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Two South African Cancer Patients Receive 3D Printed Titanium Jaw Implants
jigmypig (3675225) writes "Two patients in South Africa that have had their lives and more specifically their jaws severely affected by cancer, have just received 3D printed jaw implants. The jaws were 3D printed using a laser sintering process that melts powdered titanium, one layer at a time. The process saves a ton of money, and unlike traditional manufacturing of titanium jaws, it doesn't waste any materials. Traditional manufacturing wastes up to 80% of the titanium block used in the process, whereas with 3D printing there is little to no waste at all. This new process also allows for a fully customizable solution. The models are drawn up in CAD software, and then printed out to precisely fit the patient."
You had me at "3D Printed Titanium Jaw Implants". Awesome!
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
No, actually, I'm fortunate enough not to have that option. Still, it's good to see this happening for the people who do.
I'm sure the "waste" is recycled. While I'm happy for the advancement I think people stretch a bit too much to make something seem more revolutionary than it is. That doesn't benefit anyone.
Cast is bad enough, but sintering is awful for strength. Horrible.
If it's FINE enough it should be, er.. fine. I wonder what the fail test is like for this being an orthopedic application, or is that even considered beyond "it's metal"?
They wasted a very valuable opportunity here. The jaws do not have razor sharp jagged teeth nor are either of the recipients over 7 feet tall.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
While I find the 3d printing damn cool, the editorializing about the waste struck me as an odd comment for subby to make. I'm guessing that a lot of powder gets left over by this new process just as milling from a solid block leaves shavings. But those should be just as easily melted down and recycled in the next job, so not really wasted. (And if they are thrown away, it means that reusing them just isn't economical, so the 'waste' isn't that valuable anyway.)
I think the better argument where 3D wins is the ability to get arbitrary shapes that could be impossible to make with traditional machining or casting.
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
I was born with a tiny jaw and I could not open my mouth wide. Surgeries, using a bones from my right hip into my mouth to extend the jaw bones, didn't help much to make them bigger.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Just became fans of the Bond movies and Robocop.
New definition of "Hard Bodies" incoming?
When they say 3D printed do they mean a metal mill, or can we 3D print with any random material now? And if so, why not use the far more tried tested, and better alternative milling?
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
element for paint and sunblock.
Approximately 4.6 million tons of pigmentary TiO2 are used annually worldwide, and this number is expected to increase as utilization continues to rise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth's_crust
This 80% waste; it's not like they throw it in the garbage. It gets melted back down after. Maybe some energy is wasted, but don't summarize it as if they are throwing the materials in a landfill. That's just naive.
Baron Ünderbheit?
Fuck you for spreading bullshit "simple solutions" that do nothing against cancer.
Fuck you right up the ass with a rusty chainsaw for telling people to avoid the treatments that give at least some hope for remission or cure.
And fuck you down the throat with that same rusty chainsaw, after it's been up your ass, for doing all this to sell fucking books.
I just saw something in today's FTL newsfeed. I didn't catch all of it, but it said something like "Have you or a family member been implanted with a 3-D printed Titanium jaw? If so, you may be owed compensation! Vid our office now!"
would have liked to have one I'd guess.
I'm so disappointed that you posted as AC.
I wanted to tell you that you suck.
You suck.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
It has to be as durable as the bone it is fitted into. Titanium is used in prosthetics because it is the most biocompatible metal, not so much for it's hardness.
I hear with a regular ass's jaw, you can take out thousands... with a titanium one, I'll be unstoppable.
You wrote a book and can't tell affect from effect?
Mostly random stuff.
If I remember this correctly, sintering is actually one of the favoured manufacturing methods for implants. Something about how you can make the material surfaces porous enough for tissue to hold on to, which traditional machining simply cannot match.
I've no doubt that sintered parts have undergone failure testing and found acceptable. Do you know the level of regulation for a medical implant? It's insane.
FORGED Ti is very tough stuff. 40% stronger than steel of same weight. Sintering is essentially welding microparticles, welding on welds. Very weak in 3d.
It may be fine if they design the piece sufficiently but who knows, they're cutting costs, that's the impetus here.
is Richard Keil still alive?
or is it spelt Kiel
Do you know the level of regulation for a medical implant? It's insane.
If you have received a sintered jaw in the last 5 years and have experienced headaches, nausea, aches, pains, shortness of breathe, loose stool, fungus, rashes, upset stomach, or death, call 1800-876-9876 to get the money you deserve
I finally updated my sig, but now it's lame.
unlike traditional manufacturing of titanium jaws, it doesn't waste any materials. Traditional manufacturing wastes up to 80% of the titanium block used in the process...
Um... bullshit?
There is no waste in milling. You just sell the turnings back to smelter. Or smelt them yourself if you have the equipment.
that aside... sintering is awesome. Growing up I used to get to visit the company my father worked for and one of their main product lines were all sintered parts. You lay down powdered metal and then bake it to melt the powder together. They've been doing that for decades. The new innovation is being able to sinter on the fly with lasers instead of an oven.
Steve Jobs must have read that book.
making random parts strong is a bad idea. you might want it to break before something else in the system.
but if I could get forged titanium plates to replace the bones of my skull, I can't see any downside to that.
Titanium is more common than phosphorus. Try reading the chart you linked to. Titanium dioxide is also found in hostess powdered donettes.
It's porous but that actually helps with incorporation into the body. I'm a bit out of touch now but in 1999 experiments with implanting porous titanium implants treated in caustic soda into mice resulted in very strong metal to bone connections after only a few weeks.
So while it's horrible strength compared with solid titanium outside the body it's very likely to be higher strength inside the body than a solid implant.
Besides, bone is not very strong in comparison to titanium - which actually has been a problem with metal joints for years since the metal grinds away at the bone it is inserted into. Typically that's why metal joints have been replaced - the metal bits are fine but the bone they are connected to has worn down and a longer joint is required.
Do you want Bane? Because that's how you get Bane.
Sadly while it would be "bullshit" with stainless steel it's not so simple with titanium. Recovering metal from the shavings is not as simple as just throwing them in a pot and warming it up, even if you do it in an inert atmosphere.
The entire reason why titanium is expensive despite being made from very plentiful sand is because it's bloody hard to reduce the oxide and those shavings are covered with it.
That very hard to move oxide is why it's so useful in medical applications but it makes it a difficult material to do anything with.
Also using powder directly removes the step of forming the stuff into large blocks. It's vastly easier to make titanium metal in powder form than fully solid ingots with consistent properties.
Because that worked out so well for Steve Jobs.
I was seriously wondering that myself since titanium is difficult to deal with despite the fact that aerospace engineers would like to use it for a large number of parts, so I did a quick Google and I found this:
"Tests by EOS customers have compared the properties of laser-sintered titanium parts to those of cast or wrought titanium parts, and found that the DMLS parts can have significantly better mechanical properties. Typically, titanium parts made with DMLS have an ultimate tensile strength of 1,200Mpa + 30Mpa (175ksi + 4ksi), comparable to or stronger than conventionally manufactured titanium components"
Now, that should be taken with a grain of salt since it was provided by a company that does Direct Metal Laser Sintering, but it certainly sounds damn good.
Just be careful, you have to use low oxygen contents in the powder itself and argon to work in since it is HIGHLY reactive in its molten state.
I'm sure it is hysterically expensive right now, but has huge potential since traditional titanium work is both hard on machines/tool and requires lots of cooling.
Very, very cool.
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Dude, I think the process yields a result strong enough for a jaw.
So the article wants to tell us that in traditional milling they have to mill away 80% of the original block?
And then they used to throw it away as 'waste'?
Somehow I doubt that.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The 'death' part is indeed funny. ... if it is not against environmental rules/laws
I will remember to mention in my will to have a hard wired landline phone buried with me
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Well, our GP might be a moron, who knows?
But mixing affect with effect is a common typo. On most keyboards the letters are close together.
Also it is possible he is not a native english speaker (very likely when he says: the cancer is arrested) for those it is common to mix up words, which sound or are spelled similar.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Can't believe I'm the first one to comment about adamantium replacement bones.
Once adamantium is set, it can't be broken, so an additive printing system like 3D printing would be perfect for making adamantium parts.
It is strong enough to use for suspension parts on a mini-Indy race car. A mechanical engineering friend of mine worked on their college's car and that was his part of the project.
..they can print the component directly into the patient without the need for extensive surgery,
You wrote a book and can't tell affect from effect?
I would hope you lived in a warm climate, but not too warm. Titanium conducts heat very well. With your entire skull replaced with titanium plates your brain would be constantly below normal temperature.
I wonder how that would affect intelligence? Maybe you should try it, as an experiment...