Tag Archives: medical
Top 3D Printing Headlines from Last Week: SketchUp, Medical, Toys, Jobs
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from April 30 to May 6.
Monday, April 30
- Why Google Sold SketchUp and What It Means for 3D Printing
- 3D Printing Companies Exhibiting at Maker Faire 2012
Tuesday, May 1
- Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in April
- Futuristic Medicine: 3D Printed Jaw Implant Rescues 83-Year-Old Woman
Wednesday, May 2
- 3D Printing the Rosetta Stone for Kids Toys: Nerd Dad Triumph
- Inspiring High School Students to be Tomorrow’s Designers: 3D Printing [Video]
Thursday, May 3
- Shapeways Feed is a Pinterest for 3D Printing Designs
- Stable Design: 3D Printing with Autodesk 123D and MakerBot [Video]
Friday, May 4
Futuristic Medicine: 3D Printed Jaw Implant Rescues 83-Year-Old Woman
In a groundbreaking first in the medical field, a team from the University of Hasselt has created a method for using 3D printing to fabricate a functioning lower jaw implant that rescued their patient from a massive infection.
“The introduction of printed implants can be compared to man’s first venture on the moon: a cautious, but firm step,” said Professor Jules Poukens of BIOMED.
The patient was an 83-year-old woman who was suffering from a major infection in her mandible. Traditional treatments, such as removing the lower jaw, would result in greatly decreased quality of life. Luckily, this medical team of doctors from the University of Hasselt, Belgium, partnered with engineers from Xios University College, SIRRIS, Xilloc Medical BV in Belgium, and the department of Cranio-, Maxillo-Facial surgery of Orbis Medical Center Sittard-Geleen in The Netherlands to develop an innovative treatment using 3D printing.
“Computer technology will cause a veritable revolution in the medical world. We just need to learn to work with it,” added Professor Jules Poukens. “Doctors and engineers together around the design computer and the operation table: that’s what we call being truly innovative.”
Pictured above and below, Dr. Ivo Lambrichts holds the 3D printed mandible. It was fabricated using a titanium powder in only a few hours. Typical methods to create implants usually take days.
Within 1 day after surgery, the patient had normal functioning speech, swallowing and movement.
Congratulations to this team for their major achievement!
Via UHasselt.
Top 3D Printing Headlines from Last Week: $1.4 Billion Merger, The Economist, GWiz Fab Lab, 3D Design Software
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from April 16 to April 22.
Monday, April 16
- Stratasys Merges with Objet to Create 3D Printing Powerhouse in $1.4 Billion Deal
- How Big Can 3D Printing Go?
Tuesday, April 17
- Stratasys and Objet Merger: Analysis and Key Takeaways
- 3D Printing Changes the Game for Scientific Experiments [Video]
Wednesday, April 18
- 3D Systems Acquires Paramount Industries to Advance Aerospace and Medical Device 3D Printing
- Rebuild (or Clone) the Forbidden City with 3D Printing
Thursday, April 19
- A Look Back at the History of MakerBot, 3D Printing Pioneer [Video]
- 3D Printing Earns Top 10 Fastest Growing Industries, Beats Hot Sauce Production
Friday, April 20
3D Printing Industry in Explosive Growth – $3.1 Billion by 2016
$3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020 — those are the estimates made by Forbes for the size of the emerging 3D printing industry.
Given that the field is nearly 30 years old, it looks like 3D printing is finally ready to hit an inflection point.
Forbes cites a quote from research by industry guru Terry Wohlers:
“Low-cost 3D printers affect both the professional and consumer markets. The increased sale of these machines over the past few years has taken additive manufacturing (AM) mainstream more than any other single development. 3D printers have helped spread the technology and made it more accessible to students, researchers, do-it-yourself enthusiasts, hobbyists, inventors, and entrepreneurs.”
But hobbyists and researchers are clearly not the only sources of growth. Here are some other examples:
- Medical: Dental practices are employing 3D printing to construct perfect-fit crowns in tooth repair procedures.
- Mechanical engineering: CAD models can now be edited in your web browser, untethering expert designers from their desks and expensive software.
- Global: Consumers in the US and Europe are buying 3D printed goods based on designs created by individuals in China, South Africa and India.
Will 3D printing grow from a quaint hobby to a $5 billion market in 8 years? Most certainly.
Broad stripes and stars image used under Creative Commons from Jason Samfield.
