Polymer 3D printing solutions developer Stratasys Direct Manufacturing announced that it will be expanding its range of services to offer anatomical modeling and consultation for the health care industry. The company recently introduced its new J750 Digital Anatomy 3D printers, which have already produced over 1,000 models, with each printer running for approximately 120 hours per week during the first 13 weeks of operation. The printer can create 3D-printed medical and dental anatomic models that mimic the biomechanical properties of bone and organ tissues. The lineup was first unveiled at Stratasys Direct’s Healthcare Print Center located in Eden Prairie, Minn. The facility opened its doors just this year and has already hosted soft launches for new offerings and invite-only beta testing with medical device manufacturers.
The J750 Digital Anatomy 3D Printer offers on-demand printing, enabling health care providers and medical device manufacturers to recreate accurate pathologies and models for device testing, medical training, or surgical preparation and consultation. This allows them to develop anatomical models according to precise specifications that can’t typically be accommodated by cadavers, animals, or even synthetic models. Users can also leverage the printer’s high repeatability to pursue extensive testing and minimize confounding variables. This means enhanced product quality and reduced costs while also accelerating time to market. Thanks to its ultrarealistic quality, health care providers can also use these anatomical models to simulate surgical skills for standardization and delivery of care.
The J750 utilizes three unique Digital Anatomy materials and offers a wide array of anatomical presets under a digital model library. Users can then easily develop and produce biomechanical models for various clinical situations and applications. Some of the preprogrammed settings include vascular and cardiac modeling, where manufacturers can replicate the feel, function and dimensions of blood vessels and the human heart. The 3D printer system also offers a blood vessel cleaning apparatus for post-processing the models. According to Stratasys, this cleaning station was specially designed for medical models with narrow blood vasculature.
The station uses sodium hydroxide in a pressure-regulated, closed-loop system to safely remove support materials such as GelMatrix resin. The station can remove support materials from vessels down to an inner diameter of 1 mm. The entire process is automated and can accommodate multiple models for simultaneous cleaning. This allows users to reduce post-processing time while increasing efficiency.
During the first 13 weeks of the J750’s operation, the company produced anatomical models for product demonstrations, physician surgical training events, and internal product development activities alongside beta customers. Stratasys shared that it will also be offering full-service anatomical design and consulting services, such as design transfer and process validation, to assist users in the modeling process.
“With the addition of Digital Anatomy printers to Stratasys Direct we can now provide companies with previously limited access to these printing capabilities the ability to utilize Stratasys Direct’s manufacturing services to 3D print anatomical models that meet their exact specifications,” shared Rich Garrity, Americas President for Stratasys.
The company also offers various other solutions for medical applications, including surgical planning models, education and training for 3D printing multi-material models, and medical device prototyping.
The company attended the recent RAPID + TCT show on September 13-15 at the McCormick Place in Chicago to discuss the future of medical modeling for patient care.
For more information, visit Stratasys Direct Manufacturing’s official website.