Multi-material printing of thermoplastics using bio-printers

Multi-material 3D printing of thermoplastics has gained the limelight due to its better mechanical and thermal behavior which makes it more suitable for a wide variety of industrial applications in comparison to single-material 3D printing. For the past few years, 3D printing of multi-material using fused filament fabrication (FFF) has been explored but hitherto little work has been reported on multi-material 3D printing of thermoplastics using dispenser printing. This research work is focused on ascertaining the multi-material 3D printing of different gels using a dispenser printer. Initially in this study, 3D printing of commercial silicon gels (Make: Anabond, used as a sealant for packaging (X), and Astral Adhesives, used in high-temperature applications (Y) used in automobile industries) was explored for tensile properties. After this 3D printing was performed by using two gels and their mechanical properties were ascertained. To form the dual gel two combinations were explored (X + Y) and (Y + X) and mechanical properties were ascertained in both cases. It has been observed that 3D-printed tensile specimen fabricated by using the combination of Y + X has better mechanical properties. The peak load of tensile specimens prepared with gel X, Y, X + Y, and Y + X were 2.946 N, 15.591 N, 6.844 N, and 18.542 N.