New 3D software previews for prosthesis and medical plates at 3D Medical Expo Maastricht
8 Feb 2017 08:49

Maastricht3D Printing Industry are at the 3D Medical Expo 2017 this week to see previews of new 3D design software due for release later this year.

One of the most inspiring software developments at the conference is from Latvian company WiDE (We Improve Device Experience).

There is an influx in hobbyists using 3D to make custom prosthesis. What WiDE orthotist and prothetist Fricis Pirtnieks points out is that though the files are generally shared as open source, a person would have to have some 3D design experience to adjust the design to meet personal specifications.

WiDE software was developed as a solution to this with tools that are easy to use.

3D Systems’  latest development in 3DXpert is designed to bypass the sometimes tricky .stl file format, and integrates slicing for 3D printing into one whole program. Hari Sridharan, Director of Application Engineering and Training took 3D Printing Industry through the software during IMTS last year, you can read more about the 3D printing and design software here.

For CAD of medical implants, Renishaw demonstrated the ADEPT project. The basic concept behind the software is again that users don’t have to be an engineer in order to design patient specific plates or surgical guides.

A 3D scan of a patient’s skull is loaded into ADEPT, and the program detects the live bone. After that the user, typically a surgeon, can simply plot points around the area in need in a similar way to drawing a polygon in Photoshop.

This demo is the first preview of the software that has been in development for 3 years, funded in part by innovation incubator Innovate UK.

Prepared on the basis of information from 3D Printing Industry