Recent Advances in Non-Planar Collectors for Melt Electrowriting (MEW): Creating Physiologically Relevant Scaffold Structures for Tissue Engineering

Melt electrowriting (MEW) is an advanced additive manufacturing technique that offers unprecedented microscale control over polymer fiber deposition for tissue engineering applications. This review focuses on recent advancements in MEW technology beyond flat collectors to non-planar, anatomically relevant structures. Such non-planar MEW is enabled by maintaining stable electric field control through a consistent nozzle-to-collector distance, using custom 3D-printed insulating collectors, and multi-axis MEW setup. These advancements allow accurate fiber patterning on curved surfaces and make non-planar MEW feasible for complex scaffold geometries. In parallel, the integration of MEW with complementary fabrication methods (such as fused deposition modeling, electrospinning, and bioprinting) has emerged, permitting the fabrication of intricate, multi-functional scaffolds that closely mimic natural tissue architectures. Automated, multi-parameter process control strategies, through real-time feedback systems incorporating machine vision and artificial intelligence, further improve fiber deposition accuracy and scaffold reproducibility. This review highlights both the key breakthroughs and remaining challenges in non-planar MEW, underscoring the technology’s transformative potential in tissue engineering to create highly customized, biomimetic, and physiologically relevant tissue structures.