Inkjet printers

Tender description

Multi-material, multi-colour production 3D printer. The University of Manchester plans to purchase a multi-material, multi-colour production 3D printer with voxel level control of optical and mechanical properties for the development of models with designed and representative mechanical properties and colour/optical appearance in a single print. The system must be based on polymer-jet deposition and capable of texture mapping and colour gradients using accurate RGB or CMY colour synthesis. The University of Manchester will be home to a new national research and innovation centre in advanced materials, the Sir Henry Royce Institute (SHRI). The equipment purchased will in the first instance be used to create clinically realistic examples of human anatomy in terms of colour and textures of living tissues. Examples of this include: — research in the psychological issues of facial prosthetics through reproducing realistic colour and lustre along with representative mechanical properties, — producing “phantoms” to mimic X-Ray and NMR contrast for medical imaging applications, — external orthotic devices, — anatomical models with matched mechanical behaviour. for surgical planning, training and education, — dental models for training and education applications. Other applications include: 3D models to visualise computed tomography images, 3D colour models to represent stress and strain distributions in engineering models, representative materials with graded mechanical properties.