Additive manufacturing has allowed the deployment of novel construction materials impractical or impossible to use with previous manufacturing technologies, such as biomaterials, which creates the potential for printing both animal and human organs. For high-precision, high-risk applications such as bioprinting organ material, quantifying and verifying the quality and structural integrity of a printed specimen is both extremely important, and extremely challenging. This research project is meant to develop an open-source, reproduceable 3D Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printer for use with biological ink hydrogel printing materials fit for use in constructing specimens and allowing them to be excited for video vibrometry, a process of analyzing characteristic vibratory frequency response data computed from video footage, without needing to move printed specimens to a discrete apparatus. The printer must be capable of supporting the specimen while it is excited in-place, where it was printed, while allowing a high-speed camera to clearly see the specimen on the build-plate with enough fidelity and a great enough field of view that video vibrometry can be reliably performed.
