I thought I was pretty up to date on health technology until I stumbled on this article
today. 3D printing has nothing to do with paper, it’s a machine that cranks out a product or a proto-type product. Software is used to design it and then when you hit the print button on the machine, it goes to work producing the product out of sheets of phyllo dough. This is amazing with the legs as the finished product has parts and functionality that a $60,000 leg doesn’t have.
In time bigger machines are looking to print out your house bit by bit, yikes! The devices can be customized with their own themes or what ever you want to call them, so it can be wood, a Harley, you name it. They create plastic shells that fit around the limbs for a true customized limb of what one wants. If you read the entire article at the New York Times, more is discussed as far as use outside of healthcare too, amazing stuff. BD
SAN FRANCISCO — Businesses in the South Park district of San Francisco generally sell either Web technology or sandwiches and burritos. Bespoke Innovations plans to sell designer body parts.
Scott Summit, a co-founder of Bespoke, and his partner, an orthopedic surgeon, are set to open a studio this fall where they will sell the limb coverings and experiment with printing entire customized limbs that could cost a tenth of comparable artificial limbs made using traditional methods. And they will be dishwasher-safe, too.
A 3-D printer, which has nothing to do with paper printers, creates an object by stacking one layer of material — typically plastic or metal — on top of another, much the same way a pastry chef makes baklava with sheets of phyllo dough.
Mr. Summit and his partner, Kenneth B. Trauner, the orthopedic surgeon, have built some test models of full legs that have sophisticated features like body symmetry, locking knees and flexing ankles. One artistic design is metal-plated in some areas and leather-wrapped in others.
“It costs $5,000 to $6,000 to print one of these legs, and it has features that aren’t even found in legs that cost $60,000 today,” Mr. Summit said.
Based on research done by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, Contour Crafting has created a giant 3-D printing device for building houses. The start-up company is seeking money to commercialize a machine capable of building an entire house in one go using a machine that fits on the back of a tractor-trailer.
3-D Printing Is Spurring a Manufacturing Revolution - NYTimes.com
That's really cool. I've seen 3D printers in action for architectural models. It's so interesting the way design and medical technologies cross over.
ReplyDelete3D Printing Technology has made it possible for designers to create 3D models and images pre-production products without the need to incur expensive outsourcing costs. With new technologies companies can own their own 3D Print systems and produce 3d models right in their office, saving significant time and a lot of money.
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