Development of 3D Bone Scaffold Using Hyroxyapatite or Alumina Powders and Rapid Prototyping

Bioceramic scaffolds with fully controlled macroporosity are highly desired materials for bone substitutes. In order to incorporate interconnecting pore channels into bioceramics, novel rapid prototyping techniques such as fused deposition modelling (FDM) or high definition stereolithography (SLA) were used. Polymer rapid prototyping moulds, with a strut size varying between 300 μm and 1 mm, were produced for ceramics casting. The moulds were filled with low viscosity aqueous hydroxyapatite or alumina slips. After burning out of the polymer and sintering of the bioceramics 3D bioceramic scaffolds were obtained. The final samples were characterized for their microstructure, density, porosity and mechanical properties