“When you’re a designer, you’re only as good as the projects that come along for you to do.” Designer Kevin Quigley may be as modest as he is talented. Recently recognized by the TCT Group for their annual design awards, he and his Quigley Design team have shown just how skilled they are, creating a complex, highly innovative tool for nuclear decommissioning in partnership with Viridian Consultants.
In this interview, we talk to Jurgen Roekens, Materialise’s Design and Engineering Director, about how the Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) process helps his clients produce exactly the right engineering solution that adds value in many different ways.
What makes Materialise’s new Ultrasint TPU 90A-01 a dream for 3D printing? Its reliability, durability and extremely flexible nature, according Giovanni Vleminckx, Research Project Manager in our process engineering unit. We recently sat down with Giovanni, who researches all new materials and technologies that we offer, to get an insider’s view on the ins and outs of the new TPU offering made using Multi Jet Fusion (MJF).
When we think about the impact of 3D printing on the healthcare industry, we mostly think about the productinnovations it enables. From today’s reality of 3D printing fully-customized skull implants, to future hopes and promises of printing vital organs. These product innovations build on the fact that 3D printing is an inherently digital manufacturing technology, enabling complex designs and increased functionality. Moreover, 3D printing allows for the creation of patient-specific instruments and truly personalized implants that take into account the patient’s unique anatomy. However, the impact of the technology doesn’t end there; 3D printing also enables significant process innovations.
More haptic perception, fully integrating with electronic medical records, and talking to patients without the use of screens are just a few reasons discussed at the 3D Printing in Medicine Course as to why hospitals are turning to Point-of-Care 3D Printing. The event, which took place at the M Museum in Leuven, Belgium, on June 13 and 14, 2019, brought together clinicians, medical imaging specialists, engineers, and other experts involved in turning medical imaging data into anatomical models in hospitals to share learnings, findings, and cases to further the field.
Materialise’s Director of Quality Management, Risk and Compliance, Ward Callens, is heading a team that is using ISO 14001 as a system to reduce Materialise’s footprint. In the interview below, he describes the ins and outs of what this certification actually means, and the important role that sustainability plays at Materialise.
Surgeons would need to make 50% fewer changes to AI-based pre-operative plans compared to current ones. This is according to a research project we conducted here at Materialise with Dr. Raf De Vloo, an orthopedic surgeon at AZ Klina in Belgium, in which we applied AI-based planning to 193 cases. This technology learns an individual doctor’s preferences for surgical approaches and, based on those, provides higher-quality pre-operative plans.
These guidelines are furthermore influential as they will support new billing codes, called CPT codes, for Point-of-Care 3D Printing, which are due to implemented in July this year. These initial CPT codes make it possible to collect more data on the prevalence of 3D printing and for what cases it is used across U.S. hospitals and will ultimately pave the way for further reimbursement initiatives.
4C Medical Technologies is a medical device company working on minimally invasive solutions for structural heart diseases. Vice President of R&D and Operations Dr. Saravana Kumar and his team, are working striving to bring to market an their award-winning AltaValve, an innovative solution to addressing mitral valve regurgitation. Thanks to two delivery options, the device is easy to use and suitable for any anatomy in the patient population.