Development of FFF filaments for bone and teeth representation in 3D printed radiological objects

Abstract

The use of 3D printing technologies is growing widely, including the possibility of designing phantoms for imaging and dosimetry. High attenuation tissues such as cortical bone, dentin and enamel need to be simulated to accurately produce 3D printed phantoms, especially for Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) printing technology. A commercially available radiopaque FFF filament had been hard to find. This study aims to report, step-by-step, the development of a radiopaque FFF filament. A combination of radiopaque substances (Barium Sulfate - BaSO4 and Calcium Carbonate - CaCO3) were selected for use as fillers in an Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) matrix and added in quantities calculated using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) XCOM tool. The filament was homogenized and characterized by analyzing its density and images obtained using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Computed Tomography (CT) and micro-CT (μCT) scans. Three filaments were produced with different Hounsfield Units (HU) equivalences: XCT-A (1607HU), XCT-B (1965HU) and XCT-C (2624HU) with respective densities of 1.166(6) g/cm³, 1.211(2) g/cm³ and 1.271(3) g/cm³. With these values, high attenuation tissues, such as bones, dentine and enamel, can now be simulated with FFF 3D printing technology, at a low cost of production.