The DGfB 2019 took place from April 3rd to April 5th in Berlin.

At this congress ACMIT was represented by Sarah-Jane Estermann, who presented the poster “Comparison of Tactile Properties of Liver Tissue and 3D Printing Materials via Macroindentation” .

The aim of this study was to establish a method for identifying mechanical parameters that represent the tactile properties – the way a material feels to touch – of liver tissue, in order to compare these with the properties of artificial materials that could possibly be used in 3D printing (Shore A 13 silicone pure and with different silicone oil concentrations, gelatin, and a soft commercially available 3D printed polymer).

For this reason, a steel ball of 15 mm diameter was utilized to approximate a fingertip, which indented the samples with a similar load protocol as a human palpating the material would. The experiments were load driven up to 5 N and conducted as a quasi-static loading-unloading sequence, with additional measurements of the surface hardness of the materials. Thus, the identified parameters included contact stiffness S of the unloading curve, overall equivalent spring stiffness k, and Shore 00 Hardness H.

For more information about the congress please visit https://www.biomechanik-kongress.de.