Optimising Extrusion and Printability for 3D-Printed Oral Solid Dosage Forms
Explore extrusion and formulation strategies to improve 3D printing of personalised oral medicines. Investigate hardware and material controls to enhance print quality and manufacturing scalability for pharmaceutical applications.
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Project Description
Project Overview
Extrusion-based 3D printing is promising for personalised oral medicines but faces challenges in throughput, dose consistency, and print reliability. This project aims to address these by optimising feedstock formulations and extrusion process parameters.
What You Will Do
Engineer hot-melt extrusion (HME) filaments and semi-solid extrusion (SSE) pastes with tailored rheological properties to ensure stable, continuous deposition. Formulation will involve polymer-based systems, control of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) particle size, and flow modifiers for shear-thinning behaviour and structural recovery. Physicochemical characterisation techniques such as HPLC, DSC, TGA, XRPD, and FTIR will be used to understand formulations. Hardware investigations will optimize nozzle design, thermal management, and integrate pressure, torque, and temperature dynamics with a DOE framework to link formulation and hardware to quality attributes.
Expected Outcomes
Validated operating parameters to enhance throughput and quality of the extrusion materials and prints. Development of practical guidelines for feedstock preparation and process control contributing to reliable, GMP-compatible 3D printing of personalised oral solid dosage forms.
Why This Matters
This research underpins advances in personalised medicine manufacturing, addressing current limitations in 3D printing of drugs to improve patient-specific treatments with consistent quality and scalability.
Entry Requirements
How to Apply
Eligibility
Supervisor Profile
Dr Daniel Kirby specializes in pharmaceutical engineering with a focus on additive manufacturing and extrusion processes for drug delivery systems. He applies materials science and process analytics to develop scalable, consistent pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies. His work bridges formulation science and hardware optimisation to advance personalised medicine production.