Medical Additive Manufacturing
The medical additive manufacturing sector (including dental AM) is today one of the largest adopters of 3D printing technologies for the production of consumer-targeted items, including prosthetics, implants, dental replacements and physical models.
The use of 3D printing technologies extends well beyond 3D printed implants. Surgical guides and presurgical models can in a way be compared to the widespread use of AM for prototyping and tooling in the industrial manufacturing arena. Leading AM hardware manufacturers, such as 3D Systems, EnvisionTEC, EOS and SLM Solutions – along with service providers like Materialise – are investing heavily to develop both medical and dental AM applications.
While the benefits of AM technologies for personalized medicine and more efficient surgical practices is well documented, several hurdles still exist that are limiting a widespread adoption of these key technologies in hospitals and medical practices. Several of these hurdles are inherent to the AM technologies and related material availability, however, the biggest challenges remain in a general lack of awareness and skepticism, resulting in a slow pace of adoption.
Today very significant strides have been made – mainly in the private segment – toward the development of advanced polymers, metals, and ceramics fit for implantation in humans. The private dental segment is going through a full-size boom in the adoption of AM technologies and processes. With this month’s Industry Focus we zoom in on the latest advancements and take a look at the upcoming opportunities for medical and dental AM.
Latest Medical and Dental AM news:
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Though spinal cord injuries can be a life changing issue—resulting discomfort, extreme pain and even paralysis—new 3D printing research coming from the University of Minnesota could take us one step closer to treating and helping people with long-term spinal cord injuries. A team of engineers and medical researchers from the…
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Stryker’s Spine division today announced the publication of a pre-clinical animal study comparing the performance of spinal implants made from a variety of materials, which illustrated the bone ingrowth and biological fixation capabilities of its 3D-printed Tritanium cages. The study, titled “Bony Ingrowth Potential of 3D Printed Porous Titanium Alloy: A…
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CELLINK, the Swedish startup that created one of the first universal bioinks and manufacturers cost effective bioprinters, is working on a EU co-funded project called TumorPrint. The project aims to develop and commercialize a Specific Bioprinting platform, including bioinks, software and hardware, specialized for printing of human cancer tumors. The total…
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Besides colliding hadrons to unravel the misteries of the Universe, CERN technology is at the heart of many things that have become widespread today, from CD’s to the Internet to the Cloud. They of course use 3D printers at CERN (although not subatomic ones) ad this time New Zealand based MARS…
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Chicago-based biotech company BIOLIFE4D announced this week that it has successfully 3D bioprinted a human cardiac tissue patch, bringing the company a small step closer to its ultimate goal of 3D bioprinting a viable and transplantable human heart. In the world of bioprinting, many tend not to look past a…
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As per a new partnership agreement, Shanghai-based 3D printing company INTAMSYS will be collaborating with the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to further advance additive manufacturing applications for orthopaedic surgery and, specifically, applications for PEEK and other high-performance materials. INTAMSYS, which specializes in…
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Antibacterial materials and filaments for 3D printing, something that many consider being a key development for biomedical 3D printing applications – are now widely available through a series of new materials introduced by Santhiago, Chile-based startup Copper3D. More than 40% of amputees suffer some type of skin complication due to…
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San Francisco bioprinting company Prellis Biologics has announced a milestone in its aim to 3D bioprint human tissues with viable blood vessel networks (or capillaries). The company claims to have “reached record speed and resolution” in their bioprinting, which enables tissues to be printed with capillary networks while ensuring that…
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Poietis, a leading French bioprinting company and Prometheus, the Division of Skeletal Tissue Engineering at KU Leuven, entered into a 2-years Collaborative Research Agreement focused on high-precision 3D Bioprinting of tissue engineered Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Products (ATMPs) for skeletal regeneration. Prometheus focuses on the bench-to-bedside clinical translation of increasingly sophisticated,…
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Additive manufacturing pioneer 3D Systems has introduced its new On Demand Anatomical Modeling Service for medical 3D printing applications. The newly launched service provides medical professionals access to 3D printable and highly detailed anatomical models for improving surgical planning as well as patient education. Within the medical industry, there are…
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