News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Stryker today announced that it is to invest over €200 million in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects at three of its five Cork facilities as it continues its vigorous innovation journey to deliver next generation products and services across its Medical Surgical, Orthopaedics and Neurotechnology and Spine offerings. The RD&I projects are supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.
Zenith Tecnica, a New Zealand-based titanium additive manufacturing company, has had quite the journey since its founding in 2014, becoming one of the country’s leading forces in the metal AM sector. Today, Zenith Tecnica continues to scale its business and expand its 3D printing capabilities with the installation of its fourth and fifth GE Additive Arcam EBM machines.
HP Inc. is surely smiling a little brighter today, as it has deployed a number of Jet Fusion 3D printing systems to teledentistry pioneer SmileDirectClub, for a total of 49 operating systems. SmileDirectClub, which specializes in doctor-directed, remote clear aligner therapy, now has the capacity to produce over 50,000 unique mouth molds a day and nearly 20 million in the next 12 months. That’s a lot of corrected smiles!
Inovus Medical has installed a new production level SLS 3D printer from 3D Systems in its manufacturing facility in St Helens, Merseyside. The laser sintering 3D printer enables the company to produce plastic parts with a finish level that rivals that of injection molding, without the expensive upfront cost of tooling and mold production. In addition, the laser sintering process that does not require support structures, thus increasing printer bed utilization and production capacity.
Nexxt Spine, an Indiana-based medical device manufacturer, aims to scale up its spinal implant production with the adoption of its fourth and fifth Concept Laser Mlab 100R 3D printers from GE Additive. The company, which began using 3D printing just two years ago, sees the technology as the way forward for implant production.
UK-based metal AM company Renishaw collaborated with a Yorkshire dental laboratory to fully digitize the design and production of removable partial dentures (RPDs). Through the collaboration and the implementation of Renishaw’s metal 3D printing platform, the dental lab is achieving faster turnaround times and better quality RPDs.
An assistant professor in industrial systems and engineering from Virginia Tech and a team of undergraduate students are hoping to advance customized 3D printed prosthetics with the integration of electronic sensors. The project aims to make sophisticated, electric-powered prosthetics more accessible than existing state-of-the-art prosthetics.
SmarTech Analysis has published the fifth edition of its Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry report. The firm projects that the total market for AM in dentistry will surpass $2.7 billion (USD) in 2019 (hardware, services, materials and software). The report also says that by 2022 as many as 500 million dental devices and restorations will be produced annually via additive manufacturing, driving the overall segment to top $9 billion by the end of the forecast period in 2028.
Though the rumoured alien origins of crystal skulls may be outlandish, there’s a new set of transparent skulls that could stir up innovations within the medical field. Researchers from the University of Minnesota have created 3D printed transparent skull implants for mice that can literally give more insight into how the brain works. According to the researchers, the device could lead to discoveries about brain conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and even concussion.
A medical specialist from the University of Pretoria (UP) Faculty of Health Sciences has pioneered a new surgical procedure that uses 3D printed middle ear bones to treat conductive hearing loss. The innovative solution was recently demonstrated in the world’s first 3D printed middle ear transplant.