News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Graphy, a South Korean-based manufacturer of 3D printable photopolymer resins, has unveiled what it claims is the “world’s first” direct 3D printed aligner that features a shape memory function.
Bioconvergence company BICO is partnering with Nanochon, a startup developing regenerative joint replacements. Under the terms of the deal, Nanochon will purchase $1.5 million worth of products and services from BICO’s SCIENION to develop 3D printed regenerative joint implants. Nanochon’s novel joint implant technology promises to deliver faster and more successful recoveries for patients while reducing costs to health providers, payers, and patients.
And that’s why you really should never say never in 3D printing. When Sarco was introduced a couple of years ago as a 3D printed assisted suicide pod to simplify euthanasia we wrote that off as a publicity—or at most an artistic—stunt (so much so that we did not even cover the story). But we should not have written it off and we should have covered the story. Now the Sarco pod has been OK’d to KO by the Swiss authorities (one of the first nations to legalize euthanasia.
Industrial 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys has introduced a new software module, the Digital Anatomy Creator, for its Digital Anatomy 3D printers in order to enhance the production of 3D printed anatomic models.
Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF), one of the pioneers in microscale 3D printing systems, and UK-based 3D printing materials company 4D Biomaterials have jointly achieved the capability to print micro-scale geometries using 4Degra bioresorbable materials. This marks the first time a bioresorbable material has been printed using micro 3D printing and the two companies expect it will revolutionize the way implantable medical devices are manufactured in the future.
The medical 3D printing industry marked an exciting milestone in Canada this week: Health Canada (a government department tasked with national health policies) has approved a 3D printed medical implant made by LARA 3D in Quebec City. The 3D printed device, a patient-specific mandibular plate, is the first made by a Canadian manufacturer to be granted authorization for implantation.
Scientists at the Irish RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences have developed a novel bio-ink that can be 3D printed into tissues capable of fast-forwarding the human wound-healing process.
Fluicell, a Sweden-based bioprinting startup founded in 2012 as a spin-out of the Chalmers University of Technology, has undertaken research to develop medicinal products for treating type 1 diabetes. The project, which recently achieved a significant milestone, is based on biocomposite tissues generated by Fluicell’s Biopixlar system.
Incredible AM (aka 3D Incredible) has been one of the pioneers in India for metal 3D printing with a state-of-the-art AM plant located in Pune. The company has now reported that it has produced over 600 3D printed implants and medical devices, making it one of the largest and most advanced such service providers in the world.
While microneedle patches have been studied for decades, the work by Carolina and Stanford overcomes some past challenges: through 3D printing, the microneedles can be easily customized to develop a 3D printed vaccine patch that could be used for flu, measles, hepatitis and COVID-19 vaccination.