On Tuesday, January 27, 2026, the thesis defense of our colleague from CRITT Materials Innovation, Mrs. Delphine GERDAY AUZENE, was held at the FEMTO-ST Institute in BESANÇON. His thesis work is entitled: “Technological developments and physical understanding of the additive manufacturing of ceramic powder β-TCP for medical applications”. At the end of the defense, the jury awarded the title of doctor to our colleague.
The doctoral work is part of the research activities of the INTERREG FWVL VI AGILITY project, in particular in the context of the development of feedstocks adapted to 3D printing by the Material Extrusion process, and continues the research work carried out in the previous INTERREG FWVL V PEPS programme, which had led to a patent application for a formulation adapted to 3D printing.
In this research work, synthetic bones were printed with the formulation patented by CRITT Matériaux Innovation and IMT NE with an innovative printing process for this ceramic. These cubic bone substitutes have been tested in compression, showing that these synthetic bones produced are in the same range of mechanical strength as human cortical bone.
We would also like to thank the research unit “Biomaterials and inflammation in bone sites” (BIOS, EA 4691) attached to the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne which, as part of the INTERREG FWVL VI ANTIRESI project, participated in the biocompatibility tests that were also carried out as part of the thesis work.
It is also thanks to fruitful collaborative work that this research has been able to be carried out. For the future, scientific articles are planned with an oral presentation at WorldPM2026 in Montreal next June.