TABLE 1.

Different types of 3D printing techniques, and their pros and cons.

Types	Advantage	Limitations	References
FDM	Thermoplastic polymers are extruded without toxic organic solvents	Melting process can affect inherent material properties	Cornejo et al., 2000; Hutmacher et al., 2001; Yang et al., 2002; Zein et al., 2002; Leong et al., 2003; Woodfield et al., 2004; Azari and Nikzad, 2009; Gross et al., 2014; Hung et al., 2014, 2016; Kwon et al., 2015
SLA	High-resolution objects can be printed with complex structures	Printable materials are limited to liquid resins, which can be toxic	Rimell and Marquis, 2000; Leong et al., 2003; Tsang and Bhatia, 2004; Jiankang et al., 2009; Melchels et al., 2010; Gross et al., 2014; Melchiorri et al., 2016
SLS	Powdered materials are sintered through a similar process as SLA. No liquid resins are needed	Sintering can modify material properties	Yang et al., 2002; Seitz et al., 2005; Williams et al., 2005; Gbureck et al., 2007; Khalyfa et al., 2007; Morrison et al., 2015; Pei et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2019
3D plotting	Bioceramics can be printed in mild conditions. 3D cell printing is possible by seeding cells into hydrogels	Post-sintering or curing is necessary. Constrained by temperature and complex multi-layer fabrication is challenging for bioprinting	Sachlos and Czernuszka, 2003; Wang et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2009, 2014b, 2019; Haberstroh et al., 2010; Ragaert et al., 2010; Fu et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2011; Hockaday et al., 2012; Bose et al., 2013; Gao et al., 2013; Luo et al., 2013; Mannoor et al., 2013; Duan et al., 2014; Inzana et al., 2014; Murphy and Atala, 2014; Markstedt et al., 2015; Kim et al., 2018; Nommeots-Nomm et al., 2018; Tallia et al., 2018; Li et al., 2020; Shi et al., 2020
Inkjet	Precise and controlled placement printing for small volume biological materials	Difficult to print viscose materials/cells. Large volume construct fabrication is challenging	Boland et al., 2006; Cui and Boland, 2009; Koch et al., 2010; Xu et al., 2013
LOM	Ideal for fabricating large 3D objects	Lamination coatings can be toxic and vulnerable when fabricating small constructs	Park et al., 2000; Yang et al., 2002; Murr(ed.)., 2015