3D printed medical implants

Because technicians at Raomed were able to scan the patient’s jaw and cranium and send the 3D files to Deviaene, he was able to design and manufacture the implants completely remotely from his lab in the Canary Islands. Deviaene says, “The final product was made using EBM technology, which stands for electron beam melting. We prepared it for shipping and never had to travel to Argentina to collaborate.”

But what’s special about Deviaene’s work is that he has found a way to design his custom implants using 3D computer graphics software, 3DS Max, rather than established medical software packages, which he has found to be overly expensive and quite rigid in their formatting. He says of using 3DS Max for medical purposes, “It is funny to use it for medical applications, because it is more of an architectural visualization tool or video game development tool. But it is a very stable platform for mesh-based modelling.”

Sebastiaan’s implants are made from a medical-grade titanium alloy, and are notable for incorporating the lattice structures where the metal of the implant meets the patient’s bone. Unlike solid implant structures, which often make bones more brittle in the long run, the lattice structure stimulates bone growth, as the two materials ultimately fuse together.

The designer explains, “the exciting thing is we’re currently quite restricted to bone reconstruction. But in the future, we’ll be moving into new tissues using various different bio-absorbable materials. So it is actually just the beginning.”

More info: http://www.4did.net/

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/1IabtGr

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