Additive Manufacturing: New Frontiers for Production and Validation

Over the last few decades, additive manufacturing (AM)/ 3D printing has fundamentally changed the way that manufacturers approach product development. Industry is now...

3D Printing: SLS Creates New Potential for Design in Medical Technology

Laser sintering technology enables medical technology designers to print plastic objects for feasibility studies within a very short time. The functional prototypes...

The Future of 3D Printing: From Prototyping to Production

Additive manufacturing, better known as 3D printing, has been evolving for the last 30 years. Now it’s set to enter the mainstream, and evolving technology including new printers...

Digital Manufacturing Helps Revolutionize Surgical Stapler

Modern science has allowed surgeons to fix the human body amazingly fast yet leave behind only small traces where repairs were performed. One of the more commonly used methods to...

Exploring Oligomers for Medical 3D Printing

In 3D printing, the additive manufacturing processes use gradual creation or addition of materials to form an object. 3D printing has become a widely used method for manufacturing prototypes in...

Makerspace: Rapid Prototyping Facility Offers Hands-On Learning

The New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Newark College of Engineering has opened a training-focused, rapid prototyping facility that is central to both the university’s...

Adapting Prototyping to Meet Rapid Advances in Medical Device Designs

Rapid prototyping has long played a vital role in the evolution of medical device technology. Effectively applied during a product's early design stages, it can generate...

Nonprofit Pushes Design Limits to Develop Life-Saving Technology for Underprivileged Communities

Nearly four million infants in developing countries die each year within a month of birth due to complications of prematurity, low birth weight,...

Optimizing Performance and Value of Medical Devices with the Right Plastic Processing Technology

Engineering thermoplastics are widely used to manufacture a broad range of medical devices, from single-use syringes and applicators to...

3D Printing: Overcoming Anatomical Model Challenges

For years, anatomical models have played important roles in hospitals and healthcare facilities. From educational aids to practice dummies, these models serve many functions for...

Designing Cybersecurity into Connected Medical Devices

Cyber threats to health delivery organizations (HDOs) and the medical device industry as a whole have hit a new level of maturity in the last year. A decade ago, the attack scene was...

On-Demand Injection Molding: 3D Printed Assistive Devices for the Blind

Helping blind people gain a sense of vision — and doing so through their tongues — sounds like pure science fiction. It's now a reality, however, thanks to the...

Lasers: The Perfect Tool for Industry 4.0

With the advent of Industry 4.0, digital manufacturing promises speed, directness, and flexibility — so it needs a tool that meets those demands. Fortunately, the right technology has been evolving...

Living Polymerization Enables Adaptable 3D Printing

Three-dimensional printing technology makes it possible to rapidly manufacture objects by depositing layer upon layer of polymers in a precisely determined pattern. Once these objects are...

Open Source Laser Cutter 3D Prints from Powder

Bioengineering researchers at Rice University have modified a commercialgrade CO₂ laser cutter to create OpenSLS, an open-source, selective laser sintering (SLS) platform that, they...

Additive Manufacturing Advances for Electronics

3D printing may be used to custom manufacture electronics.

A group of researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, has demonstrated that combining two technologies—one...

Top 5 Concerns When Selecting a Custom Extruder

Finding the right custom extrusion and plastics company to manufacture and provide a key custom component to your end-product needs can often seem a daunting task. With an abundance of...

2015 Create the Future Design Contest: Honorable Mentions

Method for Treating Cartilage Defects Michael Lytinas
Ideas Foundation, Boston, MA

This invention is a method to treat cartilage defects in osteoarthritis and...

Iron Man Special Effects Team and Progressive Device Designers: Superheroes with a Connection

Comparing the cool factor of medical device components to Robert Downey Jr.’s gleaming armor in the film Iron Man 2 is…well…tough. But...

Liquid Silicone Rubber Finds Many Uses in Medical Applications

Material performance can be important in any application, but in medical equipment and devices, with lives and health at stake, it can be absolutely critical. A particular...

3D-Printed Personalized Scoliosis Brace

Idiopathic scoliosis is defined as a lateral or rotational curvature of the spine that initially appears in children during the prepubescent ages of 8 to 13. It currently affects nearly 7 million...

As 3D Printing Grows, Compounders Become Production Partners

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, grew from startup roots in the mid- 1980s to a $2.2 billion business by 2012, according to industry consultants Wohlers...

Move to Rapid Prototyping Cut Costs by Millions

Instrumentation Laboratory, Bedford, MA, is a worldwide manufacturer of in vitro diagnostic instruments, related reagents, and controls for use in hospitals and independent clinical...

An Overview of Additive Manufacturing Considerations

Speed equates to cost, so faster prototyping and production mean lower costs and faster time to market. Although this statement seems to be fairly easy, there are some considerations to...

Honorable Mentions

SwipeSense
Yuri Malina and Mert Iseri
Evanston, Illinois

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the best way to prevent the two million annual cases of hospital-acquired infections is by increasing...

Product Development is Key Asset for Mold Manufacturers

Development of medical devices that are molded from thermoplastics or that have plastic components should begin with collaboration between the OEM’s engineering team and the mold...

Rapid Prototyping Helps Medical OEMs Sprint to Portability

A medical device developer in Southern California embarked on a search for help in the process of developing a diagnostic medical instrument. They visited product vendors, contract...