Sustainable additive manufacturing of interference screws made from eco-friendly filament for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

Abstract

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) is a sustainable manufacturing approach because it can lower emissions and have a lower negative impact on the environment. 3D-printed interference screws from poly-lactic acid, eco-friendly filament, by fused deposition modelling (FDM), were fabricated with different process parameters. The most popular technique for reconstructing the anterior cruciate ligament is interference screw fixation. This study considered the role of the AM sustainability paradigm in terms of material input for FDM and product manufacturing. This study considered the role of the AM sustainability paradigm in terms of material input for FDM and process efficiency by investigating the effect of the AM process parameters, such as printing temperature (PT), printing speed (PS), and infill percentage (IP) on the density and stripping torque (ST). Later, the degradation profile of the screw was analyzed using the weight loss of screws. The experimental design of the fully factorial design was with two levels for each process parameter. The significant process parameters and their interactions were through statistical analysis of the resulting design. Results have shown that PT, PS, and IP significantly influenced the density and ST of 3D-printed interference screws. In five weeks, 3D-printed interference screws started to lose weight.