Effect of Gray Scale Binder Levels on Additive Manufacturing of Porous Scaffolds with Heterogeneous Properties

An additive manufacturing platform was developed for fabricating constructs with heterogeneous properties. The liquid binder amount was investigated in calcium polyphosphate bone substitutes. Two part categories were produced with 150 and 190 mu m layer thickness and 70, 80, 90, 100, and 90/70% gray scale. It was shown that the gray scale level had an effect on samples with 150 mu m layer thickness where porosity ranged between 43 +/- 1% and 49 +/- 2% and the compressive strength varied between 4.8 +/- 1.3 MPa and 15.5 +/- 1.9 MPa. The results suggest that the binder gray scale level can be used to locally predict porous properties.