When a patient’s lower jaw bone is removed due to injury or disease, it can be replaced by a mandibular implant. Unfortunately, these implants only come in a limited number of sizes – much fewer sizes than there are unique patient anatomies. This means that surgeons need to bend and shape the implant during surgery to make sure that it perfectly fits the patient’s jaw, allowing him or her to chew properly and maintain a normal appearance. But at the VA Puget Sound Health Care Center, maxillofacial surgeons James Clossman and Jeffrey Houlton are using 3D printing to create a new type of mandibular implant – one that fits the patient perfectly from the start, without need for modification during surgery.

James Clossman (left) and Jeffrey Houlton

Clossman and Houlton recently teamed up with engineers Chris Richburg and Patrick Aubin and VA Puget Sound radiologists Eric Rombokas and Beth Ripley to create exact replicas of three patients’ mandibles, using the hospital’s Stratasys 3D printer. These models allowed the surgeons to compare standard mandibular implants to the 3D printed replicas, adjusting the size and shape as needed days before the surgery, rather than scrambling to do it during the operation itself.

“3D printed modeling, along with virtual planning, has really become a game changer in difficult mandibular reconstruction cases,” said Houlton. “Being able to have a 3D printed model of the patient’s mandible allows us to precisely plan key details during these cases, with a precision you just can’t get with traditional techniques.”

The 3D printed custom mandible models translated into approximately two hours’ time savings for each surgery. With OR time estimated at about $80 a minute, that’s quite a cost saving as well – not to mention that it means less time under anesthesia for the patient, and less fatigue for the surgeons.

VA Puget Sound is one of several VA hospitals that Stratasys equipped with 3D printers, as well as materials and training, in order to create a 3D printing hospital network. The company has been working closely with this VA network in order to help increase surgeon preparedness and quality patient care through 3D printing. VA Puget Sound is also using the technology to help surgeons identify the most appropriate heart valve size for replacement surgery, which can mean the difference between life and death. The hospital is also exploring 3D printing as a means to create personalized orthopedic implants for patients that fall at the extremes of the size range.

“It is exciting to see this technology being offered to veterans through the VA system,” said Houlton. “The next step will be to use the Stratasys 3D printer to create additional tools to help with optimal fit, such as surgical cutting guides. The dream is to eventually 3D print the perfect implant with a metal 3D printer every time.”

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

From implant molds, prosthetics, and surgical and educational models to surgical guides and patient-specific surgical models, Mumbai-based medical 3D printing company Anatomiz3D Medtech Private Limited has worked with many aspects of medical 3D printing. Anatomiz3D, which is the healthcare division of tech company Sahas Softech, uses 3D printing to enhance and personalize patient care, whether it’s providing them with peace of mind by showing them a model or making their surgery quicker and easier with guides and implants.

The healthcare solutions company uses patient data from 2D MRI and CT scans to provide 3D modeling and printing services to the medical community, so physicians can better help their patients. More than three years ago, it was the first company in India to provide doctors with a 3D printed, patient-specific pediatric cardiology model before surgery, and has since moved on, 3D printing models for spinal, oral and maxillofacial, orthopaedic, head and neck, and neurosurgery operations using a variety of methods, including SLS, stereolithography, DMLS, and color jet printing.

Anatomiz3D’s mission is two-fold: to aid surgical practices by simplifying and customizing operative planning and procedures in order to improve patient recovery quality, and to develop patient-specific tissue engineering solutions to help lower the need for organ donors in the future.

Now, the surgical 3D printing company has announced that it’s partnering up with another Indian company to develop various 3D printed specialty solutions for the personalized healthcare industry. Incredible AM Pvt Ltd, established in 1974 as part of Industrial Metal Powders Pvt Ltd in Pune, works with both the medical and engineering industries by providing metal 3D printing services.

Incredible AM Pvt Ltd has a great facility that’s based on FDA guidelines, and is also reportedly the only company in India that has received both ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certifications for the manufacture of metal medical devices; this has helped it provide many customers across India with custom implants for neuro, orthopaedic, and maxillofacial surgeries.

With Incredible AM Pvt Ltd’s capabilities in metal 3D printing, paired with the design and plastic 3D printing skills provided by Anatomiz3D, this new partnership is essentially a one-stop-shop when it comes to personalized, patient-specific healthcare solutions.

Now, Incredible AM Pvt Ltd has invested an undisclosed amount of money into its new partner, Anatomiz3D, so that the two can work together to successfully even offer more 3D printed patient-specific surgical solutions to customers all around the world, focusing on affordable prices, excellent quality, and precise designs. The two companies have already helped create several orthopaedic, maxillofacial, and cranial implants together, and continue to work hard and help their respective R&D teams develop even more 3D printed medical products.

What do you think about this news? Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

We first heard about online 3D modeling software SelfCAD last year, though it was founded back in 2015 and launched in 2016 by CEO Aaron Breuer. The all-in-one, browser-based software simplifies the 3D printing process for both beginners and advanced users, as it allows users to model, sculpt, sketch, and slice in a single program without requiring any downloads, and work can be easily saved in the cloud.

Last December, the user-friendly software received a new, comprehensive set of drawing tools, such as brush, line, rectangular, and donut drawing, and this summer, the platform announced a partnership with popular 3D printable model marketplace MyMiniFactory, so users can easily access its design library.

The simple software interface is easy to use, so beginners looking to master 3D modeling can do so. Just last month, SelfCAD launched an updated version of its professional online software, with new and improved features, developed based on its users’ personal expectations of powerful but easy to use 3D modeling software. Now, we’re learning a little more about this new version.

Version 2.0 of SelfCAD has an updated intuitive user interface with a simplified design that’s even more simple to use, thanks to its less confusing Toolbar and Scene, and features amazing new selection modes so users can easily choose the models they want.

A 3D sketching toolset can increase the user’s level of freedom, and includes new sketching brushes, which make it easy to create a variety of 3D profiles. There’s also a simple objects view that consists of both light and dark modes, and 2D, 3D, and Free Drawing are all easier than ever, thanks to SelfCAD’s newest shapes and sketching brushes.

In addition, an updated measurement option in SelfCAD’s Version makes it easier for users to design more accurate models. This new version offers flexibility, as it’s possible to import, export, convert and edit from Images, SVG, and over 40 other 3D file formats. Plus, you can now create and share 3D Facebook posts from SelfCAD as well.

If you’re interested in trying out SelfCAD before you purchase it, you’re in luck – the platform is available for free on a 10 day trial basis. Afterwards, if you are satisfied with SelfCAD Version 2.0, you can purchase the online modeling software for a monthly fee of just $14.99, or pay $139.99 for an entire year’s worth of usage. If you’re a student or a teacher, use the coupon code EDUCATION to receive a generous 65% discount.

To learn more about SelfCAD before you buy, check out its exclusive YouTube channel – you’ll be able to watch videos that provide an in-depth tool tech analysis, like the one below concerning Stitching and Scooping for 3D modeling use cases:

VIDEO

What do you think about this browser-based software? Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the Facebook comments below.

For the first time, it seems patently obvious where 3D printing is heading. There is almost universal agreement on what is going on and what the future developments are to be. Its a comforting time in 3D Printing for everyone. I call 2018, the year of the clipboard because this year we go in the compliance people, the ISO people, the procurement teams and there was a see of clipboards from spreadsheet to shining spreadsheet. The end of the year is always a nice time to take stock of things and to see into the cloudy mists of a hazy future. In this post we’ll take stock of the major developments in 2018. For a more detailed review that goes into the major trends in the form of linking them to news stories please do have a look at our 2018 the Year in Review post.

Post-failure microscopy images of VeroBlue samples showing the location of high voltage dielectric failure. The image set contains front and back photos from a failed (V1), (V2), and (H) coupon, tested according to the ASTM D149 Standard. Damage observable in this image set is representative of damage present after dielectric failure in all VeroBlue PolyJet sample coupons. ASTM standards-based testing of polyjet may not sound exciting but these are the fundamental gains we’re seeing.

Compliance, qualification, documentation, and standards. This is probably the biggest overall trend in our industry at the moment. We’ve gone from a wild wild west cowboy show to one of the large corporates navigating this uneven terrain with lawyers and ISO standards people. Standardization and better documentation, as well as handling in materials, is sure to eliminate a lot of problems. Qualification of parts, processes and materials for aerospace applications is a surefooted, and expensive, step that many OEMs and Tier 1’s have taken this year. FDA qualification of materials and implants has been especially strong in orthopedics and DMLS (SLM, Laser Powder Bed Fusion). Particularly in titanium because it is the safest material for “hard” implants at the moment there is significant investment. Tens of thousands of implants are being made. All around us we’re getting more boring and focusing more on safety and compliance. This is good for us but a long slog for many.

Effects for 2019: There will be a shakeout in medical, some corporate 3D printing applications and high-end machines over certifications. Some ISO compliant companies are prohibited from doing business with people who don’t have the same certifications for example. So a plethora of possible FDM printers for aviation is quickly reduced to two by such implications.

Professionalization & investment. Across our market, our tech-reliant industry is finally attracting more accounting, marketing, sales, and organizational managers. Over the past four years, the grown-ups have moved in and our lovable nerds have been replaced with professionals. In some cases, this has lead to companies losing sight of what matters but, generally, companies have invested in people who have created more professional organizations. Over the past years, this has caused some companies to outperform others. Everything has gotten better from HR departments to websites to HR stands. Meanwhile some firms have spent tens of millions with very little to show for it but the dissipating cloud of hype and others will continue to PowerPoint their way to tens of millions more.

Effects for 2019: You can no longer just half-ass stuff in 3D printing, a higher level of professional engagement is expected and will lead to more companies getting crushed as they can not compete. Meanwhile higher headcounts and cost structures will drive up prices. Yes, the Apple guy will make your stuff look all Appley but he’ll also expect Apple-like control, production values, spend and margins.

Automated Post Processing. The sudden acceptance as EBM as a manufacturing technology for aerospace was a wake-up call to some. Here post processing was enabling viable parts out of what was first considered a nonstarter in aviation. Similar improvements in end-use consumer parts through coloring, support removal, depowdering, surface treatment, and automation are having ever larger effects on our industry. A third of part costs are doing to post-processing and things as prosaic as moving parts through a plant. Investment in post processing machines and complete lines shows that people are actually manufacturing.

Effects for 2019: There will be growth in post processing companies, more alliances between post-processing equipment companies and software vendors for compliance and throughput as well as dedicated 3D printing production lines being built from scratch. Overall part costs will be lowered.

The Octagon: OEMs used to just toss kits over the fence and not worry what happened to them. Now we’re seeing a shift where companies that control for, develop their own, have knowledge of or take into account all the sides of the 3D printing octagon are outperforming those who do not.

Effects for 2019: Especially for the Business to Business market more control over software, firmware, procedures and machines will enable wider adoption and growth for those companies that provide it. More control over the Octagon leads to a better 3D printed part at a lower cost. You can read about the 3D printing octagon here.

Magics 23 the once and future king?

New software entrants. More and more companies are entering the 3D printing software game. From all kinds of backgrounds from CAD to simulation, companies are entering the 3D Printing market. Some seem, serious contenders, while others are simply slapping a label on an existing product.

Effects for 2019: Some efficiencies may be had here but overall in 2019 its just going to be rather confusing for everyone what software they need to have and what it is supposed to do.

Bawsome glasses.

More consumer products. Insoles, glasses, and design products are steadily growing. Costs are coming down and firms are moving towards finding end-use parts where 3D printing can compete head-on pricewise with existing products. These value propositions and the requisite manufacturing and software toolchain are difficult to identify and assemble but increasingly will become more prevalent.

Effects for 2019: We will hopefully see the breakthrough of 3D printing into millions of shoe soles, insoles, slippers, headphones, eyeglasses or another application in 2019. We have to demonstrate success and the overwhelming market share in In The Ear hearing aids, jewelry molds and some dental applications can’t be our only successes in catering to millions of people.

Applications: All across 2018 everyone was looking for applications. People wanted customers with real needs and millions of parts who needed a solution for a particular application. Whether it be a medical or materials company that wanted real impact or a company wanting to leverage their heft in our industry we saw a real focus on applications in 2018 and this is intensifying towards the end of 2018.

Effects for 2019: It’s time for some business development people to stop twirling about and bring home the bacon because there are people out there with a problem and there is a huge demand for certain applications in medical, industrial, aviation and consumer products but only a few people are making the right connections. Business development is great because its often difficult to asses how well a bizdev person is actually doing but this is the time when the future is being built and some large companies are finding their path while others are comically flailing.

A 3D printer on every desktop. Remember when everyone was to have a 3D printer on their desktop, like five years ago? Meanwhile, 3D printers have gotten better, if you’re willing to spend $5000 or they’ve gotten cheaper at $200. In 2018 we’re already seeing improvements in the $2500 to $5000 systems and design for manufacturing improvements on the $200 systems. With considerable reliability increases and better quality parts, a semi-working $500 printer is possible. We still will have the problem that no one can do CAD and no one wants to create but for schools and a lot of semi-techy people, a better version of the low-cost systems we have today could be tenable. Perhaps in 2019 we’ll get a Nerd printer, a $500 kind of working machine that would work for the committed nerd rather than the over committed 3D printer operator.

Effects for 2019: Hopefully an easier to operate and more reliable $500 system that can work with TLC for a much wider audience than the current one million 3D printer enthusiasts which will result in a bigger 3D printing market.

Real visible applications for Microfluidics and soft robotics. This is more hope than reason. I’m completely obsessed with microfluidics research which has the potential to revolutionize the manufacturing in a completely fundamental way. Likewise, soft robotics can fundamentally change how things are created. The intersection of those two areas and 3D printing could be at the forefront of what we do for the next 100 years. Both soft robotics and microfluidics lack a very visible use case that many people will understand however. It would be great to see a soft robotics Invisalign or a microfluidics cancer test that everyone can use for example.

Effects for 2019: Probably nothing to be fair but I hope that corporate boards and scientists the world over start to realize how microfluidics and soft robotics can alter the world.

Manufacturing Noise. Many OEMs and companies are making a lot of noise about manufacturing with 3D printing. To be clear this is mostly talk and bull. Most 3D printers are barely functional for prototyping. Most new technology claims are just that claims. Most of the manufacturing that people mention is a question of one-off experiments and Proof of Concept stuff. To be clear: the future of 3D printing is squarely in the manufacturing field making unique mass production items at scale. Especially in medical, automotive, consumer and aerospace 3D printing will become a viable technology for millions of items in many materials. Everything that will matter to you will be 3D printed. Not the stupid stuff, not the low margin stuff, not the commoditized stuff, just the meaningful things. But, 90% of the manufacturing claims made are marketing claims and have not been borne out on the actual production floor so we need to be cognizant of that.

Effects for 2019: Hopefully more manufacturing cases and more applications being turned into millions of sold items. We’re on the cusp of a 3D printing manufacturing evolution but the heavy lifting has yet to be done.

Application of additive manufacturing technology in a vacuum environment has been limited due to the material porosity and additives used in the manufacturing techniques. In a paper entitled “The Use of AM Technologies for HV and UHV Components and Vessels,” a group of researchers working at the Diamond Light Source tests PEEK components 3D printed through FDM and metal components 3D printed through DMLS inside an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environment.

The researchers tested 19 PEEK samples with 100% build density and surface areas of 1.42 cm2 each.

“Testing the samples uncleaned, as delivered direct from the supplier, the outgassing rate reached 1.33 x 10-6 mbar l s-1 cm-2,” the researchers state. “Ultrasonic cleaning in IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) made the outgassing increase to 1.7 x 10-6 mbar l s-1 cm-2. After baking at 150⁰ C for 12 hours the outgassing rate improved significantly to 3.98 x 10-11 mbar l s-1 cm-2 meeting our specifications for use in UHV.”

The results compared favorably to machined PEEK components and, according to the researchers, could potentially be baked longer to improve outgassing rates. They also ordered seven components from the same source, five of which were subjected to visual and dimensional inspection. A few issues were found, including poor surface finish, unpredictable distortion, and unpredictable component shrinkage.

“Detailed inspection reports were carried out on the components using a CMM,” the researchers continue. “Although many feature dimensions were within tolerance, components B, C and D were distorted and warped by up to 1 mm in the extremes. Component E showed no signs of warping and most dimensions within ±0.1 mm. Component A showed no signs of warping, but the internal diameter was 1 mm undersize and the outer flange diameter 0.5 mm oversize.”

PEEK components

They then tested a vessel made from metal using DMLS. There were several build errors and issues with the first prototype, which were then corrected in a later version. Once they had the final prototype, the researchers tested it in a vacuum environment.

“The prototype vessel after being modified, glued and welded, achieved a vacuum pressure of 10-5 mbar, well exceeding the initial specification of 10 mbar and now exceeding the new specification for the vessel of 10-4 mbar,” the researchers state. “This vessel had only been wiped clean with alcohol as a pump and bake was not possible with the painted surfaces…The production vessel was installed onto the VMXm endstation in May 2018 ready for the first experiment. No issues have yet been discovered and the vacuum has reached 10-6 mbar comfortably.”

Overall, the researchers conclude, while 3D printing has come a long way, “it is not always the solution it is cracked up to be.” The quality of the PEEK components was not “up to scratch” for many applications. The process is cheap, however, and offers a quick turnaround. The 3D printed components were vacuum compatible and survived the cleaning process. Complex geometries could be produced, but the end results were unpredictable. The 3D printed PEEK components are not yet ready, the researchers state, to be used as a substitute for machined PEEK components but can be used as a quick replacement when geometry is not critical.

“On the other-hand DMLS offers the ability to produce a very complex vacuum vessel in aluminium quicker and cheaper than conventional methods suitable for HV,” they add. “Changing the material to stainless or coating the seal faces will allow for metal seals to be used and the vessel has the capability of being used for UHV applications 10-10 mbar.”

Authors of the paper include A. Stallwood, G. Duller and D. Butler.

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A close look at the beam used in Additive Solutions 3D printers

We hear quite a lot about 3D printing research coming out of Russia, but less about Russian 3D printing companies. It’s always interesting to learn about new companies in locations that haven’t been hotbeds of 3D printing so far. Additive Solutions is, according to its website, the first company in Russia to “offer integrated systems on the market of additive technologies.” Not only does the company manufacture 3D printers, it provides comprehensive services to clients as well. Additive Solutions’ offerings include various 3D printer models, Stratum software, metal powders, research, technology development, consulting, service, spare parts, and training in various programs.

“Our main know-how is the fusion of products with a non-Gaussian beam, which is the standard solution in the field of additive technologies,” Dmitry Grachev, Additive Solutions CTO, told 3DPrint.com. “Due to this solution, the fusion of metal powder is carried out by a beam with a distribution according to the type of reverse Gauss, which increases the fusion area without overheating. This solution allows us to increase productivity by 20%, relative to other 3D printers.”

Typical 3D printer beam distribution

The solution developed by Additive Solutions has a more uniform structure than typical metal 3D printers, which allows for more effective melting of the metal powder. This results in fewer internal stresses. The company also claims a 99.6% density in 316L for example.

Additive Solutions offers five different 3D printer models, which include:

• D130, the most basic of the company’s 3D printers, designed for the production of small, highly precise parts
• D250, a high-performance 3D printer suitable for mass production of medium-sized parts
• D500, a more advanced 3D printer created for mass production of larger parts
• S800, the company’s largest 3D printer
• D130, designed for medical 3D printing

Additive Solutions also functions as a service bureau, producing metal 3D printed parts for a variety of applications from medical to automotive. In addition, the company provides research and development services, from the technical proposal stage all the way to working prototypes.

The additive manufacturing market is beginning to open up in Russia, with companies like Additive Solutions leading the way. While there isn’t an overwhelming number of companies offering 3D printing services, the country certainly isn’t a 3D printing dead zone; some impressive things have been accomplished in Russia so far. Last year, a group of Russian companies worked together to 3D print a residential house in Yaroslavl, and the Russian town of Stupino is home to Apis Cor’s 3D printed house, completed in 24 hours.

Russia’s space program has also been employing 3D printing, and a significant amount of additive manufacturing research has been coming out of the country as well, from new materials to bioprinting and even complex neural networks for metal 3D printing. To keep these new developments coming, there is a need for a strong market in 3D printers and 3D printing services, which are exactly what Additive Solutions plans to continue providing as Russia’s 3D printing industry further unfolds.

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now – I’m a sucker for a good New Year’s Eve party. I’ve been to fancy themed parties, parties where everyone was in jeans and t-shirts, and even a pajama party. Today, I’m focusing on everyone’s favorite New Year’s Eve party accessories: the 3D printed variety, of course. Rather than giving you a summary of great 3D printed NYE decorations, we’re talking mostly about apparel, along with a few other items, that will make you look like the most tech-savvy Belle (or Bill) of the ball.

2019 Happy New Year Fun Glasses

Starting things off right with everyone’s favorite New Year’s Eve accessory – those silly glasses in the shape of the year we’re about to begin. Thingiverse designer Auggie is back with the 2019 version, which features two arms with rugged hinges and glasses that are easy on the skin of both your nose and your ears.

“I printed the arms with black PLA at 220 degrees and 45 degrees bed,” Auggie wrote. “The Glasses themselves I printed them with white PETG at 345 degrees and 100 degrees bed. Fill is 10% and no need for supports because they are already in the uploaded STL file. Don’t forget to cut them off before inserting the arms.”

Auggie writes that Gorilla Glue will help to secure the arms of the glasses in place. In addition, if you’re interested in painting the numbers on the glasses in different colors, you’ll want to ensure a good color base by 3D printing them in a white material. To really go all out for the new year, add some glitter to your glasses!

For another option, check out this New Years 2019 Glasses version by Cults3D user A_Skewed_View_3D.

Earrings 2019

Another oldie but goodie is this pair of earrings by Thingiverse user catf that have been updated for the year 2019. If you’re in need of a quick accessory for your party tonight, these are perfect, as it only takes 15 minutes to 3D print the set. The length is 6.2 cm, with a width of 1.3 cm and a thickness of 2 mm. The 3D printing parameters for these cute 2019 earrings are listed as the following:

• 20% print speed not too fast for better rendering
• 100% filling rate sufficient for jewelry
• 215 ° PLA printing temperature
• 60 ° plateau temperature
• 0.1 layer thickness
• 0.8 shell thickness

Headband New Year 2019

MyMiniFactory user Zeljan Ban created this cute 3D printable headband, which shows the transition from 2018 to 2019. This is another quick print, as it only takes 45 minutes from start to finish, and the headband and the number 8 were 3D printed in whit Anet A8 material, with a 0.2 mm layer height and a print speed of 50. The numbers 2, 0, 1, and 9 were 3D printed in red for a nice contrast, and even feature some holiday sparkles.

Fancy Bow Tie Version One

Cults3D user BonGarcon wants to make sure you look your best for your New Year’s Eve party (or parties) with this dapper bow tie, which can be 3D printed in a variety of colors to match your festive outfit…puttin’ on the Ritz, indeed.

New Years Vase – 2019

If you’re in need of a thoughtful gift to give your hostess tonight, look no further than this lovely, simple 2019 vase, designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed in deep purple by MyMiniFactory user thom lamourine. You won’t need any supports to print this vase, though you will need to utilize a spiral/vase mode.

Bubbly Champagne Cookie Cutter

You could also be the guest that impresses by bringing a batch of cookies you made from scratch (or a boxed mix, no judgement here) shaped like exploding champagne bottles, courtesy of this cute print from Cults3D user oogime. Just make sure you use a food-safe filament.

Happy New Year Keychain 2019

Cults3D user LaurentRiviere created this adorable 2019 key ring “to remember the new year!” You’ll need to pause the print job at the 11th layer to change the color from black to white for the full effect, and remember – if you’ve had too much to drink or are too tired to drive home at the end of the night, make sure the keys attached to this key ring go in your pocket, not your ignition, and call an Uber instead.

3DPrint.com wishes everyone a safe and happy New Year’s Eve!

Will you try making any of these 3D prints? Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

Medical professionals and surgeons around the world have been greatly helped with the emergence and innovation of 3D printed models that not only help pinpoint a diagnosis, but also educate patients and their families regarding health issues (often regarding diseases like cancer and tumors that must be removed). Ultimately, these models can be used by surgeons to practice for delicate surgeries, and then also act as guides in the operating room.

Both US and German scientists have come together now to find improved methods of 3D printing such models and guides, publishing their findings in ‘From Improved Diagnostics to Presurgical Planning: High-Resolution Functionally Graded Multimaterial 3D Printing of Biomedical Tomographic Data Sets.’ While the authors point out how useful anatomical structures are in the medical field, they also explain why 3D printing medical models is currently rife with challenges:

“Typically, features of interest in source biomedical data sets (e.g., crosssectional raster-based biomedical images or volumes from MRI or CT DICOM files) are first isolated from the surrounding tissues, either through a time-consuming manual segmentation approach or through the use of specific intensity thresholds that best capture the feature(s) of interest,” state the authors. “The result of this filtering step is used to generate a single isosurface that is then translated into a printable format [i.e. stereolithography (.stl) file, the current standard for 3D printing workflows], which describes surface geometries through mesh representations of face vertices and normals.”

3D printing of surgical models can be flawed due to reasons like thresholding, or error in digital structure that prevent files from printing and then require users to make additional changes later. The researchers see multimaterial 3D printers as a solution due to their ability to use more than one .stl file:

“This approach greatly expands the number of different anatomical structures that can be represented by different colors or materials (e.g., through the use of multiple thresholds) and, as such, can improve the interpretive value of 3D-printed anatomical models,” state the researchers. “However, the printing of multiple nested .stl files is labor intensive, computationally expensive, and ultimately nonscalable.”

High-spatial resolution 3D-printed structural details in a pathological heart model. (A) Volumetric rendering of an infarcted heart and (B) the corresponding (cropped) 3D print of its apex, clearly showing (C) the structural organization of the superficial coronary vasculature and (D) the details of the left ventricular scar.

As a result, their study is centered around showing how functional bitmap-based workflows are helpful in fabricating biomedical data sets, permitting rapid creation of anatomical models without thresholding. The scientists also ‘bypassed’ more typical 3D printing workflows due to their potential for error, and worked with both MRI and CT data.

“Despite the advantages of this bitmap-based workflow compared with its traditional .stl-based counterpart, there are still some limitations to the technique,” concluded the researchers. “For example, although our 3D-printed models can faithfully replicate the details of their native CT or MRI source files, their ability to successfully depict anatomical features of interest is directly limited by the inherent resolution of each imaging modality.

“Inaccuracies can also be introduced by image reconstruction methods designed to optimize human image viewing rather than 3D printing, and traditional clinical tomography file compression and archival protocols will, in turn, need to be modified as biomedical 3D printing becomes more mainstream. Data set-specific issues also arise with regard to signal intensity and range.”

[Source / Images:

]

3D printing of scanning electron microscopy (SEM)-based data sets. (A) X-ray transmission image and (B) a corresponding backscattered SEM slice of a healing critical defect in an ovine femur immobilized with a titanium cage implant together with a higher magnification single slice backscattered electron micrograph. (C) A 3D-printed counterpart of the SEM image and (D) the corresponding higher magnification modulus map from the resulting 3D-printed model reveal the subtle differences in mineral density during the early stages of bone healing.

In this week’s abbreviated 3D Printing News Briefs, we’ve got a story on a new type of 3D printing that makes it easy to 3D print small objects, and a distinguished professor gives a TEDx talk about the importance of interdisciplinary research. Wrapping things up, we’ve got a video about an amazing 3D printed 1/6 scale vehicle model.

Shrinking 3D Printer

A schematic of the Alice in Wonderland image that was etched and shrunk in the 3D shrinking printer. [Image: Ed Boyden et al.]

A team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, and the Pfizer Internal Medicine Research Unit in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently published a paper, titled “

,” in the

journal about their innovative new method of

, which makes it easy to 3D print very small objects. A technique called implosion fabrication 3D prints an object, then shrinks it down to the required size. The shrinking 3D printer can work with different materials, such as quantum dots, metals, and DNA, and can also fabricate complicated shapes like microscopic linked chains as well.

MIT researcher Ed Boyden, one of the co-authors of the paper, developed the shrinking 3D printing method by thinking of reversing a process where brain tissue is expanded so it’s possible to see its finer structure. The team found that they could shrink a structure by about 8,000 times in multiple tests, and proved its viability by etching a structure of Alice in Wonderland and shrinking it down to 50 nanometers from 1 cubic millimeter. The research team believes that their shrinking 3D printers could be used to make small, high resolution optical lenses for driving cars, though the possibilities for this technology are practically endless.

TEDx on Interdisciplinary Research

Distinguished Professor Dietmar W. Hutmacher, the director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Australian Research Council Training Centre in Additive Biomanufacturing at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), is an inventor, educator, biomedical engineer, and intellectual property creator, and has been responsible for multiple breakthroughs in bioprinting. He recently gave a talk at a TEDx event about the importance of interdisciplinary research as it applies to regenerative medicine, which works to help patients with damaged tissues due to disease or accident. Prof Hutmacher himself has converted a bone tissue engineering concept all the way from the lab to clinical application involving in vitro experiments, preclinical studies, and clinical trials, and in the TEDx talk discussed how “one walks the talk to orchestrate an interdisciplinary team” where everyone can share knowledge and naturally learn the important required competencies. He presented a patient case of a young father’s long bone defect, where his interdisciplinary research team was made up of clinicians, engineers, material scientists, molecular and cell biologists, polymer chemists, and veterinary surgeons.

“In regenerative medicine there is a great move to introduce interdisciplinarity in the research programs, as well as in the scholarships,” DProf Hutmacher said in the YouTube video. “However, most of the teams are rather doing multidisciplinary research, which does not lead to what we have done in the past moving a bone tissue engineering concept into the clinic.”

To see the rest of DProf Hutmacher’s TEDx talk, check out the video below:

VIDEO

1/6 Scale Model of 1961 Dodge D100

Over the years, we’ve seen some pretty cool 3D printed vehicle models that have been both scaled up and scaled down, but I think this one takes the cake: a highly detailed, 1/6 scale model of a 1961 Dodge D100 truck, created by maker Konstantin Bogdanov. Including filming, the project took him a year to complete, and Bogdanov writes that the YouTube video he created is more of a project diary, though it can also be used as a tutorial.

Using a blueprint of the Dodge, Bogdanov modeled the cab of the truck in Blender and 3D printed it out of polyamide; additional materials used to build the model include aluminum foil, Styrene rods, plywood, artificial leather, and acrylic paint. His 44 minute YouTube video shows some of the modeling work, and then moves on to the nitty gritty details of building all the separate pieces of the truck model, from the doors and fenders to the chassis and grille, and finally assembling everything before painting and weathering the model. Plus, at about the 2:06 minute mark, Bogdanov’s adorable cat makes its first of multiple appearances in the video! If you’re interested in making your own 1/6 scale model of the 1961 Dodge D100 truck, you can download the STL files for both the four motor mount and the tractor wheels. Check out the video for more details.

VIDEO

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