Extrusion-based printing is a very common technique within the field of 3D printing which entails extruding, or forcing, a continuous stream of melted solid material or viscous liquid through a sort of orifice, often a nozzle or syringe. When it comes to extrusion based bioprinting, there are four main types of extrusion. These are pneumatic driven, piston driven, screw driven and eccentric screw driven (also known as progressing cavity pump). Each extrusion method has their own advantages and disadvantages. Pneumatic extrusion uses pressurized air to force liquid bioink through a depositing agent. Air filters are commonly used to sterilize the air before it is used, to ensure air pushing the bioink is not contaminated. Piston driven extrusion utilizes a piston connected to a guide screw. The linear motion of the piston squeezes material out of the nozzle. Screw driven extrusion uses an auger screw to extrude material using rotational motion. Screw driven devices allow for the use of higher viscosity materials and provide more volumetric control. Eccentric screw driven systems allow for a much more precise deposition of low to high viscosity materials due to the self-sealing chambers in the extruder. Once printed, many materials require a crosslinking step to achieve the desired mechanical properties for the construct, which can be achieved for example with the treatment of chemical agents or photo-crosslinkers.
Direct extrusion is one of the most common extrusion-based bioprinting techniques, wherein the pressurized force directs the bioink to flow out of the nozzle, and directly print the scaffold without any necessary casting. The bioink itself for this approach can be a blend of polymer hydrogels, naturally derived materials such as collagen, and live cells suspended in the solution. In this manner, scaffolds can be cultured post-print and without the need for further treatment for cellular seeding. Some focus in the use of direct printing techniques is based upon the use of coaxial nozzle assemblies, or coaxial extrusion. The coaxial nozzle setup enables the simultaneous extrusion of multiple material bioinks, capable of making multi-layered scaffolds in a single extrusion step.  The development of tubular structures has found the layered extrusion achieved via these techniques desirable for the radial variability in material characterization that it can offer, as the coaxial nozzle provides an inner and outer tube for bioink flow. Indirect extrusion techniques for bioprinting rather require the printing of a base material of cell-laden hydrogels, but unlike direct extrusion contains a sacrificial hydrogel that can be trivially removed post-printing through thermal or chemical extraction. The remaining resin solidifies and becomes the desired 3D-printed construct.