Ed Littlewood, from Renishaw’s medical and dental products division, discusses medical applications of 3D printing and the potential of the technology to improve procedures and aid patient recovery.
3D printing is used in industrial applications for prototyping and manufacturing. The technology uses a range of materials including polymers, ceramics, resins, stainless steel, cobalt chrome and titanium. Metal 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing (AM). The additive manufacturing process produces a 3D object from a digital computer-aided design (CAD) file. Objects are built in layers, adding material until they are complete. This method offers great design flexibility, which means that highly accurate, bespoke and customised objects can be produced at low cost.
The medical application of additive manufacturing is growing and current uses include: craniomaxillofacial (CMF) devices, hip and knee implants, spinal fusion implants, heart stents, neurological drug delivery and external prosthetic limbs. A significant benefit of the technology is the ability to customise and personalise the items produced so that they are patient specific.
A number of UK NHS hospitals have used additive manufacturing to improve predictability, accuracy, safety and efficiency. Advances in the technology have inspired a number of surgeons to commission additive manufactured, patient specific implants (PSIs) and surgical guides.
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