Laser sintering for the fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

Laser sintering (LS) utilises a laser to sinter powder particles. A volumetric model is sliced and processedcross section by cross section to create a physical part. In theory, all powdered materials are suitable forsintering; however, only few have been tested successfully. For tissue engineering (TE) applications of thisrapid prototyping technology it is an advantage that no toxic solvents or binders are necessary. This chapterreviews the direct and indirect use of LS to fabricate scaffolds for TE from single and multiphase materials.