Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing, already exists for more than 20 years, but is gaining a lot of attention in recent years. Industrial applications are already available in i) prototyping, ii) bio-medical applications (patient specific implants, hearing aids, dental products), iii) non-critical aerospace parts, iv) small series production of parts.

So far, for polymeric materials, it cannot yet compete with traditional manufacturing methods with regards to product quality, speed, and cost. Nowadays, 3D printing starts to become competitive, but to fully exploit the design freedom that comes with additive manufacturing, a lot of material know how and knowledge is necessary in order to fulfill the strict requirements.

Our Program

The in-depth materials science for 3D printing will be done in the Brightlands Materials Center at Brightlands Chemelot Campus. Together with the University of Technology and the Maastricht University a significant number of PhD research projects will be focused on materials development for the different 3D print technologies.

Focus in Maastricht will be on bio-medical applications; the focus in Eindhoven will be on fundamental understanding of the materials aspects of selective laser sintering and photo-curing of photo sensitive resins.

The Brightlands Materials Center focuses on the following topics, which will be studied in her Additive Manufacturing Program:

1. Product performance (tolerances, strength, durability etc.) and reproducibility
2. Enlarging the materials portfolio & enabling multi material AM
3. Increasing production efficiency

There will be a strong academic cooperation, to fundamentally understand how polymer formulations and additive processing relate to product tolerances, quality, and reproducibility. With that knowledge new polymer formulations and processing conditions for different printing approaches (photo polymerization, jetting, laser sintering) can be developed, enabling new applications.

Many applications require that we can print multiple materials in one product in order to be functional. To that end the materials portfolio must be expanded and we need to develop material and processing technologies to be able to steer location as well as the adhesion of the different materials according to the product needs.

Apart from working on material challenges for existing additive manufacturing technologies, we are also exploring the possibilities of new technologies, in collaboration with specialists in TNO and the Smart Industry Field Lab.

Solutions in Additive Manufacturing

Interested in becoming a partner?
Please contact us.

tessa_ten_cate_brightlandsmaterialscenter

Tessa ten Cate,
Program manager
tessa.tencate@brightlandsmc.com

Richard_Janssen_150x150

Richard Janssen,
Business Developer
richard.janssen@brightlandsmc.com

Tessa ten Cate, Program manager

“It’s fascinating to see how many new 3D printing applications are being developed. Additive manufacturing is growing beyond a hype and maturing into a production technology. However, innovations in materials as well as 3D printing technology are needed to reach its full potential. We are working in a multidisciplinary team to develop solutions for these application challenges.”

Meet the team of our Additive Manufacturing program

Abhishek Hakichandan
Post-doc

My research interest is in developing stem cell based therapies and disease models by combining stem cell biology and bio-fabrication. The aim of my study is to establish protocols to drive human pluripotent stem cells towards terminally differentiated cells types of kidney, which can be combined with bio-fabrication process to develop viable functional units of kidney in vitro.

Febriyani Damanik
Post-doc

She has been interested in the field of regeneration ever since her Master's Thesis project in Elly Tanaka’s lab where she studied the mechanism of axolotl limb regeneration. Expanding on her PhD research of in vivo bioreactor for vascular tissue engineering, she explores the host response of various biomaterials for tissue regeneration.

Rabeil Sakina
PhD

I am interested in cardiac tissue regeneration and how it can be applied to treating heart tissue damage following a myocardial infarction. In my PhD, I will work on developing a cardiac patch by using a cell-seeded scaffold that can be efficiently implanted to the site of tissue damage and subsequently repair and restore myocardial function to the heart.

Bastiaan Ingenhut
Research Engineer

Andrea Calore
PhD student

My research task aims at improving the processing of biocompatible polymers during 3D printing of scaffolds for bone regeneration. Tissue engineering is the future of medicine, having the potential to cope with the lack of donors or risk of rejection of the implanted organs. In this perspective, three-dimensional printing seems to be the answer to the need of a reliable, reproducible, adjustable and up-scalable method to create scaffolds.

Rong Wang
Post-doc

Starting with background of chemistry and materials science, my research interests are focus on exploring adequate innovation materials for tissue engineering regeneration. Furthermore, I’d like to understand materials biology interactions in the respects of topology, mechanical instruction, and chemical surface functionality.

Carlos Miguel Domingues Mota
Post-doc

Carlos main research interests are focused on biofabrication, bioprinting and additive manufacturing techniques for the development of tissue engineered constructs.

Rosario Anastasio
PhD student

Margot Segers
Scientist

Konstantinos Manikas
PhD student

My background is chemical engineering. In my PhD project, I will focus on modeling the 3D printing of thermosets filled with electromagnetically active particles. Under the application of external fields, the particle arrangement is tailored, leading to materials with intriguing properties that are of great technological importance (e.g. antennas, microchips, hearing-aids).

Richard Janssen
Business Developer

Vahid Ansari
PhD student

Vahid works on the synthesis of novel polymeric materials for the fabrication of 3D printing scaffolds using in complex tissue regeneration.

Lorenzo Moroni
Principal Investigator Full Professor

Dr. Lorenzo Moroni's research interests aim at developing new biofabrication technologies to generate libraries of 3D scaffolds able to control cell fate. This passes through the design of biomaterials, 3D scaffolds, and surface properties to better understand cell-material interactions.

Eveline Maassen
PhD student

Guy Bex
Scientist

Prakhyat Hejmady
PhD student

Caroline Balemans
PhD student

To fully exploit the possibilities of the selective laser sintering technique, I try to understand the fabrication process itself in detail and know all about the material properties of the produced parts by computational modeling using the finite element method.

Fabio Paolucci
PhD student

My research focusses on analysing the behaviour of materials under stress, using the selective laser sintering technique of Additive Manufacturing. This research is important to predict long-term behaviour in short-term tests. This knowledge will be used to make a judgement about the material properties and the robustness of the produced parts.

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