Unveiling Efficiency: A Comparative Study of 3-Axis and 4-Axis Additive Manufacturing for pHEMA

This study presents a comparative analysis of samples produced on a device designed to produce an artificial aorta adapted to mimic living geometry using a 4-axis (4D) additive manufacturing device with a substrate that can rotate 360 degrees in the horizontal axis. The samples produced in the 4D device were cured with ultraviolet light (UV). The mechanical properties of the samples, which varied depending on the UV exposure time, were compared. The samples were fabricated using a biocompatible polymer, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate), pHEMA. For this purpose, firstly, we designed a device capable of 4Dadditive manufacturing by adding a rotating table to the bed of the device in addition to the three-dimensional cartesian system which can be used to produce biocompatible samples. The mechanical and structural properties of these samples were compared with those produced using the 3-axis (3D) additive manufacturing device. The results showed that the artificial aorta produced with the 4D device, incorporating UV curing technology under varying conditions (such as crosslinker concentration and polymerization time), exhibited an 11.53% increase in mechanical strength and a 36.98% reduction in biodegradation compared to those produced with the 3D device. This demonstrates that 4D additive manufacturing enables the production of promising biomaterials with slower degradation rates.