Arburg and Aimplas, the Spanish Plastics Technology Centre, are partnering to qualify new materials for use in additive manufacturing for medical applications.
Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has a lot of potential in the medical field. It enables the creation of highly customised prosthetics and orthotics tailored to individual patients, for example. Printing with polymers allows lightweight, durable, and comfortable prosthetic designs that are affordable and accessible.
AM works by adding layers, layer on layer. One frequent criticism of 3D printing is that the mechanical properties of the resulting material are not as robust as those of an injected moulded product. Technologies are striving to achieve the level of consistency required in high-performance sectors such as aerospace or the medical industry. At the same time, producers are increasingly looking for AM machinery to benefit from lower prices and new manufacturing possibilities.
Arburg, traditionally an injection moulding machinery manufacturer, also has AM machinery in its portfolio. Its freeformer machines allow operators to adjust and optimise layer separation, droplet size, and process parameters.
As part of the new partnership, Arbug has loaned its freeformer 200-3X to Aimplas for an initial period of one year. The Aimplas researchers, who have been trained to use the machine by Arburg employees, are carrying out tests to qualify new materials for additive manufacturing.
The Valencia-based team is testing modified original materials, medical polylactides, biopolymers, and combinations of all these. Their goal is to optimise material properties including tensile strength, elongation at break, compression set, solubility, and water resistance. These improved materials will then be used to additively manufacture 3D-printed components for orthoses, resorbable implants, and the treatment of bone fractures, for example.
Arburg’s plastic freeforming technology (APF) allows process parameters to be flexibly adjusted in order to change material properties in a targeted manner. The programme created for the freeformer machine allows small series to be additively manufactured in a reproducible manner and the option to further optimise the process individually if required.