Additive manufacturing software company Betatype 3D-printed 800 lumbar cages using its Engine workflow optimization software, 3D Printing Industry reports.
Six things to know:
1. In a case study using Renishaw's RenAM 500Q powder bed fusion printer, Betatype managed to double the production of the 3D-printed implants.
2. When orthopedic models are sliced for 3D printing, process parameters, including laser scanning path, laser power and spacing, are generated. Larger parameter datasets can slow the printing process.
3. Betatype's Engine is designed to overcome this issue by storing data in file formats lighter than a .stl file, including Betatype's ARCH format and nTopology's LTCX file, which are both 96 percent lighter than a CAD file.
4. According to the case study, a spinal cage model was only 8 megabytes as an LTCX file compared to 235 MB as an STL file.
5. Engine can manipulate data to make full use of a 3D printer's build volume by stacking models on top of each other. The models are joined by a support structure which can be removed by sandblasting techniques in the post-processing stage.
6. Build times were reduced by as much as 40 percent. While it can take about 25 hours to produce standard 3D cages, the new system can print cages - in 15.4 hours.
Access the case study here.