This post originally appeared in the Navigate the Future blog.
Humans across a variety of cultures have been tattooing their skin for thousands of years, but a group of researchers from the University of Minnesota have pioneered the next great leap in medical and tattooing technology through the power of 3D-printing. The technology developed by these intrepid researchers can save lives, improve modern healthcare practices, and push multiple industries into the future. While they are not the first to apply 3D-printing to the healthcare fields, their efforts are among the most innovative in additive manufacturing history.
Their new 3D-printer is the first that can successfully print material onto human skin, creating a high-tech, lifesaving tattoo of sorts, which if nothing else, will be more meaningful than the tribal armband around your bicep. This group published a study in May of this year, where they outlined the possibility of 3D-printing onto human skin, and in only a few months they have bridged that gap.
“To date, 3D printing directly onto human skin has been impossible because of the temperatures usually involved in the process. The materials used by the UM researchers set at room temperature, making it possible to build devices directly on skin. The customized sensors, once printed, are capable of detecting and differentiating human movements and are so sensitive they can monitor pulse. The sensors are also able to stretch up to three times their original size.”
Such technology lends itself to a wide-array of potential game-changing applications. Medical technologies ranging from “health monitoring, medical devices, orthotics, and flexible electronics” may see incredible advancement thanks to this new 3D-printing method, but that’s just the beginning. Many hope this technology is applied to the rapidly growing robotics industry to give robots the “ability to feel their environment,” making them more adept at remote processes such as surgery and manufacturing. The defense industry may also adopt this new printing method to develop wearable devices “to detect dangerous chemicals or explosives.”
The printing process created by these researchers is not that different from conventional 3D-printing methods.
“It works like this: the multifunctional printer has four nozzles that print the various specialized “inks” that make up the layers of the sensory device. The four materials include a base layer of silicone, top and bottom electrodes made of a conducting ink, a coil-shaped pressure sensor, and a “sacrificial” layer that holds the top layer in place while it sets. The supporting sacrificial layer is later washed away in the final manufacturing process.”
The Minnesota-based research team hopes to develop a 3D-printed bionic skin printed directly onto an injured or infected area of a patient’s skin, which is now possible because of the elasticity and versatility of their printing materials. Such an innovation could revolutionize the way we treat burn victims as well as the plastic surgery industry, with the potential to generate billion in additional revenue and increase the amount of successful procedures.
Progress is a hallmark of innovation, but in many cases, areas and industries outside of the initial application is where we seen this progress. That’s the case for the researchers from the University of Minnesota. Initially, they set out to find a way to 3D-print directly onto human skin and it wasn’t until after they published their research that all of these other applications came to light. It is likely that their work along with the growing 3D-printing industry is going to push us forward by leaps and bounds, and hopefully, make the world a better place.
