Temperature Control for Hydrogel Bio-Printing

Recently, there have been many attempts to develop low-cost and open-source bio-printers worldwide. To reduce cost and increase accessibility, the bio-printer should be developed with open-architecture hardware and programming by G-code command. One of challenges is a temperature control. In this study, a nichrome-wire sheet heater syringe and Peltier/copper heat-sink cold-bed were designed to be compact and light-weighted. Thermistor sensors were employed to control temperature on both components. From the tests, our temperature control system could stabilize the temperatures of both the syringe and the cold-bed within 2
^o
C. No significantly unstable temperature during the printing process was observed. The printing procedure was designed and validated as it could create the dot of the gelatin/fibroblast cell bioink on a glass slide with high percentage of viable cells.