3D printed Orthopedic devices finally ready for the market

[christof]

I work as a Prosthetic technician, and my interest in 3d printing started about ten years back, when the first (very crude) 3d printed devices surfaced.

I was intrigued by the possibilities, and bought  my own 3D printer, to see if printing would make sense.

A lot of hype at that time, and at least what i could see was quite underwhelming. instead of the next big ting at work, printing became my hobby.

I followed development in this field, but could not see much real world products.

Last week i went to our main trade fair (OT World, Leipzig/germany) and was quite amazed about all the machines that where presented there.

There where a couple of belt printers for insole manufacturing, machines with big building volumes for seat cushions, i print farm from Mosaic, a print head for Prussa XL for continuous Carbon fiber and more. Just a couple of pictures, let me know if you have questions.

Good to see that finally there are some real world products!

[Lee Foulkes]

Thanks Christof,

Lots of interesting stuff there. Is the second (from the left) an  inclined belt printer?

[christof]

Yea, its printing on a inclined belt. there have been a couple of belt printers, as well as several pellet printers. Most Exhibiters sell complete systems to scan, model and manufacture, often they are not manufacturing all components themself, so this printer is most likely manufactured by someone else.....