Ten years after a helicopter crash changed navy veteran, Stevin Creeggan’s life. Now a team of New Zealand Defence Force engineers is using additive manufacturing to help change it again.

In 2010, Stevin Creeggan’s life changed forever. He was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash at Pukerua Bay, north of the New Zealand capital, Wellington. Stevin was left with multiple injuries including self-fused vertebrae in his neck and lower back, and severe damage to his right leg which has been reconstructed with plates, screws, and rods to hold his femur and lower femur together. It is also now shorter than his left leg by 2.5 centimeters.

Data from independent labs find Acteev deactivates bacteria, fungi and viruses, including SARS-CoV-2

MT Ortho harnesses additive technology to manufacture customized prostheses for cranioplasty and bone cancer patients

Until just a few years ago only standardized, conventionally manufactured prostheses - or in very limited cases customized prostheses - were available for patients with bone tumors.

Italian medical implant manufacturer REJOINT is introducing mass customization and therapy personalization through a combination of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and computerized analysis of intraoperative and post-operative data collection through IoT-connected sensorized wearables.

Providing medical materials plays a major role in the current situation to prevent the further spread of Covid-19. In a short time, a large number of protection equipment or tools to manufacture medical products have to be available. With hardly any local manufacturing of such materials and a singular focus on individual production countries leads to shortages in the supply chain.

SLM Solutions partners with MAGNET to additively manufacture plastic injection molds for frontline healthcare worker face shield production
As part of its Additive Alliance Against Corona initiative, SLM Solutions has metal 3D printed plastic injection tooling molds that help produce face shield headbands for the Manufacturing & Advocacy Growth Network (MAGNET), a manufacturing consulting firm in Ohio. SLM Solutions 3D printed the molds in its Wixom, Michigan facility enabling MAGNET to save time and money in additively manufacturing the tooling needed to produce the face shields quickly.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for medical supplies, including testing kits has outpaced supply. The primary protocol involves conducting a nasopharyngeal (NP) swab test, which collects viral material from inside a person’s nasal cavity. Globally, there are very few companies that manufacture the swabs commercially, and all are overwhelmed with demand. In collaboration with Origin, Henkel is leveraging its ability to carry out biocompatibility and robust mechanical testing at its facility in Concord, California, and has provided a range of 3D printable medical photopolymers designed for use on Origin’s material development systems.

Leading ABS producer ELIX Polymers is collaborating with a large group of companies within ClusterMAV, the Advanced Materials Cluster of Catalonia, Spain, in the fight against COVID-19. The partners are working in collaboration with the National Federation of Innovative Business Groups and Clusters (FENAEIC), which focuses on promoting collaboration between federations, clusters and their partners, within the European Cluster collaboration platform.

Medical devices: VDE|DKE offers free initial standards consultation for "career changers
VDE|DKE now offers free advice on standardization requirements which are essential for the safety of medical devices

Seiko Epson Corporation (TSE: 6724, "Epson") will apply its original Dry Fiber technology to manufacture face masks for its employees in Japan. Dry Fiber technology, which is also used in Epson's PaperLab A-8000 in-office dry paper making system, is a dry process that has until now been used to turn used paper into new paper inside the office. The masks will be made not from used paper, but from functional fibers and will be manufactured at the company's Kanbayashi and Suwa Minami Plants in Nagano, Japan, where the majority of its domestic employees are located. Epson expects to begin manufacturing the masks from the end of May. The company does not currently plan to manufacture the masks for sale.

We at 3DVerkstan are accustomed to developing solutions and 3D-printed models to meet different needs of our customers, but like many others in this strange time, we chose to reorganize the planned business and focus on producing simple, fast products for healthcare that are already struggling with inadequate resources and adequate protection. This is what additive manufacturing is all about, a manufacturing method that quickly develops not just prototypes or individual parts but fulfills a need that arises here and now. Now mass production of our faceshield has started by injection molding in many places which is needed for demand is great, but the hundreds of thousands of visors that were 3D printed during these weeks have saved lives!

Royal DSM, a global purpose-led, science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, announces the launch of UNITE4COVID, a digital, open, collaborative marketplace designed to provide solutions for healthcare professionals, as well as a forum and collaboration hub for inventors, manufacturers and certification labs in the fight against corona.