Costa Rica: Researchers Design 3D Printed Medical Device for Suturing Extremities

Our skin protects us from invading microorganisms and foreign substances, eliminates harmful toxins, helps to regulate our core body temperature, and is in charge of receiving both tactile and thermal stimulation. But, it’s fragile and easily damaged, which can lead to open wounds that get infected. Michelle Orozco-Brenes, José A. Jiménez-Chavarría, and Dagoberto Arias-Aguilar, researchers out of Costa Rica, published a paper, titled “Design of a medical device for superficial suturing upper and lower extremities,” about their work creating a medical suturing device.

“This work presents the design for a class 2 medical device that meets the basic requirements of the current and known suturing methods in Costa Rica,” the abstract states. “The design process was achieved in three main stages, (i)Research on similar technologies; e.g. The operation principles of a sewing machine, materials used; (ii) The study of types of skin traumas; (iii) General approach toward the suturing device, including device functionality, integration with the human body and manufacturing process. The device model was designed and fabricated using 3D printing technology, this allowed the team to analyze ergonomics, the assembly of the parts and the equipment’s motion. The printed prototype made it possible for potential users to provide feedback on the design and suggestions for improvement.”

Figure 1. SolidWorks design of the medical device to be printed.

Suturing means to connect blood vessels with a specific material, such as thread, when tissue is torn in a way that halts natural healing. You can find many suturing devices on the market around the world, but Costa Rican hospitals don’t typically use them, as they are complex and costly. So the team set out to design a class 2 FDA electronic medical device that could both reduce tissue damage and uniformly, and quickly, suture a wound so an “aesthetically acceptable” scar is left behind.

“The idea for a medical device to suture arose for three main reasons,” the researchers wrote. “First, physicians were noticing poorly sutured wounds that would result in large scars. These in some cases required further procedures like plastic surgery. Also, time consumption, making the search for a device that would make the method faster a necessity. Finally, sutures stitched by hand are sometimes left too loose or too tight, causing bleeding from the wound.”

Table 2. Schematic representation of the function of the suturing medical device.

Device specifications were functionality, cost, durability, modularity, and reliability. They used SOLIDWORKS software to create the design for their model, which required three specific functions:

  • Stabilize the skin
  • Rotate the needle on its axis to join tissue sections
  • Initiate and finish with the least possible amount of user interference

“The final design was oriented to have the area and volume of the shell as similar as possible for the needle to rotate 360° without any problem,” the researchers explained.

In order to test out several functionality features, they 3D printed a prototype first, using Polyjet technology to fabricate the piston and and an FDM printer for most of the other parts. Due to its high strength and toughness, corrosion and fatigue resistance, and low friction coefficient, they used the AISI 316L alloy for the prototype.

The suturing device has seven main components. The shell encases the device, while two guides allow the movement of the guide pin, which is used to tie a double knot. Rollers provide the rotational movement that allows for the suturing, while a piston gives the rollers their movement. The final parts are a ½ circle needle with tapered tip, and nylon thread, which has good elasticity for skin retention and closure.

Figure 2. Final design for the suturing medical device.

To use the device, the needle is first threaded in its initial position at the top of the shell, and then set in the rollers. The piston lowers the shell, and the needle is rotated 270° to pinch the tissue for suturing. The knot is initiated when the rollers, guided by the holder, turn 45° to the right, and the pin is set in place over the guide. The needle makes a 360° turn on its axis, and the guides turn over the shell and let go of the guide pin, “letting it fall due to gravity over the guides” beneath it to finish the first knot. The first few steps are repeated, and after the final full turn, the user tenses the thread through the top hole, until it’s kept that way through the guide pin. The lower guides will release, and the guide pin is removed, completing the double knot.

“After the prototype was assembled and design functions checked, the final step required a survey,” the team wrote. “The study contained questions about the medical device presented via prototype and they were asked to elaborate on their answers regarding their opinion as health professionals.”

Table 3. Survey on trained medical physicians.

The 3D printed prototype device was presented to Dr. Stephanie Gómez Najéra, Dr. Pamela Villareal Valverde, and Dr. Tatiana Piedra Chacón. The numbers listed in the survey results are the average between these three Costa Rican physicians, and the scale, based on the Likert scale, goes from 1-5, with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree.

“The comments reference that the usefulness depends on the context of where it would be applied, for example a jail or emergency room,” the researchers wrote of the doctors’ opinions on their device.

“One main drawback is that the device may not be suitable for all types of wounds. Other concerns raised by the physicians were related to the price and size of the device.”

Based on observations from the survey, the researchers modified the final prototype to “improve its ergonomic factor” by adding a holder at the top of the shell for more stability and easier manipulation.

Next steps include standardizing parts of the prototype so that some pieces can be purchased in the market, and optimizing the mechanisms, like the servomotor, sensors, and motors, that generate the device’s movements.

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The Top 10 SelfCAD Improvements of 2019

Let’s start 2020 with something positive – reflecting on the awesomeness of 2019. 2019 was a productive year for us at SelfCAD. We listened to your feedback, fixed bugs and other nasty things and improved most of our tools. We added a bunch of useful new features. Which one do you like the best?

Here are 10 SelfCAD improvements of 2019 graded by how much they added to your modeling experience. If you’d like to learn more, please visit our FAQ and the SelfCAD Manual.

#10 – Revolve tool can make objects with holes now

2018 Revolve tool closed all the holes. 2020 revolve tool doesn’t. You get the gist. We took a long, hard look at this tool, which creates a new shape out of revolving (for example) a plane. We realized it doesn’t make sense to automatically plug all the holes, and it sometimes makes creating the shape you want unnecessarily difficult. 

You can also revolve around any shape by selecting Revolve Around Edges/Profiles or even guides in the ‘Settings’ section. You no longer need to merge objects to revolve around them.

#9 – Snap Tool

Snap tool is another quality of life tool. You can use it to snap any shape to any location in the workspace. You can also use it to snap and collapse vertices. When used with ‘Remove Duplicate’ tool found in the Utilities section it will remove details in the vertices.

#8 – Drawing Tool Improvements

We’ve made a lot of changes to our drawing tool in 2019.

We’ve added smoothness to the text tool and real-time intersection. Real-time… what?

Before, when you drew something which has a hole in it, you were losing that hole after generating a 3D object from the drawing. Now, this tool creates a hole automatically if you indicate your object should have one!

Additionally, when you use the FreeHand Tool and set the height settings to zero, it will automatically create a profile.

#7 – Flatten, Inflate

SelfCAD added some crucial tools to your toolbox. Flatten and Inflate do exactly what it sounds like – Flatten makes the object gradually flatter, while Inflate will inflate the selected area like a balloon. Flatten is useful for quickly slicing a sphere, among other things.

#6 – Gear Generator

Our (relatively) new Gear Generator is located in the ‘3D Shapes’ category. No need to model your gears by hand, this flexible tool is here to save your time.

#5 – The Marquee Selection Tool

You can now select polygons by dragging your mouse.

If you drag towards the right, it will select only the included faces.  But if you drag towards the left you will select everything. We wanted selection to be as convenient as possible.

#4 – Part Selection Tool

This is a nifty tool that allows everyone to select specific parts of the model.

#3 – New Material Section ( including Shadows, Shininess, Light Sources and Targets )

In 2019 we added additional features to make SelfCAD models look even better while you model. You can now control shadows, shininess of the material, decide if the model is a light source etc. It will work even better with rendering!

#2 – Improved Slicer

The new and improved SelfCAD slicer, we’ve practically remade it. The new menu, more options than ever and you can now get you a preview of how your model will be 3D printed. Which is pretty neat, you have to agree.

#1 – Animation

In October, we added an animator to SelfCAD. It’s our first step to make SelfCAD a choice for every creator. 

When you click the record button, you can change the color, move or transform your 3D model to make a clip and then put these clips together to create something unique.

Up next: we are planning to add rendering in 2020 and a rigger in the future, making this feature feel more complete.

I hope you enjoyed reading this list – create your free SelfCAD account by clicking here.

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Interview with Jason Chuen: Shaping Australia’s Medical 3D Printing Environment

In Australia, vascular surgeon, Jason Chuen understands that 3D printing is the exciting next step in personalized medicine, which is why he uses 3D scans and 3D printing to deliver anatomical models. During an interview with 3DPrint.com, Chuen, who is also the Director of Vascular Surgery at Austin Health and Austin Health’s 3D Medical Printing Laboratory (3D Med Lab), suggested that “there is a lot of interest because the field of 3D printing in medicine is growing; we are seeing the doctors and researchers involved more than ever, as well as more application development originating from clinicians.”

At The University of Melbourne, in Australia, the 3D Med Lab supports 3D printing for clinical applications and runs an active research program exploring how it can be used for teaching, procedural simulation, patient education, surgical planning, and prosthetic implants. The first facility of its kind in Australia, 3D Med Lab, frequently prints models of diseased aortas to perform a “practice-run” of surgery. What makes this lab unique is that it is hospital-based, and works with many different specialties. Chuen has been looking into the landscape of medical 3D printing for many years and earlier this month along with his colleague Jasamine Coles-Black, a Doctor and Vascular Researcher at the Department of Vascular Surgery at Austin Health and the 3D Med Lab, organized the fifth annual 3D Med Australia Conference, which he claims is the only meeting of its kind in Australasia, with only one or two more around the world of a similar nature, like Materialise‘s medical 3D printing meetup in Belgium.

Normal anatomical branches on an abdominal aortic model 3D printed on MakerBot Replicator 2X FDM

Chuen and Coles-Black even begun printing out copies of patient kidneys to help surgeons at Austin Health plan the removal of kidney tumors. Moreover, Chuen understands that the immediate challenge in medical 3D printing is ensuring that medical professionals themselves are up to speed with the technology because it is their clinical experience that will drive new applications and projects. 

During our interview, Chuen asserted that the conference has once again proved that Australia is leading the way with cross institution development cooperations, ethical issues surrounding 3D printing and he looks forward to many exciting possibilities of the technology for the future.

Why was the 3D Med Conference so important to the region?

We noticed there were a lot of groups that existed previously that didn’t know about each other and the meeting has become a really good focal point for people to find out about what others are researching and selling. So rather than working on their own and almost in secret, they can join together and create projects that cross different institutions, specialties and disciplines. During the conference, at every corner I encountered groups of people from different universities and cities gathering to hatch a project, proving that there was a very cooperative atmosphere. They all clearly had common interests and discovered that they can work outside of their own space with others. 

What was so unique about the 3D Med Conference?

Because there really aren’t many meetings like this, the areas of interest are still growing, anyone who is working with these technologies have applications in different areas so that is why we have a lot of crossover between the fields. The strength of the confreence comes from encouraging people to have an overview of what was happening in the field, so rather than just understanding technical aspects of technology, everyone started to become knowledgeable about the whole landscape, for example, why we need to care about ethics and regulation, or considering the useful implications of applying techniques from a different area of science and research. 

One of the biggest challenges for 3D printing is?

One of the big problems in customized medical devices and the 3D printing space is that there is uncertainty about what will happen in the future. Apart from the guidance of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there hasn’t been a lot of resources for manufacturers and researchers on how 3D printing and customized medical devices will be regulated. Australia’s own Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) representation in the International Medical Device Regulators Forum (IMDRF) has been very strong,particularly around 3D printing and customized medical devices. During the conference John Skerritt, Deputy Secretary of the Australian Department of Health, outlined the broad framework around the field and has engaged in a consultation process with the medical 3D printing community (and we have provided some proposals for the final documentation that will be ready soon.)

Distributed production will present new risks for ensuring the quality control of end products. It will need a fundamental shift in responsibility from the supplier to wherever the medicines or devices are manufactured. That represents a huge change and we have to work out how it could work. But if we get the regulation right then it will transform access to medical products.

Collection of 3D printed objects

What does the future of 3D printing in medicine look like?

The whole point of what we do is improve patient care, so we have to think very carefully about our next steps and analyze whether it is helpful or not. For patients, anatomical models help them see and understand the condition or surgery they plan for. We have done projects and have some conclusive evidence that patient understanding is improved with anatomical 3D printed models. 

Patients are interested to know what will happen in the future, especially with 3D printed kidneys and stents. But the truth is that that technology is very far away. We may never be able to 3D print an organ, not at least the way we imagine it to be. Realistically, if we are talking about an organ for transplantation, we have to think that no matter what the organ looks like, the question is: does it do the job? For example, if we were thinking about bioprinting in order to replace a kidney, as long as it performs the function of the kidney, it doesn’t matter what shape it comes in. And for that, we have to be able to reproduce a structure. This could be in shapes, rather than in one block, or it could be a composition of an external and an internal device, meaning we would be looking into something that is assembled. Today the technology to have the replacement kidney is available, it is a dialysis machine, yet you wouldn’t expect a dialysis machine to look like a kidney. The same is going to happen with 3D printed organs, where we need to separate the appearance and structure of the organ from the function. In the end, the function is what matters.

As such, if we were to imagine what a 3D printed heart would look like, we would need to go into the field of soft robotics or mimicking natural structures, all of that changes fundamentally how we think about organs for the human body.

How can your particular medical field benefit from 3D printing?

As a vascular surgeon, I’m also looking at 3D printed stents, and there is quite some work around that. Mainly it is based on printing something that looks like a stent, but it is very difficult to reproduce the mechanical properties of a stent using 3D printing. The benefits revolve around the different materials that could be used with 3D printing, for example, if you could reproduce a stent in a bioabsorbable plastic it would allow surgeons to deploy it with embedded drugs (like antibiotics and pain medication) that get released at a set time. There are a lot of options in terms of using multi material technology in customized implant production, as well as great precision, and that is an area where 3D printing helps. 

Ideally, we need to understand the technology to know where the errors can happen. But in general, it is improving, both in hardware and software, the challenge will be about making it accessible. We have done randomized trials around anatomical models for teaching, education and simulation. There are already some 3D printed medical devices, such as for joints and implants. It would be ideal to have assessments of the economics to determine whether the anatomical models will be worthwhile. 

How is Australia changing the paradigm of medical 3D printing?

Australia has world leading technology, but in terms of the way we have collaborated and worked together, we are quite unique. Even globally one of the big problems is finding the groups that are doing this kind of work. We have been in touch with research groups in Poland, Boston, and Toronto, even engaging with large centers like the Mayo Clinic, in Minnesota. Key collaboration between international centers are great and we are keeping an eye out for other major hubs of activity, like in China, South Korea, and Europe. We need to link up all the international groups, that’s where we see things are going!

[Image credit: 3dMedLab, Austin Health]

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Wolf Schweitzer: “3D Printing is Helping to Develop Forensic Devices”

Post mortem examinations are widely used to determine the cause of death, yet traditional autopsy has changed little in the past century, consisting of external examination and evisceration, dissection of the major organs with identification of macroscopic pathologies and injuries. A few years ago, and in a quest to advance the field of forensic medicine, a team of scientists at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has been serially developing automated tools and technologies to improve results, reduce costs, and time during autopsies. By combining new technologies, like 3D imaging, scanning, and printing to generate virtual autopsy tools, into what has eventually become a household name in forensics a venture known as the Virtopsy project, or just virtopsy, they are changing the paradigm of forensics.

As part of the Virtopsy project, scientists have come up with creative ways to help the field of forensics, with ideas ranging from a modified automotive robotic arm with tools called Virtobot, to non-invasively discovering injuries present on the skin surface of a body, along with 3D true color representations of surface injuries and 3D scaled models of entire crime scenes and events. One device, in particular, caught our attention, a post mortem computed tomography angiography or PMCTA kit, made using 3D printing and parts that can be found at your local hardware store. The team posted online all of the files and part specifications so that anyone who wants to recreate the PMCTA can do it, for a total cost of just $120. But first, to understand what the device really does, 3DPrint.com asked Wolf Schweitzer, a forensic pathologist at the University of Zurich and part of the team behind the 3D printed PMCTA, why the device is so important and how disruptive technologies can aid experts to achieve better autopsies.

Production of Very Affordable PMCTA-kits. Left: 3D printing in progress; Middle: finished print batches; Right: kits in process of being packed

Why is the PMCTA important in forensic medicine?

A post-mortem CT is relevant in forensic pathology to examine the body, particularly for the consequences of violence or trauma. The findings add insight and help prepare autopsies so they can be performed faster and with a better focus on what we are looking for. Autopsy diagnosis is often very specific, yet performing it is tedious and time-consuming. For example, a few years ago it took seven hours of careful dissection to find the source of fatal hemorrhage in a body. These types of cases would greatly benefit from a PMCTA. Via an external pump, the vessels of the body are filled with a contrast substance that appears opaque on the computed tomography (CT). Knowledge of the normal anatomy of blood vessels allows examiners to identify certain possible or potential leaks. This means that while using PMCTA, vascular injuries, leaks or other pathologies can be examined. Once they are found, they may be documented or the results may be given to the pathologist who then narrows down the search for the actual autopsy dissection.

Why did you design a low-cost PMCTA for anyone to use?

Resulting PMCTA with a view of the whole body showing contrasted vessels and organs

Specialized commercial devices can be costly and require dedicated and expensive additional installations such as oil separators, consumables, and maintenance. A top of the line PMCTA-pump can easily be worth $80,000, while materials cost around $1,000 per single case or examination. Additionally, users need to install an oil separator to avoid their oil-based contrast agent to leak or get drained into the sewer. While some privileged forensic medicine institutes may find that acceptable, we wondered whether that type of technology was really necessary. So that is why we decided to custom design and 3D print our own immersion pump to be used as a forensic PMCTA and fill in the rest of the materials list with parts from a hardware store, for just $120. The whole idea of providing very affordable PMCTA technology became evident during our Virtopsy courses, for 15 years, specialists and trainees from around the world came to Zurich to attend our courses, and one frequently voiced concern was about the PMCTA, how problematic the oil was to the environment, and how expensive the materials where, so we listened and began evaluating better options.

In the paper Very economical immersion pump feasibility for postmortem CT angiography (that has Schweitzer as co-author) our team at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Imaging concluded that more widespread and systematic implementation of PMCTA demands affordable equipment for facilities with tight budgets. This is why we uploaded everything anyone needs to develop their own PMCTA (the printable 3D models went up as STL-files) online at virtopsy.com.

How did 3D printing become part of the solution?

Unlike clinical medicine, forensics get lower, more restricted public budgets, motivating us even further to use more affordable means of production, design, and materials. Plus, we often do not need anti-allergic or extensively sterilized catheters or solutions. This means that we can design, 3D print prototypes and test them in one or two days, then revise the design and keep re-iterating until the 3D models (and their 3D printed instances) are ok. Once the 3D printed PLA models are enough for routine work, we use them. We really wanted to get the actual design process first, since having the ability to design hardware prototypes using CAD software is useful anywhere custom parts are needed.

What 3D printers did you use?

For the 3D printing process, we used a MakerBot Replicator 2 (originally built to print ABS, but tweaked to print with PLA) and a MakerBot Replicator+ (fifth generation). PLA feeding was a problem, as the Makerbot printers appeared to have trouble pulling the PLA into the nozzle where it is melted for printing. To work around that, we decided to built PLA-roll mounts with ball joint bearings using available 3D models of Thingiverse. We used 3D printing to get the models’ shape right.

Still, 3D printing spare parts and new add-ons does not end with the PMCTA, the team has also identified a few other applications for 3D printing. For example, they are currently investigating whether it is possible to print skeletal parts (skull and lung bones) to perform bio-mechanical crash or impact tests on 3D printed materials, and verify if they fracture in a similar way as natural bone.

Is there access to technology for forensic medicine? 

Forensic medicine is usually run as a government or state service to examine violent, suspicious, sudden and unclear deaths. Like most scientists and doctors, we are interested in new technologies and love developing and creating new ideas, yet funding is a big factor, as well as structural restrictions or opportunities for research and development of technological advances.

Technologies are not necessarily expensive, anyone can discover free or affordable software and courses and forensic medicine is often embedded in a university or hospital setting so we are really not alone in this mission. Originally, we started with post-mortem CT scanning, using already installed hospital or veterinarian CT scanners (rather than having our own), so we made friends with experts in other departments. We also worked with other engineers, researchers, and specialists, such as Claudio Gygax from 3D-EDU GmbH, who provided technical support and advice. I come from a creative tech household, so building stuff was what everyone else was doing anyway. It is really important to recognize what is missing from an apparently abundant world, to “see” the technical void, to recognize the applied advantage in filling empty space with (initially at least) plastic, and once that is identified, the rest is usually fairly straight forward. This requires teamwork to ignite creative thought and innovation.

Forensic pathology is full of inquisitive and interesting people that go forward to adopt all kinds of useful technologies (without having to spend a lot of money on it). In the end, it really is the investigative mind that makes a difference and there are absolutely wonderful ideas out there to develop even further.

[Images: Virtopsy project, University of Zurich and Wolf Schweitzer]

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Interview with Lockheed: “Orion Spacecraft Has 200 3D Printed Components”

In 2006, NASA selected Lockheed Martin to design, develop, and build Orion, set to embark on both manned and unmanned missions, it is the agency’s newest deep space exploration spaceship that will eventually carry astronauts from the Earth to the Moon, and back. As part of a plan to extend a sustained human presence beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), advance commerce and science in space, the Artemis program is the next step in human space exploration and a part of NASA’s broader Moon to Mars approach. In 2022, the Orion crew capsule is expected to take astronauts on a ride beyond LEO, to the Moon and back, and in five years it will transport the next people to a lunar orbital post.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft has been using additive manufacturing technologies exponentially. Lockheed Martin and NASA recently announced the completion of the Orion crew and service module being developed for the uncrewed Artemis I mission, which used 100 3D printed parts. While the spacecraft for the Artemis II mission has Lockheed developing close to 200 3D printed parts.

The Orion crew module for Exploration Mission 1 that will launch atop NASA’s Space Launch System rocket on its first uncrewed integrated flight (Image credit: NASA)

Last September, NASA, and Lockheed finalized a contract for the production and operations of six Orion spacecraft missions with an option to order up to 12 in total. The agency’s Orion Production and Operations Contract (OPOC) is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for NASA to issue both cost-plus-incentive-fee and firm-fixed-price orders. Initially, NASA has ordered three Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions III through V for $2.7 billion. Then in 2022, the agency plans to order three additional Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions VI through VIII for $1.9 billion. Up to six additional Orion spacecraft may be ordered under the IDIQ contract through 2030, leveraging spacecraft production cost data from the previous six missions to enable the lowest possible unit prices.

During an interview with Lockheed Martin Space’ specialists Brian Kaplun, Manager of the Additive Manufacturing Lab, and Colin Sipe, Orion Crew Systems Senior Manager, 3DPrint.com delved into the makings of America’s next spacecraft for a new generation of explorers.

How has additive manufacturing helped in the creation of more efficient spacecraft?

“One of the tenants of advanced manufacturing is to increase the cost and the schedule efficiency for any of our platforms, including Orion, and doing so in a way that, at the very least, maintains parity from a technical perspective but in many cases enhances that. So a lot of the work we’ve done with Orion was targeted to allow for a more efficiently reusable, cost-competitive and faster time to delivery spacecraft that will have a better technical performance. For example our docking hatch covers were printed in a cost and schedule effective manner; additionally, thanks to a new ESD compliant polymer (a type of no-static plastic) we provided more technical performance as well,” suggested Kaplun. “AM is one tool in the advance manufacturing toolbox that really allows us to hit all three of those valuable points. The plan is to continue creating AM components that we already utilized and look at increasing the number.”

While Colin Sipe explained that “we do a lot of parts that would be traditionally difficult to produce, such as structural components and brackets, different parts to channel airflow, or fuel containers, like hydrogen fuel tanks. Moreover, on the seats that the astronauts will use on Orion, we 3D printed different spacers (parts that go between the edge of the seat and the hip of the astronaut) and those come in various sizes based on the astronaut using it. We have to be able to accommodate from 1 to 99th percentile of the average American size individual.”

Do 3D printed parts withstand some of the harshest conditions in space?

“We fully qualify any of our spacecraft and platforms, and it is a qualification born of many years of doing this. On 2011 we launched the first-ever 3D printed part going to outer space on our Juno mission and right now those parts are orbiting the gas giant. So just as rigorous as we did in 2011, here in the last throes of 2019 we have to go through and really qualify any of the Orion parts. Even more so, with future manned missions, we are going to further stress those qualifications. Its a challenge that we are very experienced in and really believe we are up for,” claimed Kaplun. “Experience in any way, shape or form is going to be a competitive advantage for Lockheed.”

How do you choose the design for the 3D printed parts?

“We have produced many different parts for our customers that almost have an organic shape to them and so if you look at some of the new designs where you are optimizing for strength in terms of weight and producibility, you will observe that they mimic the bones in your arm like a very evolved and efficient method of support. If we look at some of the structural brackets that we have done, they almost have a tree or a skeletal structure look to them, that is a very unique mindset or would have been a unique mindset when we were looking at the substractive and traditional manufacturing. But now that people are being trained for AM, we notice that there are a lot more technically complex designs. Some of the ESD parts that we made for Orion would be virtually imposible ot make any other way,” revealed Kaplun. “Now, we are able to combine a large number of other parts into one piece and eliminate a lot of the fasteners and the weight that otherwise would have been a parasitic load, providing greater opportunities to put payloads and scienitic instruments onto our platforms.”

In what way does 3D printing drive down spacecraft costs?

“We try for a really ambitious cost reduction, aiming at 50%. Over the last year, we printed roughly 6,500 parts across our entire space division. Recently we even used AM technology to develop mockups for tests, such as the toilet that will be used on Orion, called the UWMS,” proposed Sipe. “We were concerned about one area of interference so we printed the entire mockup of the toilet and put it into the flight vehicle to verify that we could reach and access the bolts. The size of that toilet is probably two feet in diameter and three feet tall, so it was a very large piece to produce.”

How does Lockheed factor in sustainability when 3D printing its pieces?

Kaplun indicated that at Lockheed, engineers are “very proud of how sustainable our technology is. Our polymer builds can be recycled and reused if needed, the powder bed processes are extremely efficient and the industry as a whole is considered very sustainable and cost-efficient from a materials perspective. Some of the waste for our additive processes can be lower than five percent. When you compare that to some of the subtractive and traditional manufacturing applications, those numbers flip completely, producing 90% waste.” 

Would you be able to convey how many AM parts were used for Orion?

“We made 200 components for the Artemis II Orion spacecraft. While the Artemis I had over 100 printed pieces and the previous version had only four 3D printed parts. This reveals that only one spacecraft generation later, we were able to double the amount of 3D printed parts,” reported Sipe. 

A 3D printed titanium part for NASA’s Orion spacecraft (Image credit: Lockheed Martin)

What can we expect to see during the Artemis II mission scheduled for late 2020?

“Our next mission will launch Orion on a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will be the largest rocket ever built as far as liftoff power. Next year we can expect an unmaned service module to travel to the lunar orbit where it will stay for a month, carry out significant checkouts of all of our modules and will be the first launch on the new rocket. Once it returns to Earth, we will recover it, take it apart, see what we can reuse, what we need to make some improvements on, and at the same time, we’ll be getting ready for our Artemis II mission, with the first astronauts flying on 2022. Then, Artemis III in 2024, will take astronauts to Gateway, a small space station in the lunar orbit, and from there to a human landing system that will put the first woman and next man on the Moon surface. This will be the first of many missions to the Moon’s south pole, where bases and moon mining will begin,” said Sipe.

Are there more engineers interested in AM technology applications?

According to Kaplun, there has been much interest in AM: “we are witnessing a lot of students and scholars contributing to the design space, coming into our engineering and production ranks with a lot of previous work in the field, with new ideas and new abilities to utilize the tools that we can now offer.” 

As an engineer, how do you change your mindset to produce something from a subtractive standpoint to an additive one?

“We are starting to corrupt the threshold as we are beginning to design parts that can only be made via the additive route, whereby in the past we would sort of take something that was designed for a normal conventional machine and then transition it to the additive world,” told Sipe. “Today we are generating designs that we know the only way they can be made is through AM. There are certain parts of the spacecraft that couldn’t be done with other technologies, such as hollow, organically grown on the printer parts that create new opportunities for us.” 

3D printed Orion docking hatch cover (Image credit: Lockheed Martin)

What 3D printing technologies are being used at Lockheed?

“We have a very large gamut of different types of technologies to make the 3D printed parts for Orion, the docking hedge covers were made on Stratasys FDM printers, but we also use a lot of metal powder bed technologies in various forms as well as different polymer technologies,” the experts proposed. 

3D printed Orion docking hatch cover made of PEKK thermoplastic (Image credit: Lockheed Martin)

So what lays ahead for the aerospace company?

“We just got into a long term production contract with NASA for the six upcoming spacecraft missions, so I believe it is our goal to make even more 3D printed parts for spacecraft. A big focus of the contract was to dramatically reduce per-vehicle costs and the major ways of doing that was by having reusable Orion crew modules and systems, using advanced manufacturing technologies, material and component bulk buys and an accelerated mission cadence. I consider that AM is a large part of reducing the cost and increasing the cadence of how often we fly,” enlightened Kaplun.

Both Kaplun and Sipe consider that the “Orion spacecraft is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration.”

The completed Orion spacecraft crew module at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (Image credit: Lockheed Martin)

 

With work well underway on both the Artemis I and II rockets, with core stage assembly nearly complete at Michoud, Orion will leave Lockheed for testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, in Mississippi.

Sipe concluded that: “In 1981, NASA wanted to move back into deep space so since 1981 we were flying the space shuttle, and physically could not go outside the Earth’s orbit, the Apollo was the last spacecraft that physically could leave the gravity of the Earth and move into deep space, and NASA had a desire for mankind to return. Orion is the only spacecraft development that is a true exploration class spacecraft. It’s not like any other, it has unique capabilities never before seen and even though the capsule is a heritage of the Apollo mission, its actually far superior.” 

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LiDar and its Applications Part 10 – Flood Prevention

Flood Plain

Floods have various impacts on environmental ecosystems. Some of these can be positive, while others are very detrimental. Flooding is a natural ecological process that plays an integral role in ensuring biological productivity and diversity within a flood plain. There are a myriad of impacts in the detrimental sense. This typically includes environmental degradation. Flood damage is usually the most extensive and difficult to repair within the environment. Flooding directly impacts the health and well-being of wildlife and lifestock. A list of problems associated with flooding includes riverbank erosion and sedimentation, the dispersal of nutrients and pollutants, restructuring of surface and groundwater resources, as well as landscape editing of habitats. So how can we use LiDar to mitigate some of the problems with floods, and maybe use floods to our benefit?

We have outlined the importance of risk analysis within our series a number of times so far. In flood modeling, small changes in elevation are the difference between a high risk flood zone and low risk. LiDar is used to model floodplain morphology. A floodplain is an area of low lying flat land that is seasonally submerged by overspill from neighboring rivers, lakes, or swamps. Based on elevation levels, we can predict a good amount of flood risk before a flood occurs.

New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Flood Map

Flood risk evaluation has a lot of nuances to the overall problem. There lies a lot of uncertainties and typical oversight from observed data. This is most difficult to solve when we are analyzing the LiDar data from 3D terrains of flat lands. Flat lands have extremely small changes within their land surface elevation models. The presence of man made structures also significantly changes the flood distribution and variable flow of a flood. In order to analyze flood risks in flat lands, we focus our attention to LiDar and its capabilities in micro-topography.

We have briefly explained micro-topography before. Micro-topography and LiDar analysis allows us to measure micro changes within topological maps. We can use this data from our Digital Terrain Models as well as Digital Elevation Models to now make better predictions of ebbs and flows within a flood, or the likelihood of a flood to even occur. A good river and floodplain description is possible using high resolution input data. Advancements in modeling and remote sensing technologies such as LiDar make it possible to generate high resolution DEMs at a reasonable cost. We can produce DEMs with accuracy less than ±25 cm, depending on the land cover, slope, flight parameters and environmental conditions.

DEMs for microtographic analysis in wetlands

The ability to analyze land in a microscale fashion is so useful for this field of study. Within the larger context of 3D data, being able to go from the macroscale to microscale is of utmost importance. The ability to use this for our prevention of major destruction is important. We cannot take care of unexpected large scale random events, but most of the predictable events can be taken care of.

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LiDar and its Applications Part 8 – Tourism

National Parks

Currently I am a tourist. It is fun to be in a different environment then your usual circumstances. It takes you out of patterns of monotony. When we travel our eyes are open to different lifestyles and we adapt new ideologies. It is great for people on an individual basis, but managing tourism on a large scale is still someone else’s job lol. So while a group of people in a specific site such as the Eiffel Tower may be prone to congestion if proper planning of infrastructure was not done. In particular, we will be analyzing LiDar and how we can utilize 3D data to plan tourism within parks.

National parks around the world are amazing sites that attract tourists nonstop. I plan on doing a large amount of trips to places like these soon, but I as a tourist am not aware of how precise my experience is. Park management involves the design and planning of how tourists like me will need to traverse the environment. The analysis of a large terrain gives us information on what is within our terrain. Elevation data, as well as land structural data, can be mapped in 3D. We can then create an ideal pathway for tourists to traverse through national parks. It would not be ideal for people to have log jams of movement within their environments. I recall when a time in high school quite vividly. My class and I were going on a trip to the Indiana Dunes. It is a great place to check out if you are in the Midwest of America and want to see some interesting wildlife as well as nature. The trail to get through the Indiana Dunes was extremely narrow and hard to traverse as a large group. We had to be in a single filed line the whole time throughout the trip. The state park, established in 1923 and opened in 1926, is about 3.4 square miles (8.8 square km) of shoreline, marshland, dunes, and forests near Chesterton.

Indiana Dunes

I imagine when this State Park was being established, there was no LiDar technology to help people design the State Park in an efficient manner. A lot of the paths were likely paved by physical effort. There was not a succinct manner in which the landscape data was known. If one is to build a new national park anywhere in the world now, we would be able to look at the environmental 3D data properly. This would then dictate how we could build paths and manage the resources of the particular landscape in question.

3D Point Cloud Terrain Data

With all this talk of nature, my inner hippie is growing. Seriously though, it is important for us to use technology to enable the betterment of our environment. This is essential and critical for the future and how we as humans will create our environment. This ranges from city planning to environmental planning, and this could include some of the interesting developments of planning civilization in space (many many many years away).

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3D Printing Congress in Argentina: Novel Ideas and a Harsh Landscape Ahead

A new edition of the 3D Printing Congress in Argentina wrapped up last Thursday after two days of workshops, supplier stands and speakers talking about the challenges and solutions of manufacturing using 3D printing. From biomaterials to resins, 3D printing in the automotive industry, 3D medical simulators and biomedical inventions, some of the most innovative uses for the technology show that it is advancing in the country, albeit somewhat slower than expected.

Sergio Cavaliere, Product and Applications Manager for Advanced Machine Systems (AMS), said to 3DPrint.com: “The local market is volatile, complex and caged by controls, yet at the general manufacturing level we notice that companies have begun acquiring additive manufacturing technology, perhaps not at the hyper expectation levels we forecasted five years ago, still, they know that if they don’t begin to use 3D printing, they will lose competitiveness.” 

Held 6 to 7 November in the City of Buenos Aires, the event gathered more than 3,500 3D printing enthusiasts, professionals, and researchers who eagerly discussed how to achieve better, cheaper and more efficient results, as well as what’s on the horizon for local 3D printing companies. This year’s main themes focused on 3D printing in industry and biomedicine. 

Last year, when the Mercedes Benz plant in Buenos Aires was looking to improve its production line of trucks and vans, they consulted Cavaliere and AMS. The manufacturing process specialists recommended they acquire an additive manufacturing machine to accelerate production. The local branch of the German vehicle maker soon began using a Stratasys F270 24/7 and in only 23 days created the devices needed for the manufacturing engineering of the assembly line.

Workshop: Creating unique shapes with the 3D pencil

“In general and around the world, almost 70% of all 3D printing is used for prototyping. However, this is not the case for Argentina, where industries are searching for ways to use the technology in manufacturing aids–like jigs, fixtures, platforms and tools (mainly in automotive). This means that they require more durable materials with high thermal and impact resistant qualities. And while most machines sold locally today are PLA printers that are very common for prototyping, they are not useful in manufacturing. That’s the reason our product sparked a lot of interest among attendees at the Congress,” suggested Demian Gawianski, CCO of Kodak 3D Printing during an interview with 3DPrint.com.

The very popular Kodak booth

Gawianski considers that 3D printing know-how has been growing in recent years, more focused on industry and engineering applications. In 2012, Argentina-based Smart International began developing and manufacturing 3D printers and in 2018 they released Kodak’s Portrait 3D printer, a new professional 3D printing solution, which was developed through a global brand licensing agreement.

Furthermore, the team behind Kodak showcased parts that are being produced as part of their new segment, an alliance with renown polymer manufacturers worldwide, such as BASF, Owens Corning, Clariant, and DSM. “The pieces printed with our machines using BASF stainless steel are very alluring for manufacturers because they have 80% stainless steel and 20% of a polymer which after a few post-processes becomes 100% stainless steel,” explained Gawianski. “Our machines are certified to work with already established materials from large manufacturers, allowing our customers to develop engineering pieces with high resistance.”

Stainless steel gear made with BASF material 319 L, Kodak

Not to be missed was Juan Manuel Romero’s talk about his Game of Thrones spoons, made earlier this year exclusively and in partnership with HBO Latin America, just in time for the premiere of the world-wide awaited sixth and final season of the show. The innovative development even competed at Cannes’ International Festival of Creativity during the 2019 award season. 

“3D printing offers infinite novel possibilities for jewelry creations, characterization, and improved quality. The precision approach of the machines is an advantage to more traditional methods of creating jewelry,” said Romero to 3DPrint.com. “Back in 2014 we realized that we needed to scale production without losing the design edge, and 3D printing gave us all that and more.” 

Romero, the owner of Quimbaya, has been a goldsmith jeweler for over 10 years, yet he learned quickly that using 3D printing to go from design to molding makes a big difference towards his end product. He states that “morphologically, the jewelry design has no limit, while with conventional methods, the same level of accuracy could never be achieved.” For his Game of Thrones spoons, he used Photocentric’s Precision 1.5 machines to create the prototype and the molds that were then used to make the metal spoons. The four spoons (representing the most iconic houses of the series: Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, and Greyjoy) traveled from Argentina to Europe with HBO, they became a very popular and desirable item due to the visibly unique quality, traits and intricate work. 

The very popular green shade PLA color

One of the most popular booths among attendees was PrintaLot. The company director, Mariano Perez​​, has underlined the success of his filaments: “Our client portfolio used to be made up mainly of hobbyists, and today we mostly get industrial market orders from companies that are driving the digital transformation of the industry”. In this sense, he adds that “we began working with other markets in the region, like Brazil, which has a big demand for our products.” One of the biggest orders the company got from Brazilian clients was a request for a new PLA color, the green-blue shade made famous by jewelry maker Tiffany. 

“3D printing machines and materials are changing the production processes of different economic sectors and creating new business models. We also began reselling Wiiboox Sweetin, the gourmate food 3D printer, and Ultimaker, because we noticed  many local entrepreneurs were searching for this type of solutions,” Mariano told 3DPrint.com.

In addition to the increasingly popular local 3D printer suppliers exhibiting the latest MakerBot, Formlabs, BCN3Ds, and Trideo (one of the most popular local brands), new and creative applications drew big crowds. Like a surgical simulator; 3D bioprinters to treat wounds in diabetic patients; bespoke 3D printed titanium implants, and the WalkingMaker, a 3D printer with wheels that extrudes material obliquely.

Nicolas Meer, co-creator of a pediatric surgical simulator for medicine residents said: “we spoke to pediatric surgeons who suggested the best way to teach the techniques of laparoscopy to students and future doctors was through a simulator, instead of waiting for a real case or practicing with animal parts. I have been working with 3D printers since 2012 so I decided to design and print a small simulator that wouldn’t cost more than $500.”

Even though spirits run high during the event, the landscape ahead is looking dim for the technology locally. With few endeavors and a complex economical situation, startups that once bet on creating their own technology, quickly noticed that it was better to import the printers from other countries. As is usual in the Latin American region, most of the machines being used come from Europe, Asia, and the US. Some of the best selling brands include Formlabs, Photocentric, MakerBot, and on the high end, Stratasys. Nonetheless, both political and economic uncertainty tends to drive up job losses, hold up the economy and seriously affect growth, so we can expect local companies will begin to look to other countries and regional markets to expand. Funding is limited and international investors are carefully looking at the local scenario ahead. However, interest is rising and every year, more people become knowledgeable of the technology, looking at the field as a reliable, creative and fundamental part of their work.

The team behind the Congress

[Images: Kodak, 3D Printing Congress Argentina, Quimbaya, Print-a-Lot and 3DPrint.com]

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Forensic Doctors Used 3D Printing to Create a Low-Cost Post Mortem Set

Criminal investigations, unusual deaths, victims of disasters and hospital quality controls rely heavily on autopsies. In the field of forensic medicine, the body is crucial evidence and provides leads to determine the cause of death. However, forensic medicine costs tend to run high, which is why for a few years a group of experts at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, has been developing automated tools to perform forensic pathology on corpses. One of the team’s most interesting developments in a series of innovations is a very affordable post mortem computed tomography angiography or PMCTA kit. By combining 3D printing with parts found at any local hardware store, the group of experts has been able to assemble a PMCTA kit for $120. And the best part is that anyone can find the printable 3D models as STL-files and the hardware store obtained parts with their detailed specifications online at virtopsy.com.

The PMCTA is a useful complement to an actual autopsy, as it helps to increase the quality of post-mortem diagnosis. And while modern imaging techniques like CTs and MRIs are often used in forensic pathology, the PMCTA technique addresses other issues, like soft-tissue contrast and poor visualization of the vascular system, so that by using contrast agents in the body, examiners can identify certain possible or potential leaks. According to a paper entitled Very economical immersion pump feasibility for postmortem CT angiography and published by Wolf Schweitzer, Patricia Mildred Flach, Michael Thali, Patrick Laberke and Dominic Gascho, from the Department of Forensic Medicine and Imaging at the University of Zurich, PMCTA, in general, has become known to help solve particularly tricky forensic pathology cases, even in decomposed bodies.

Michael Thali, chair of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Zurich, said that tools like PMCTA “are opening a whole new world of forensics, one that could accelerate the field” and that by “using techniques such as MRI, CT, biopsy, and angiography, we can see 60 percent to 80 percent of the forensic causes of death.”

Today, the PMCTA has become increasingly popular both for research and case investigation. However, the current leading commercial solution for post-mortem angiography is a machine that costs over $80,000, while a single postmortem scanner adds another $500 to the already pricey bill. Specialists at the University of Zurich suggest that such costs are prohibitively high for many forensic pathologists. This is one of the reasons they came up with the idea of a low-cost PMCTA, accessible to any forensic lab around the world.

Production of Very Affordable PMCTA-kits. Left: 3D printing in progress; Middle: finished print batches; Right: kits in process of being packed

The team used hardware store supplies and 3D printing to develop a post mortem CT angiography kit that anyone could create and use for just $120, and they even uploaded instructions online, instead of patenting the device. Parts of the PMCTA kit require a dedicated specific design and built. On the design level, the team originally used a hybrid parametric and direct modeling approach then transferred the design to an STL-formated file for easy use across different software platforms. They used 3D printing to create femoral catheters, a cylindrical push compression fitting, a bucket tube fixture, and vascular tourniquet set.

The PMCTA kit is part of the Virtopsy project, developed by forensic scientists at the University of Zurich around the turn of the Millenium as a multi-disciplinary applied research project to implement imaging modalities from diagnostic radiology and surveying technology in forensic sciences. Since then, the Virtopsy approach has become an emerging if not, the standard procedure in forensic investigations worldwide. The term Virtopsy has actually been used in a variety of settings all over the world and uses advanced technologies to aid and evolve forensics. Virtopsy uses computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, optical 3D surface scanning, 3D photogrammetry and 3D printing to detect and document forensic evidence in a minimally-invasive and observer-independent manner in both the living and the deceased. It is widely used by investigators in criminal cases and in court.

The Virtopsy team

Specialists were able to create a very affordable and functional kit thanks to 3D printing. The kit easily fits into a small suitcase and is neither large nor heavy. Talk about bringing down costs, this PMCTA kit costs less than 1% of a commercial PMCTA available today on the market. There are already so many challenges associated with forensic medicine, especially in developing nations, where funding for this field is not very forthcoming, combined with a shortage of forensic pathologists and technical specialists–a shocking fact, considering how popular the field became after so many tv shows focused on the behind the scenes of CSI and forensics.

Resulting PMCTA with a view of the whole body showing contrasted vessels and organs

 

In countries like India, for example, there is not only a shortage of forensic experts, mortuaries lack basic facilities and reference material is out-of-date. Moreover, a single mortuary in Barabanki, staffed with one sanitation worker and a single doctor on duty did 972 autopsies in 2017, and that’s just one example, there are plenty more. Advances in technology are a great way to address some of the basic needs of the field, especially when forensic doctors everywhere can download the information and build the kit themselves.

[Images: Virtopsy and University of Zurich]

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Aki Inomota – Think Evolution #1

I am excited to do some research and follow up based on some topics and discussions I heard on Dezeen Day. This particular discussion is based on an artist who has done some interesting and fascinating work within 3D Printing that I would like to talk about. I find it interesting a current movement within the art world of exploring scientific concepts within work. Art and design are starting to fuse a bit more with scientific thinking, and it is an interesting development we should be watching for the future. This particular artist will be showcasing a little of this type of thinking.

Aki Inomota is a Tokyo-based artist. She was born in Tokyo in 1983. She also completed an MFA at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Her degree was in Inter Media Art. Her work was mentioned within the Dezeen Talk from Paola Antonelli. Paola has curated Aki Inomota’s work in one of her recent projects at MOMA. The piece, in particular, is named Think Evolution #1. This particular piece is a resin casted ammonite fossil.

Think Evolution Aki Inomata

Ammonites are an extinct species. They are usually one of the most well known and distinguishable fossils to the normal human. They are excellent index fossils. One can link the rock layer they were found to specific geological time periods. These fossils usually have great preservation as well.

This particular ammonite fossil was cast with resin. I think that art is interesting in that it can be the simplest things and ideas that make remarkable pieces. Many of us could do this simply and effectively through 3D Printing, but this particular artist had the creativity to do it. The value of creativity is something to harp on continuously.

Think Evolution

In terms of the piece itself, the message is interesting. When this piece is placed near an octopus in water, an octopus will form itself within the shell. Octopus and ammonites are related in terms of species, so it is interesting to see how an octopus feels comfortable within this foreign shell. Octopus have grown out of the need for their shells through evolution, but this shows that they are comfortable using them still.

This piece was curated by Paola because of her thoughts on extinction and how it relates to humanity. We all are going to die at some point. This is our impending reality, but how do people act upon this? How do people change things for the better? If we know we shall die, what do we do to make our lives and the lives of others better?

I think that with this piece, my opinions come from a different perspective. I am intrigued by how the octopus is playing naturally with this resin cast piece. The octopus recognizes as something of familiarity. When one has an intuitive feel for something, what can explain that? I find it fascinating that something that is instinct still has a familiarity to a descendant or relative species way down the line.

Ammonite Shell

There are a large number of octopus species that devise shelters out of coconut and mollusk shells. The goal of this piece was to explore the effect of transmitted evolutionary knowledge. Inomata recreated an ammonite shell by leveraging 3D scanning to recreate a digital model of the shell.

Using 3D printing to do this artistic piece is very fascinating. I would love to know people’s opinions on this in particular. What should we be doing to prepare for extinction? What does this piece do in terms of shifting your perspective in the way you live?

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

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