Posts Tagged ‘3D Printing’
CGI IMPROVES QUALITY OF LIFE ::
The combination of CGI and 3D printing no longer just serve the do-it-yourself designers and product model makers of the architectural industry. The creativity behind CGI now improves quality of life.
Last June, an 83-year-old woman in the Netherlands received a new jawbone that Belgian manufacturer LayerWise created with a 3D printer. The dilemma associated with this woman’s jaw surgery inspired this world first acheivement.
According to Mashable Tech, doctors feared that reconstructive surgery to fix the woman’s infected jaw, at her age, could have caused complications. Replacing a complete bone with a 3D printed implant was an innovative and successful choice.
LayerWise Manufacturing Director Peter Mercelis reported to Innovation News Daily that the creation of implants with this 3D printing technology “speeds up surgery and patient recovery, and reduces the risk for medical complications.” Surgeons finished the operation in only four hours (instead of the estimated 20 hours with traditional practices) and the woman returned home from the hospital after just four days (instead of 2-3 weeks) while speaking and swallowing normally. Less time in surgery and less time in the hospital racks a less expensive medical bill.
In order to produce the implant, LayerWise used a 3D printer with a lazer which melted titanium powder into the shape of a jawbone and built the implant in layers. The woman’s new jaw weighs 1/3 heavier than her previous one. Even so, doctors believe she will quickly adapt to the feel of the new implant.
Doctors now see a future for the creation of more implants with 3D printing technology. Dr. Jules Poukens, from the Biomedical Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, led the surgical team to replace the woman’s jaw. He says, “Computer technology is causing a revolution in the medical industry.”
BBC News reported that engineers at Washington State University last year demonstrated how 3D-printed ceramic scaffolds could be used to help the growth process of new bone tissue. After experiements with animals, the team approximates that this technology can be used to improve human life in a few decades.
Such research and technological advancements point to an even greater potential for the world of CGI and 3D printing.
Need CGI work done for industrial design or architecture? Have any prototypes you would like printed? Have Postage, Inc. do your visualization and 3D production.
Article by Elyse Brown, Postage, Inc.
Tags: 3D Printing, 3D Prototyping, CGI
Posted in News, Technology
