Binder-Jet 3D Printing of Indomethacin-laden Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

Emerging 3D printing technologies offer an exciting opportunity to create customized 3D objects additively from a digital design file. 3D printing may be further leveraged for personalized medicine, clinical trial, and controlled release applications. A wide variety of 3D printing methods exists, and many studies focus on extrusion-based 3D printing techniques that closely resemble hot melt extrusion. In this paper, we explore different pharmaceutical-grade feedstock materials for creating tablet-like dosage forms using a binder jet 3D printing method. In this method, pharmaceutical-grade powders are repeatedly spread onto a build plate, followed by inkjet printing a liquid binder to selectively bind the powders in a predetermined pattern. The physical properties of the pharmaceutical-grade powders and binders have been characterized and a molding method has been developed to select appropriate powder and binder materials for subsequent printing experiments. There was a correlation between the breaking forces of the molded and printed samples, but no clear correlation was observed for disintegration time, which was primarily controlled by the higher porosity of the printed samples. The breaking force and disintegration properties of as-printed and post-processed samples containing indomethacin as an active pharmaceutical ingredient have been measured and compared with relevant literature data.