Looking for a 3D printing service with biocompatible materials

Hi everyone,
I'm a scientist working with biocompatible materials, and I realized recently that some companies already released 3D printers using such materials, mainly for dental applications. However since it's such a recent development (only 1 or 2 years) I cannot find companies who offer printing service for people who can't afford to buy the printer (we're talking tens or hundreds of thousands for such a printer). Do you know of any company offering such a service? I would need ideally a transparent or translucid material, as I would like to print a fluidic channel. At the moment I'm gluing laser cut PMMA plates together, and it's very tedious. During filling of the channel with fluid, I have to remove air bubbles manually, that's why it needs to be translucid: if it's opaque I can't know if I still have unwanted bubbles inside.

It's not microfluidics, but it still needs good precision (close to the limit of the best printers unfortunately): +/- 20 µm for the thickness of the plates. My channels are about 1 cm wide, 10 cm long, and 0.2 to 1 mm high. It doesn't have very fancy details, but the height (0.2-1 mm) of the fluidic channel should be quite precise. It doesn't have to be PMMA, just bio compatible and translucid. Do you know of any company that may offer such specific printing request?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Do these parts have to be 3D printed? It sounds like something that would be better done with CNC machining in a transparent material, a process that's better suited to the sort of precision you're looking for. If this is a simple channel without undercuts, it might be worth investigating alternative means of producing them.

Andrew Werby
computersculpture.com

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Originally Posted by awerby

Do these parts have to be 3D printed? It sounds like something that would be better done with CNC machining in a transparent material, a process that's better suited to the sort of precision you're looking for. If this is a simple channel without undercuts, it might be worth investigating alternative means of producing them.

Andrew Werby
computersculpture.com

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At the moment we are laser cutting plates and assembling them by hand, which is very tedious. There are channels at the entrance and exit of the device that couldn't be done with a CNC machine unless doing several plates, and we would then still have to assemble them by hand. So at best the CNC machine would replace our laser cutting machine, so it's not worth it.

Xerox has set its foot forward into the 3D printing industry and they have a research centre which works with printed electronics and bio-renewable materials. Their motto even has to do with minimizing the environmental impact caused by the custom material development.

Perhaps, you can try communicating with the research team because I'm certain that they offer the printing service for the design of "green materials". Good luck with your endeavours.

the 3D printer materials are still a long way to go.

have a word with davo at Hyrel. Their machines are doing this fairly regularly. https://3dprintboard.com/member.php?332-Davo
I don't think they offer a printing service - but he could probably point you in the direction of someone with one of their machines who might.

And the hyrels are probably cheaper than you think as well as considerably more versatile:
http://www.hyrel3d.com/