have the same cross-sectional pattern as the printed product, wherein the extruded ink product discharged from the ink-extruding part has the same cross-sectional pattern as the cross-sectional pattern of the ink-receiving part with the reduced size, and wherein at least one of the inks comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of a gelling polymer, a cell, a growth factor, and an extracellular matrix.

2. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the inks received in each partitioned spaces are extruded together, by applying pressure to the inks received in each partitioned spaces with the single pressure member.

3. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning member is detachable from the ink extruding member.

4. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning member further comprises a hollow part installable in the ink-receiving part.

5. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the partitioning member is prepared by a three-dimensional printing method.

6. The printing device according to claim 1, further comprising an ink providing member which is connected to the ink extruding member and provides inks into each partitioned spaces of the ink extruding member.

7. The printing device according to claim 6, wherein the ink providing member comprises an ink storage tank, and a controlling part of ink supply which controls supply of ink supplied through a supply pipe from the storage tank to an ink-receiving part.

8. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the inks have different one or more kinds selected from the group consisting of ink constituents, content of ink constituents and physical properties of ink constituents.

9. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the inks is hydrogel which is collagen, matrigel, alginate, gelatin, agarose, hyaluronic acid, fibrin gel, or a mixed hydrogel.

10. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the inks is a cell ink derived from a cellularized tissue.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0087] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing showing an ink extruding member having a ink-receiving part partitioned as 4 spaces according to one example of the present invention.

[0088] FIG. 2 is a drawing schematically showing an ink extruding member having a ink-receiving part partitioned as 5 spaces according to one example of the present invention.

[0089] FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are a combined view and an exploded view schematically showing an ink extruding member equipped with a hollow part and a partitioning member according to one example of the present invention.

[0090] FIG. 5 is a photograph showing a partitioning member used for an ink extruding member according to one example of the present invention.

[0091] FIG. 6 is the result of observing that RGB hydrogel is printed using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions with a confocal microscope according to Example 1.

[0092] FIG. 7 shows the result of confocal microscope observation showing the printing result of RGB hydrogel according to a change in the size of nozzle using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions according to Example 2.

[0093] FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 show the result of observing that RGB hydrogel is printed using an extruding member equipped with various shapes of partitioning members with a confocal microscope according to Example 3.

MODE FOR INVENTION

[0094] The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples, but the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited by the following examples.

EXAMPLE 1

[0095] In order to perform a three-dimensional printing using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions, a 4-partition partitioning member was prepared by a three-dimensional printing method using a polylactic acid (PLA) as a material.

[0096] As the result of observing fluorescence with a confocal microscope, after 3 w/v % sodium alginate containing a green, blue and red fluorescent particle respectively was put into a syringe equipped with the 4-partition partitioning member and 3 w/v % sodium alginate without a fluorescent particle was put into the other, it was confirmed that RGB hydrogel was printed in each partition which contained the fluorescent particle.

[0097] FIG. 6 shows the result of observing that RGB hydrogel is printed using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions according to Example 1. In other words, fluorescence observation of the extruded result with a confocal microscope is the left drawing of FIG. 6, and the cross-sectional view of the extruded result is the right drawing (scale bars are 100 um both). The bottom is the result of analyzing the cross-section with the diameter passing through the center of the cross-sectional pattern in the right cross-sectional view of FIG. 6, and represents the plot of fluorescence intensity values of the graph. It shows that printing inks as divided in 4 partitions according to the present invention with high resolution is possible.

EXAMPLE 2

[0098] It was confirmed that RGB hydrogel was printed with a confocal microscope using a three-dimensional printing device using the same ink extruding member as Example 1 with 18, 20, 22, 25 and 27 Gauge of the size of nozzle. FIG. 6 shows the result of confocal microscope observation showing a printing result of RGB hydrogel according to a change of the size of nozzle, using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions according to Example 2. As shown in the cross-sectional view, downsizing in the same shape as the cross-section shape of the ink extruding member was possible.

[0099] According to examples of the present invention, the ratio of downsizing was possible by 98.7% (200 μm) from the total diameter (15 mm) of a certain shape (Example: Lobule). It was calculated according to the equation.

Downsizing ratio=100−(ink-receiving part diameter/printed diameter)×100(%)   [Equation 1]

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Ink-receiving Classification part Nozzle Inner diameter 15 mm 0.83 mm  0.62 mm 0.41 mm  0.25 mm 0.2 mm Printing 15 mm   1 mm 0.725 mm 0.55 mm 0.375 mm 0.2 mm diameter Downsizing(%) — 93.4 95.2 96.4 97.5 98.7 Downsizing — 100:15 100:11 100:3.7 100:2.5 100:1.3 ratio

[0100] FIG. 7 show the result of confocal microscope observation showing the printing result of RGB hydrogel according to a change of the size of nozzle using an extruding member comprising a ink-receiving part divided into 4 partitions according to Example 2.

EXAMPLE 3

[0101] In order to perform a three-dimensional printing using an ink extruding member equipped with various shapes of partitioning parts, various shapes of partitioning members were prepared by a three-dimensional printing method using a polyactic acid (PLA) as a material.

[0102] As the result of putting 3 w/v % sodium alginate containing a green, blue and red fluorescent particle, respectively, into a syringe equipped with a partitioning member, it was confirmed that RGB hydrogel was printed in each partition.

[0103] FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 show the result of observing that RGB hydrogel is printed using an extruding member equipped with various shapes of partitioning members with a confocal microscope according to Example 3. According to the experimental result, it can be confirmed that the ink-receiving part of the ink extruding member can copy not only 4 partitions but also various forms of tissues. FIG. 9 shows the fluorescence intensity from various shapes of extruded products of FIG. 8 as a graph, and the left graph shows a two-dimensional fluorescence intensity graph for the one-dimensional dotted line from the yellow dotted line of FIG. 8, and the right graph shows a three-dimensional fluorescence intensity graph for the surface from the white square box of FIG. 8. For FIG. 9, the first graph from the top is the analysis of two-dimensional light intensity of the three-dimensional printing result using the first partitioning member of FIG. 8, and shows a two-dimensional fluorescence RGB light intensity for the one-dimensional dotted line from the yellow dotted line of FIG. 8, and the second graph is the analysis of three-dimensional light intensity of the three-dimensional printing result using the second partitioning member of FIG. 8, and shows a three-dimensional fluorescence RGB light intensity for the two-dimensional surface from the white box of FIG. 8.

[0104] Although the present invention has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, the scope of the present invention is determined by the following claims and is not intended to be limited to the aforementioned examples and/or drawings.