3D printed teeth kill bacteria

 

Dental implants could soon have built-in antibacterial properties (Credit:Shutterstock) Creating replacement parts for various bits of the human body is one of the many areas in which 3D printing has huge potential. Dental implants are on that list, too, and if new research out of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands comes to fruition, 3D-printed replacement teeth could come with the added bonus of being able to destroy 99 percent of bacteria that they come into contact with. The research team, led by Andreas Hermann, has developed a process to manufacture 3D-printed teeth and braces capable of destroying bacteria using a special type of antimicrobial resin. To create the resin, the researchers combined antibacterial ammonium salts with standard dental resins. The resultant mixture was then hardened using ultraviolet light and put inside a 3D printer to print samples of replacement teeth. The positive charge on the ammonium salts gives the resin its bacteria-killing property, disrupting negatively charged bacterial membranes and causing them to burst and die. To test the antibacterial capacity of the resin the researchers applied a mixture of saliva and tooth decay-causing bacteria Streptococcus mutans on the samples of the replacement teeth and found that the material was effective in destroying 99 percent of the bacteria colonies on the sample. The material can kill bacteria on contact but is not harmful to human cells, Hermann told New Scientist. It's not all smiles though. In a review of the study Nicholas Staropoli, a research associate for the American Council on Science and Health, points out that while the teeth could prevent oral infections, such as endocarditis, and preserve dental implants, it could also wipe out helpful bacteria that help protect a person from harmful pathogens. As of now the material is still a prototype and according to the researchers further testing will be required before human trials can be conducted. In addition to inhibiting bacterial damage to teeth implants, the researchers believe the material may also be suitable for orthopaedic and non-medical applications, such as water purification, food packaging and children’s toys. The research paper entitled 3D-Printable Antimicrobial Composite Resins is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.   http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printer-teeth-kill-bacteria/40161/

3D Printed Building Powered by a 3D Printing Car

 

Posted: 17 Oct 2015 11:00 AM PDT

AMIE est un bâtiment conçu grâce à une impression 3D menée par une voiture, pour assurer flexibilité et mobilité durant la construction. La voiture possède un générateur qui n’a pas besoin d’être connecté à une source d’énergie, elle fonctionne grâce à un système magnétique sans fil (un peu comme un chargeur géant de téléphone portable). La firme Skidmore, Owings and Merrill a travaillé en collaboration avec le U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory pour imaginer cette incroyable maison, dans le cadre du projet Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy.

3-D printed guide helps regrow complex nerves after injury

 

This is a 3-D printed nerve regeneration pathway implanted in a rat helped to improve walking in 10 to 12 weeks after implantation. Credit: University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering A national team of researchers has developed a first-of-its-kind, 3D-printed guide that helps regrow both the sensory and motor functions of complex nerves after injury. The groundbreaking research has the potential to help more than 200,000 people annually who experience nerve injuries or disease. Collaborators on the project are from the University of Minnesota, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Princeton University, and Johns Hopkins University. Nerve regeneration is a complex process. Because of this complexity, regrowth of nerves after injury or disease is very rare, according to the Mayo Clinic. Nerve damage is often permanent. Advanced 3D printing methods may now be the solution. In a new study, published today in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, researchers used a combination of 3D imaging and 3D printing techniques to create a custom silicone guide implanted with biochemical cues to help nerve regeneration. The guide's effectiveness was tested in the lab using rats. To achieve their results, researchers used a 3D scanner to reverse engineer the structure of a rat's sciatic nerve. They then used a specialized, custom-built 3D printer to print a guide for regeneration. Incorporated into the guide were 3D-printed chemical cues to promote both motor and sensory nerve regeneration. The guide was then implanted into the rat by surgically grafting it to the cut ends of the nerve. Within about 10 to 12 weeks, the rat's ability to walk again was improved. "This represents an important proof of concept of the 3D printing of custom nerve guides for the regeneration of complex nerve injuries," said University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor Michael McAlpine, the study's lead researcher. "Someday we hope that we could have a 3D scanner and printer right at the hospital to create custom nerve guides right on site to restore nerve function." Scanning and printing takes about an hour, but the body needs several weeks to regrow the nerves. McAlpine said previous studies have shown regrowth of linear nerves, but this is the first time a study has shown the creation of a custom guide for regrowth of a complex nerve like the Y-shaped sciatic nerve that has both sensory and motor branches. "The exciting next step would be to implant these guides in humans rather than rats," McAlpine said. In cases where a nerve is unavailable for scanning, McAlpine said there could someday be a "library" of scanned nerves from other people or cadavers that hospitals could use to create closely matched 3D-printed guides for patients. In addition to McAlpine, major contributors to the research team include Blake N. Johnson, Virginia Tech; Xiaofeng Jia, University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University; and Karen Z. Lancaster, Esteban Engel, and Lynn W. Enquist, Princeton University. This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, and the Grand Challenges Program at Princeton University. To read more about the study entitled "3D Printed Anatomical Nerve Regeneration Pathways," visit the Advanced Functional Materials website. Story Source: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Minnesota. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Blake N. Johnson, Karen Z. Lancaster, Gehua Zhen, Junyun He, Maneesh K. Gupta, Yong Lin Kong, Esteban A. Engel, Kellin D. Krick, Alex Ju, Fanben Meng, Lynn W. Enquist, Xiaofeng Jia, Michael C. McAlpine. 3D Printed Anatomical Nerve Regeneration Pathways. Advanced Functional Materials, 2015; DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201501760

3D printing with metals achieved

 

Wed, 06/10/2015 - 9:25am University of Twente A copper micro-pillar with a height of 0.86 mm and a width of 0.005 mm. The pillar is formed from drops that had a diameter of 0.001 mm. With this technique, more complex shapes can also be printed. A team of researchers from the Univ. of Twente has found a way to 3D print structures of copper and gold, by stacking microscopically small metal droplets. These droplets are made by melting a thin metal film using a pulsed laser. Their work is published by Advanced Materials. 3D printing is a rapidly advancing field, that is sometimes referred to as the “new cornerstone of the manufacturing industry”. However, at present, 3D printing is mostly limited to plastics. If metals could be used for 3D printing as well, this would open a wide new range of possibilities. Metals conduct electricity and heat very well, and they're very robust. Therefore, 3D printing in metals would allow manufacturing of entirely new devices and components, such as small cooling elements or connections between stacked chips in smartphones. However, metals melt at a high temperature. This makes controlled deposition of metal droplets highly challenging. Thermally robust nozzles are required to process liquid metals, but these are hardly available. For small structures in particular (from 100 nm to 10 um) no good solutions for this problem existed yet. Researchers from FOM and the Univ. of Twente now made a major step towards high-resolution metal printing. They used laser light to melt copper and gold into micrometer-sized droplets and deposited these in a controlled manner. In this method, a pulsed laser is focused on a thin metal film that locally melts and deforms into a flying drop. The researchers then carefully position this drop onto a substrate. By repeating the process, a 3-D structure is made. For example, the researchers stacked thousands of drops to form micro-pillars with a height of 2 mm and a diameter of 5 um. They also printed vertical electrodes in a cavity, as well as lines of copper. In effect, virtually any shape can be printed by smartly choosing the location of the drop impact. High energy In this study, the researchers used a surprisingly high laser energy in comparison to earlier work, to increase the impact velocity of the metal droplets. When these fast droplets impact onto the substrate, they deform into a disk shape and solidify in that form. The disk shape is essential for a sturdy 3D print: It allows the researchers to firmly stack the droplets on top of each other. In previous attempts, physicists used low laser energies. This allowed them to print smaller drops, but the drops stayed spherical, which meant that a stack of solidified droplets was less stable. In their article, the researchers explain which speed is required to achieve the desired drop shape. They had previously predicted this speed for different laser energies and materials. This means that the results can be readily translated to other metals as well. One remaining problem is that the high laser energy also results in droplets landing on the substrate next to the desired location. At present this cannot be prevented. In future work the team will investigate this effect, to enable clean printing with metals, gels, pastas or extremely thick fluids. Source: University of Twente

CSIRO's Lab 22: Kickstarting a 3D printing revolution in titanium

 

CSIRO Lab 22: making millions of dollars' worth of 3D printing equipment available to local business (Credit: Loz Blain/Gizmag) Image Gallery (35 images) Australia is the world's largest producer of titanium at the moment, and it's sitting on the world's second-largest titanium reserves. But with virtually no local industry processing this strong, lightweight metal or manufacturing with it, the country is sending a massive amount of potential value overseas. Put it this way – if Australia exports unrefined titanium at its current rate, reserves will be depleted in 90 years. But if the country harnessed the full value of processed titanium, it could achieve the same export earnings for some 9,000 years. Australia's federal scientific research organization, the CSIRO, is looking for ways to kick-start a local titanium manufacturing industry and develop some of that value, and one of the most promising sectors for titanium manufacturing is in 3D printing. "Titanium is a difficult material to machine, it really eats through tooling and it's a very reactive metal, so it can be quite dangerous if you get hot spots while machining it," says CSIRO's Research Group Leader in Additive Manufacturing, Alexandra Kingsbury. "So it's difficult to machine, but it's weldable, so that makes it appropriate for these [3D printing] machines." Concept Laser M2 machine - higher fidelity than the Arcam machine, but it takes longer to print CSIRO has made a substantial commitment to 3D printing research, with an AUD$6 million plus investment in its Lab 22 additive manufacture facility. You might remember Lab 22 as one of the partners in the world's first 3D-printed jet engine. Under Kingsbury's leadership, Lab 22 is now operating four million-dollar machines, some of which have never been installed in the southern hemisphere before. These include an electron-beam melting Arcam machine, a bonded sand printer and a cold-spray plasma giken robot arm that fires cold titanium particles at a substrate surface hard enough to splatter on and bond. Lab 22's Alexandra Kingsbury with the group's Cold Spray Plasma Giken machine, mounted on a robot arm And while these machines will primarily be used for research, the team has decided to take a very direct role in developing local manufacturing companies in their downtime. "We don't utilise and run these machines flat stick 100 percent of the time on research," says Kingsbury, "Research programs are expensive, materials are expensive, you don't run the machines unless you've got funding for it. There's some latent capacity there that we can allow companies in to access." Thus, Lab 22 has taken on four initial tier two manufacturing partners – local businesses with interest in developing their 3D printing capabilities. The first two are 3D printing outsourcers Keech3D and MadeForMe. "These guys, you send them a file and they'll get it printed for you," says Kingsbury, "This service bureau model's already up and running in plastics – it can definitely happen in metals too, and that's what these two companies are doing." The third is Nezkot Precision Tooling, which does a lot of specialist work for aerospace and defense, and the final partner is Bastion Cycles, which is incorporating 3D-printed titanium pieces as the joints in its ultra-lightweight bicycle frames. Bastion Cycles demo bicycle, featuring 3D-printed frame joints Kingsbury says Lab 22 is an opportunity for these companies to be guided by CSIRO's expertise through the difficult learning curve of additive manufacture. "It's not quite as plug and play as the hype might have you believe. There's a lot of expertise that you need to do this properly. Sometimes you want a surface to be really smooth, even mirror finish. Sometimes you want it to be rough – this is an acetabular cup for a hip replacement, you want the surface to be rough because the bone's gonna adhere to it better. It's about working out what works better for your product. Do you want to do really fast printing, and then a bit of extra machining, or would you prefer to do a slower print and less machining, or even no machining, could you get away without machining at all? These are the subtle trade-offs that people need to consider when they start using the technology." One of the keys is knowing where 3D printing can actually give you a business advantage at this stage of the game. "Don't print something you can make traditionally, it's not going to give you a business case. But what will is if you're increasing your complexity and light-weighting your parts, if you wanted to customize something, or do low runs without making new tooling – that's where you'll get value out of this technology." Voxeljet VX1000 sand printer - the first of its kind in the Southern hempsphere. It prints sand particles, held together with a bonding agent, and can also be used for ceramics and other powders. Voxeljet VX1000 sand printer - printed sand casting mold These four businesses represent a modest beginning. As CSIRO's own research into titanium processing and printing techniques progresses, Lab 22 will expand with more machines and additional capabilities, opening up more latent capacity for more tier two partners. And of course, the ultimate goal with these businesses is that they'll have enough success with the technology to go away and invest in printers of their own – an outcome that would be good for Australia and for the CSIRO team. "There's a few exceptions," says Kingsbury, "but in real true R&D land, we work with global customers, there's really no industry here to service yet. We'd like to see people in Australia, in Melbourne manufacturing using the machines. I think the not-so-secret evil plan there is that they'll need R&D work too in the future – perhaps they'll come back to us." Lab 22 is an impressive facility with cutting-edge equipment and facilities, and goals no less than sparking a manufacturing revolution. We wish Alexandra and the team every success. More information: CSIRO Lab 22

The Possibilities of 3D Printing: It’s Only the Beginning

 

Fri, 06/05/2015 - 6:00pm Dr. Elena Polyakova, Chief Operating Officer, Graphene 3D Lab   A 3D-printed battery. Images: Graphene 3D LaboratoriesThe future of 3D printing is bright and full of exciting promise. But the most intriguing scenario for this technology isn’t in the manufacture of objects we see every day—that will only be a small niche in the 3D-printing industry. Instead, 3D printing will realize its full potential when it enables people to innovate and create all new objects and devices in a one-touch process. 3D printing allows for distributed manufacturing—meaning products can be created on demand in a facility nearby. In the near future, this will allow consumers to purchase goods which fit their very specific needs. It will also have these goods printed and shipped in a matter of hours, as opposed to the weeks it can take to receive a custom item. Furthermore, 3D printing will allow people to exchange their creative designs quickly and easily, from a new take on an everyday objects to an entirely new electronic device. The ability to create and share like never before is what really makes 3D printing the process of the future. While it has endless possibilities to improve the world around us, it’s still in the early stage of commercial development. Currently, 3D-printing technology allows people to print parts for a broken washing machine, granted the part that’s broken doesn’t need to withstand high force and can be made out of plastic. But within just five years, I foresee 3D printers capable of printing high-quality parts on-demand; and within 10 to 15 years, we will see at-home 3D printing for the majority of needs. So what are some hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve these big feats? The two biggest problems are there are limits in production capabilities and 3D printers aren’t easy to use. But when 3D printing evolves into a simple-push button process, people will be able to go to a local store and use a 3D printer or use one at home to print useful items, as opposed to just models. The way forward to overcome these problems is two-fold. The first is to incorporate advanced materials into thermoplastics used in 3D printing, allowing for functional 3D printing materials. The second is to develop a user-friendly 3D-printing ecosystem which makes the technology more accessible to non-engineers. Moreover, for 3D printing to be used in commercial applications, the speed at which prints are completed must be improved upon, as well as the quality of prints themselves. For example, 3D prints currently have a sub-optimal quality to them when compared to products on store shelves. However, since many products are made solely out of plastic, if these two problems were solved, we would probably see its widespread use for producing both custom and generic objects. The applications of 3D printing can be further expanded with an improvement in available 3D-printing materials. A combination of functional materials with plastics within 3D prints would allow for the printing of operational devices. The advancement of materials for 3D printing is essential to its future. Take graphene for example—a highly conductive nanomaterial—which when introduced to thermoplastics used in 3D printing, adds electrical conductivity to the final product. This is a major step forward because graphene enables us to make a number of applications through 3D printing, including capacitive touch sensors and circuitry. There are also a number of other advanced materials worth experimenting with for 3D printing, including MoS2 and boron nitride. Such materials can bring their own unique functionalities to 3D printing, which can prove useful for very specific applications. For instance, MoS2 has a high level of photoluminescence, which can be used in the creation of optoelectronics. Graphene 3D employee at work in the lab.In addition to development of materials, one of the greatest challenge is in making one printer capable of printing a wide range of objects with several materials. Such a machine should be able to print a faux-wooden chess piece, as well as an operational device with some embedded electronics. The development of 3D printers capable of printing objects in more than just plastic will move the 3D-printing process forward. 3D printers are wonderfully disruptive already, but much innovation needs to occur for these devices to do more, print more and be used by everyday people who have no former experience in 3D printing. This brings us to the next big challenge in 3D printing—the software. Today, it takes someone with some level of expertise in designing, as well as troubleshooting mechanical devices, to be successful with a 3D printer. However, in the future, troubleshooting a 3D printer will be a rare occasion and the software will be easy and quick to learn, much like desktop printing today. When that happens, at-home 3D printing will flourish. 3D printing is poised to make big breakthroughs in the way people create and acquire goods; and the industry is well on its way to overcoming its key challenges—improving the printers, advancing materials used in printing and improving the software that enables 3D printing. The good news is we are only 10 to 15 years away from achieving 3D printing’s full potential.

Seven life-changing surgeries made possible by 3D printing

 

3D printing technology has enabled some truly life-changing surgeries in the past year Image Gallery (17 images) Though printing items like chocolate and pizza might be satisfying enough for some, 3D printing still holds a lot of unfulfilled potential. Talk abounds of disrupting manufacturing, changing the face of construction and even building metal components in space. While it is hard not to get a little bit excited by these potentially world-changing advances, there is one domain where 3D printing is already having a real-life impact. Its capacity to produce customized implants and medical devices tailored specifically to a patient's anatomy has seen it open up all kinds of possibilities in the field of medicine, with the year 2014 having turned up one world-first surgery after another. Let's cast our eye over some of the significant, life-changing procedures to emerge in the past year made possible by 3D printing technology. Replacing the upper jaw Earlier this year, the removal of an Indian man's upper jaw due to cancer saw parts of both his nose and mouth left exposed. Things got worse for the 41-year-old after six weeks of radiotherapy, throughout which he developed radiation-induced fibrosis and lockjaw, severely impacting his ability to open his mouth. Specialists used a CT scan to create a 3D reconstruction of the man's face. A replica of his mouth was then 3D-printed and used as a template to produce a wax model, which was then hardened and fitted with teeth. With the prosthesis adjusted to fit snugly in place, the man's chewing, swallowing, speaking and other mouth movements are said to be considerably improved. Forming a new skull When a 22-year-old woman was suffering from a condition that caused her skull to thicken, specialists at the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht were of the opinion that a partial implant would be necessary. These had been used before when sections of the skull were removed to relieve pressure on the brain, but the cement versions were not always a good fit. The doctors worked with an Australian implant company to create a 3D model of the patient's skull and printed an implant that would be an exact fit. While the increasing brain pressure threatened to impair the patient's coordination and other brain functions, the 3D printed implant led her to a full recovery. Spinal fusion surgery Spinal fusion surgery is a complex procedure used to treat patients with conditions like disc degeneration and spinal instability. An important tool in this process is the spine cage, a medical device that serves as a replacement for damaged discs. By 3D printing a spine cage that had been tailored to the patient's anatomy, a team of French surgeons was able to implant the device in a woman back in May with great results. "The intersomatic cage, specifically printed by Medicrea for my patient, positioned itself automatically in the natural space between the vertebrae and molded ideally with the spine by joining intimately with the end plates, despite their relative asymmetry and irregularity," said Dr. Vincent Fiere, the surgeon who performed the procedure at Hospital Jean Mermoz in Lyon, France. Replacing cancerous vertebra It wasn't until a month after innocuously heading a soccer ball during a match that the entire body of a 12-year-old Chinese boy went numb. Spinal experts found that he had developed a malignant tumor on the second vertebra in his neck. In a five hour procedure conducted in August, surgeons removed the cancerous vertebra and replaced it with a 3D-printed implant. The artificial vertebra was secured in place by titanium screws and the specialists said it was an improvement on existing methods. Typically, the patient's head would need to supported by pins and cannot touch the bed while they are resting for around three months afterwards. But through 3D printing, the doctors could replicate the shape of the original vertebra, making it much stronger. Following the surgery, the patient was said to be in good physical condition and recovering as expected. A titanium heel implant Len Chandler, a 71-year-old man from Melbourne, Australia was faced with amputation below the knee after doctors diagnosed him with cancer in the heel bone. In exhausting all options, the surgeons had also been working with experts from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), exploring the possibility of producing a 3D-printed implant to save the patient's lower leg. Using schematics of the heel bone, a titanium implant was printed and inserted into Chandler's foot in July. Three months later, he was said to be recovering well and able to place some weight on his heel again. A 3D printed hip implant The doctors of a 15-year-old Swedish girl suffering from a congenital disease resulting in skeletal deformations in the left hip were uncertain if she would walk again. But they then approached an implant manufacturing company called Mobelife to see what options might be available. Mobelife used a tomography scan to create a detailed picture of the patient's unique bone anatomy, ultimately printing an implant that would be secured with screws to the bone surrounding the defect. The operation was performed in September 2012 and eighteen months later she was walking entirely unaided. Planning for complex heart surgery When surgeons were approached by the parents of a 14-month-old boy born with four heart defects at Kosair Children's Hospital in the US, they knew they had a task on their hands. But in planning for this surgery, they would be afforded the help of invaluable new-age medical tool. Using CT scans of the baby's heart, researchers at the University of Louisville were able to print a 3D model of the organ, measuring 1.5 times its actual size. This process took around 20 hours and cost US$600, but gave the doctors unprecedented opportunity to plan prior to a heart surgery, seeing them repair the heart's defects in a single operation. Following his release from hospital, the boy was said to be in good health. These are no doubt just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the benefits 3D printing will bring to the field of medicine in the coming years, so it will be interesting to see how the technology develops.