News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Swiss medical company Medacta officially initiated the commercial use of 3DMetal Femoral Cones for revision knee arthroplasty after successfully receiving clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CE marking.
Microdispensing specialist nScrypt and aerospace company TechShot have successfully completed the first functional 3D bioprinting experiment in space. Using the BioFabrication Facility (BFF) on board the ISS, with the help of the non-profit Geneva Foundation and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), they 3D bioprinted a human knee meniscus as part of the 4D Bio3 program. The breakthrough experiment is part of a long term plan to one day manufacture advanced soft tissues and whole organs in the microgravity of space.
Graphy, a South Korean-based manufacturer of 3D printable photopolymer resins, has developed a dental 3D printing material brand, Tera Harz, with the aim of overcoming the limitations posed by other 3D printable materials currently used within the dental sector. Graphy CEO Unseob Sim said, “Graphy’s advanced technology has to date attracted investment of $15 million.”
German 3D printer manufacturer Rapid Shape has released a new DLP machine that’s specifically designed to cater for the needs of clients in the dental industry.
3D printer manufacturer Formlabs has added two new materials to its dental portfolio: a Permanent Crown Resin and a Soft Tissue Starter Pack.
The Medical University of Vienna is set to lead a five year European project which will see the development of a partly 3D printed mobile ophthalmic (eye-related) imaging device. The engineers and scientists working on the handheld device aim to minitiarize photonic chip technology, bringing down its cost in the process. The project partners hope that by the end of the five years, Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) will no longer be bound to a stationary clinical setting, but will instead be capable of fitting into a jacket pocket.
Since its inception in the 80s, 3D printing has managed to find itself in more industries and fields than we can count. One such area is urology – the medical field concerned with the urinary-tract system. A recent literature review published in BJU International covers the latest developments and accomplishments of researchers employing 3D printing to push urinary medicine past its limits.
An anaesthesia team in Israel recently used 3D printing and virtual reality to produce an exact model of the airway of a 7-year-old girl, as part of an operation to remove a section of her lung.
Fast Radius, a Chicago-based digital manufacturing service provider, and Axial3D, a UK-based medical technology firm, have announced a new ‘DICOM-to-print’ service for surgeons and hospitals across North America.
Hungarian 3D printer manufacturer CraftBot has announced the launch of a Rapid Local Manufacturing Centre (RLM) located in Cornwall, UK, to support the national effort in producing personal protective equipment (PPE) for key workers amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.