(Invited) Low-cost 3D Gel Printer as Soft and Wet Industrial Materials Easy Realizer Developed by Virtue of RepRap Open Source Project

Abstract

Soft hydrogel, which contains a amount of water and also has a unique touch feeling, will be required for practical applications around soft-matter robotics including the medical field because it has an unique softness that is close to the living body and has a biocompatibility. Among them, our SWEL developed RepRap SWIM-ER, a desktop type 3D gel printer that enables 3D free-formation of soft hydrogels. The RepRap SWIM-ER is a device that can shape the soft hydrogels into a desired shape by moving a laser pointer as the light source and irradiating the gel solution in the bathtub with ultraviolet light for photo-induced gelation. This 3D gel printer can be realized at low cost because it utilizes the results of the RepRap open source project to design the device and control it with software. Furukawa established the “Soft 3D Co-creation Consortium” (URL: https://soft3d-c.jp) in April 2018. Considering the members of this consortium as test users, we will provide a desktop type 3D gel printer RepRap SWIM-ER. First, in the field of research and development, we will use the 3D printing of soft hydrogel materials and share the practical use cases among the consortium members At the same time, we are planning to standardize the several methods concerning both the material design of 3D gel printers and the evaluation of shaped objects. Figure 1