Medical Applications for Additive Manufacture
Additive Manufacturing is coming into its third decade of commercial technological development. During that period, we have experienced a number of significant changes that has led to improvements in accuracy, better mechanical properties, a broader range
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Medical Applications for Additive Manufacture
15.1
Introduction
Additive Manufacturing is coming into its third decade of commercial technological development. During that period, we have experienced a number of significant changes that has led to improvements in accuracy, better mechanical properties, a broader range of applications and reductions in costs of machines and the parts made by them. Also in previous chapters, we have seen that AM technologies can vary according to the following non-exclusive list of parameters: Cost: Since some machines employ more expensive technologies, like lasers, they will inevitably cost more than others. Range of materials: Some machines can only process one or two materials, while others can process more, including composites. Maintenance: With some machines being more complex than others, the maintenance requirements will differ. Some companies will add cost to their machines to ensure that they are better supported. Speed: Due to the technologies applied, some machines will build parts faster than others. Versatility: Some machines have complex setup parameters where part quality can be balanced against other parameters, like build speed. Other machines have fewer setup variations that make them easier to use but perhaps less versatile. Layer thickness: Some machines have a limitation on the layer thickness due to the material processing parameters. Making these layers thinner would inevitably slow the build speed. Accuracy: Aside from layer thickness, in-plane resolution also has an impact on accuracy. This may particularly affect minimum feature size and wall thickness of a part. For example, laser-based systems have a minimum feature size that is based on the diameter of the laser beam.
I. Gibson, D.W. Rosen, and B. Stucker, Additive Manufacturing Technologies, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-1120-9_15, # Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC 2010
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15 Medical Applications for Additive Manufacture
Driven by the automotive, aerospace and medical industries, AM has found applications in design and development within almost every consumer product sector imaginable. As AM becomes more popular and as technology costs inevitably decrease, this can only serve to generate more momentum and further broaden the range of applications. This momentum has been added to with the recent addition of commercial AM machines that can directly process metal powders. This chapter discusses the use of AM for medical applications which has consistently been one of the key industries driving innovation in AM. With aerospace and automotive industries, AM is valued mainly because of the time that can be saved in development of products. With medicine, the benefit is primarily in the ability to include patient-specific data from medical sources so that customized solutions to medical problems can be found.
15.2
The Use of AM to Support Medical Applications
AM models have been used for medical applications almost from the very start, when this technology was first commercialized. AM could not
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