On the intrinsic sterility of 3D printing

Russell Y. Neches, Kaitlin J. Flynn, Luis Zaman, Emily Tung, Nicholas Pudlo
2016 PeerJ  
3D printers that build objects using extruded thermoplastic are quickly becoming commonplace tools in laboratories. We demonstrate that with appropriate handling, these devices are capable of producing sterile components from a non-sterile feedstock of thermoplastic without any treatment after fabrication. The fabrication process itself results in sterilization of the material. The resulting 3D printed components are suitable for a wide variety of applications, including experiments with bacteria and cell culture.
doi:10.7717/peerj.2661 pmid:27920950 pmcid:PMC5136128 fatcat:o6jyadcbm5fgtkqkublgymweim