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3D printed hip replacement helps a 71 year old woman walk freely

Thanks to 3D printing, a 71 year old woman is saved from a permanent life in a wheelchair. A customized 3D-printed hip implant. Meryl Richards, had hip problems since being involved in a car accident in the 1970s, had six previous hip surgeries since then, which made her pelvic bone very weak.Her leg was two inches shorter than the other one, and it seemed that a wheelchair was her only option.

But now, she has a ray of hope for a new beginning. She underwent a hip replacement operation at Southampton Hospital using a customized 3D-printed hip implant, one of the first operations of its kind in Britain. The surgeons took precise measurements taken from detailed body scans and printed the hip layer-by-layer. A Belgian-based company Mobelife designed the customized hip according to the CT body scans and delivered the implant, which was a perfect fit for the patient.

The British surgeons are using the patient’s own stem cells to hold the hip joint in place. These cells were taken before the operation, cultured separately in a laboratory to create a larger batch. The cells thus developed will be made to act as a glue to create better bonding between the implant and the damaged site and to achieve tighter fit, thus enhancing the success rate of the surgery.

If everything goes as per plan, Ms. Richards will soon have legs of the same length, and will walking pain-free and without a limp.

 

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Hemosep, the life saving blood recycler gets cheaper, thanks to 3D Printing!

From 3D-printed cars to 3D-printed shoes, additive manufacturing technology is going to revolutionize the manufacturing sector. 3D printers have a great role to play in the health care sector too. The latest addition to the applications of 3D printing is Hemosop, the blood recycling machine.

Hemosep is a one-of-a-kind life saving machine that recovers blood lost or spilled during major trauma and open-heart surgeries, recycling the blood and allowing for its quick transfusion back into the patient. Stratasys in partnership with British company Brightwake (Advancis Medical) will make the production of this religiously ethical blood collector machine, much cheaper.

Hemosep’s blood recycling technology based on Autotransfusion process that reduces the need for donor blood in a surgery and eliminates any possible complications tied to transfusion reactions, could be a real life-saver in many situations. This machine helps religious individuals in particular who refuse donor blood greatly.

The Hemosep device, concentrates blood by removing the fluid component of whole blood, the plasma, from a pooled volume of blood salvaged during, or at the end of high blood loss surgery. The technique for removing the plasma from the blood product, leading to concentration of the cellular components, is fairly simple but involves a number of critical steps and controls.

The Hemosep device consists of:

  • The Hemosep bag
  • Hemosep Shaker Unit
  • A blood collection bag for the collection of processed blood
  • Intraoperative pump, suction and blood reservoir

The people at Brightwake turned to the Stratasys Dimension 1200es 3D printer to create models of some of the device’s central parts, like the filtration and cooling systems. Brightwake’s use of the Stratasys 3D printer saved the company time and cut its prototyping costs by 96 percent, saving about £1000 per machine. This is definitely the future of medical device manufacturing.

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Pan Cake Printer – Technology aided Creativity on your Breakfast table

Pancake, one of the most universal and traditional foods, is getting a major technological upgrade!! This upgrade can help parents who look for using food as a means to teach/ engage their kids or the ones who find it difficult to feed their kids with the same old stuff. This upgrade can break monotony and give a kid’s breakfast table exciting finish. All this possible with the help of a new open source gadget called Pancake Bot, the latest version of which was unveiled at the Bay Area Maker Faire.

PancakeBot is a culinary printer designed by designer Miguel Valenzuela. Acting on the request of his 3 year old daughter, he used LEGO blocks to create his initial prototype, which was subsequently replaced by “an acrylic body, an Arduino Mega, and two Adafruit Motor Shields as well as a few odds and ends like a vacuum pump for batter control.

The PancakeBot works much like a 3D printer, drawing intricately designed pancakes. The batter coming out of the extruder is not flat like ink on a paper, but will have some thickness. Technically it is not the same as a 3D printer, as this printer can print only along X and Y axes but can’t move in Z direction.

But for a foodie, what matters is not whether its 2D or 3D but whether the pancake design printed looks awesome and tastes yummy!!

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World’s first flying 3D printer gets ready for real time applications

Yes you read it right! It’s a flying 3D printer this time, which combines two of the amazing technologies – flying drones and 3D printers. The flying 3D drone project or the MUPPette project team from Imperial College- London, aims at building a flying quad-copter, which can be more formally called as a 3D printing Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV). The copter carries two chemicals that create polyurethane foam when mixed. Swiftlet is a small bird that builds nests entirely from threads of their saliva is the inspiration behind this technology.

According to the team, the foam can be molded to create non-complex structures or repair components, making the drone especially useful in hard-to-reach areas. Another application for this novel technology can be removal of dangerous objects from hazardous locations, since the substance is very sticky and allows multiple drones to work together and carry away the hazardous materials.

Currently, the drone can only fly in controlled environments using real time sensors, but going forward, the copter will be made ready to face any environment using high-speed cameras, sensors and even solar panels.

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Forget 3D Printing. 4D Printing is on its way!

Thanks to the huge publicity wave from the last 2-3 year, we all have started understanding the concept of 3D – three dimensions which mean length, breadth and height of an object. Now, researchers are trying to add a fourth dimension to this. 4D refers to models that represent the fourth dimension of any materials i.e. change. So 4D printer means printer that can create objects which can transform over time and in some cases they can self assemble.

Towards turning this dream into reality a collaborative effort is being made by Stratasys’ Education, R&D departments and MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab. This venture is being led by Skylar Tibbits who is a trained architect, a computer scientist as well as an artist. This research is focused on developing self-assembly technology for large -scale structures that can exist in the physical environment.

With the help of Stratasys’ Connex technology a single print with multi-material features can transform from any 1D strand into 3D shape, 2D shape into a 3D shape or replicate one 3D model to another 3D model. The Connex multi-material 3D printing technology is an important part of 4D printing which is used extensively. This machine allows the researchers to program different material properties into each of the other particles of the designed geometry. The self assembly process is activated by the harnessing of the different water absorbing properties of the material. With water as the activation energy, this technique has a lot of possibilities for embedding programmability and simple decision making into non electronic base material.

He also adds that his lab has been closely working with a number of industry partners on ways they could incorporate the concept of 4D in their businesses. As of now Tibbits sees this technology revising the furniture or the sportswear industry. To this he gives the example of sneakers that could change shape and functions according to the change in conditions. He says that “If I start running, [the sneakers] should adapt to being running shoes. If I play basketball, they adapt to support my ankles more. If I go on grass, they should grow cleats or become waterproof if it’s raining.  It’s not like the shoe would understand that you’re playing basketball, of course, but it can tell what kind of energy or what type of forces are being applied by your foot.  It could transform based on pressure.  Or it could be moisture or temperature change.” Making all this happen on a human scale is very challenging particularly in more traditional industries such as construction says Tibbits. But he feels that there is potential of this technology in all the industries. For instance, he sees a future for what he calls “adaptive infrastructure” in space.

But this still is something that has not turned into reality, the reality at present stands at this technology not being commercially available. This is undoubtedly the beginning of an entirely new innovative world of manufacturing with minimum energy. 4D printing is the first technology that offers smart objects which is quite exciting. This surely is a gigantesque shift in our understanding of structures, which until today have been objects that have been static and rigid. It’s a mind boggling experience to imagine what this technology could do to industries like aerospace, automotive, building industries etc which could soon become dynamic, adaptable and could change according to the demand.

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‘KAST’ the Fastest 3D printer

Kast3DP, founded by Nirvana Jay and Compiler Liu, came up with its latest Kast 3D printer, a stereolithography 3D printer that allows you to build high quality 3D plastic in a matter of hours. The printer can print 12 times faster than existing SLA 3D printers at extra high speeds because it can cure layers of resin.

The patent pending “retina casting” technology is not exactly the same as SLA (stereolithography) according to KAST, but it’s similar. The process uses UV-sensitive liquid resin, solid form of the final cured resin will melt at approximately 400 degrees celsius.

KAST 3D printer will be targeted towards the prosumer market and is expected to be priced at around $3000. The Kast 3D printer will be launched on Kickstarter soon, and will be offered at $1,790 for early bird Kickstarter backers

Specifications of the new KAST 3D printer:
– Print Size – 200mmX150mmX200mm (6L)
– Layer Resolution – Approximately 50 Microns (x,y) and 20 microns (z) axes
– Material – Liquid resin

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3D Printed Houses in China – 10 Houses in a Day

Another interesting addition to the wonders of 3D Printing! A Chinese firm has beyond our imaginations and used 3D printing to build 10 rudimentary prototype houses in 24 hours. Each of these houses measure 200-square-metres and are typical grey structures built using 3D printing process developed over 12 years at a cost of 20 million yuan ($3.4 million). The Wall Street Journal reports that according to WinSun engineer Chen Jiajia, the homes were printed in Suzhou and assembled in Shanghai, and will be used as offices for local authorities.

The printers use a mix of cement and industrial waste to render load-bearing structures with minimal environmental impact, and are 6.6 metres tall, 10 metres wide and about 20 metres long. The houses built by 3D printer are environmental friendly, it uses construction waste to reuse and construct new buildings. Construction work load and cost will be cut down as it is more of mechanical work than physical labour work and uses construction waste as raw material.

WinSun’s foray into 3D printing makes us believe that 3D printing applications are beyond routine stuff like plane parts, prototypes, models, jewellery and even gun parts. The company also has hopes to build skyscrapers in the future. Currently the process has one hiccup – the printers are not yet able to print roofing materials.

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MakerBot partners with Sesame Street to print snuffies

MakerBot partners with Sesame Street to print snuffies
MakerBot partners with Sesame Street to print snuffies

When you’ve got a 3D printer in every home, what do you need? Things to print, of course.

A few months back, MakerBot set out to launch an online store front for premium 3D printable objects sort of like an iTunes for 3D printing, where you can download the 3D models.

Initially MakerBot put up a few offerings of their own to get the ball rolling. But they have finally found their first big partner – Sesame Workshop, the legendary company behind Sesame Street. Sesame Street is its first global licensed brand and this means you’ll be able to get3D printable Sesame Street licensed content via MakerBot Digital Store and MakerBot Retail Stores. For a buck twenty nine, you’ll get a prepped and tested digital version of Snuffleupagus that’ll let you print as many snuffies as your heart desires.

As of January of this year, MakerBot had sold just shy of 50,000 3d printers since launch. And, for Sesame street this will not mean much in terms of revenues because, even if it turns out that every one in four MakerBot ownersbuys the model, that’s just $15,000 a tiny drop in the bucket for Sesame Workshop, who brings in somewhere around $45 million in merchandise licensing each and every year. As per observers, Sesame Workshop isn’t doing this to rake in the cash; they’re doing it to be a part of something cool, early on.

Hence, all this sound great, but this is all part a very long term play. MakerBot, meanwhile, is laying a solid foundation for the large future customer base, with the assumption that 3D printing eventually goes ubiquitous. If one day soon there really is a 3D printer in every home, they’re trying to make sure they own the pick-and-print market early.

ImageSource: Sesame Street

 

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Lix, smallest 3D printing pen lets you draw in air

If you’ve ever wanted to see your notebook doodles and 3-D designs to come to life, you might be in luck.

Meet Lix, “the smallest pen that does not require paper.” The 3-D printing pen, created by a London-based company, allows you to doodle mid-air as plastic filament melts and hardens into a freestanding shape.

Though Lix is not the first 3-D pen to hit the market, it comes with several enhancements. Last year, a 3-D pen called 3Doodler which also uses acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (or ABS) plastic that melts and solidifies instantly while writing, first appeared on Kickstarter, and made waves. But it was seen more as a cool toy than a serious design instrument due to the lack of precision.

On the other hand, Lix is smaller weighing just over an ounce, and easy to use. Within a minute of plugging it via USB port, it gets warmed up and ready for doodling.

Apart from the design field, 3D writing is expected to have a myriad of applications going forward. Like 3Doodler, Lix is being funded through Kickstarter, and with several weeks to go, it’s already been funded several times over its initial budget.

You can also have a look at Creoopop , another 3D doodling pen, which uses a completely different technology.

Click here to purchase a 3D Doodler.

Image source: lixpen.com