Chinese researchers have created a new generation SLA printer which can work with viscous liquids such as ceramics and porcelains that could be used to print teeth in minutes.

Reinout Holtrup, a student of industrial design at the University of Twente in the Netherlands created a prototype for a DLP 3D printer called the XZEED Multi-Material DLP Printer which can print with up to five materials/colors at once.

A new high speed SLA-type printer on kickstarter offers 16X speed compared to other SLA printers and a much larger print bed.

The FDA cleared a 510(k) for the use of DENTCA’s new 3D printable material as a denture base, the first such approval in the denture production space. 

Gizmo 3D from Australia has released a new video of their SLA printer in action, demonstrating high speed layerless (continuous) printing.

Stereolithographic (SLA)3D Printers have been used by UCL School of Pharmacy and FabRx Ltd researchers to develop anti-acne masks which can deliver the topical salicylate for acne. Using 3D scanner to print nose, and then creating 3d print, this face mask will load salicylic acid topically, providing patients with quick and affordable treatment for acne.

Researchers from the University College London’s School of Pharmacy have concluded that 3D Printers using Stereolithography (SLA) technology are most viable and potent for manufacturing oral tablets for prescription drugs. This will allow them to keep the drugs contained with the “solidified matrices” thus reducing degradation and enhancing drug action.

French-based company 3DCeram worked with Dr. Joël Brie and the maxillofacial surgery department at Limoges University Hospital to develop Cranial Prosthetics using 3D Printing technology. The 3D Printer used is Ceramaker which utilizes pastes made from photopolymers combined with alumina, zirconia or hydroxypatite (HA) and can 3D Print Cranial Prosthesis in about 48 hours using SLA Technology.

A team of researchers led by Professor Cheng Shujie from Affiliated Hospital of Hebei University, China are unveiling precise 3D Printed Liver Models which have been 3D Printed using Stereolithography for lower costs & precision and can be used for aiding in surgeries. Using two high speed LCD-SLA 3D printers, the team was able to create detailed, life-sized liver model for approximately $80-$90.

Researchers from FabRx are working on using 3D Printing to create personalized medicine for patients that could reduce the adverse effects to individuals. Though FDM 3D Printing has potential, the high extrusion temperature limits the potential active ingredients to only heat-stable ones, it was still chosen over SLA 3D Printing since it was unsafe. A regenHU 3D bioprinter was used to print paracetamol into three different tablet geometries – solid, ring and mesh and the results could be invariably beneficial if successful for the individual personalization of medicines.

Researchers from University of Colorado Boulder have developed a 3D printing technique with SLA that allows for localized control of an object’s firmness, which can potentially pave way for tissue 3D printing technique. The layer-by-layer printing method with fine-grain and programmable control over rigidity allows the researchers to mimic the complex geometry of highly structured yet pliable blood vessels. The 3D printer used by the researchers is capable of printing biomaterials as small as 10 microns, or one-tenth the width of a human hair.

UK researchers, I. Brewis and J.A. McLaughlin, at Northumbria University unveiled their new research that combines astrophysics with 3D Imaging and Printing in cardiovascular health care. Using the astrophysics in creating new image-processing techniques for viewing the human heart, transferring the data to an .stl file and then 3D printing a medical model, they finally produced a precise 3D model of a patient’s heart with Aortic Aneurysm using Netfabb and SLA 3D Printer.

German Researchers used SLA 3D Printer to create much realistic model for Case Scenarios based on the CBCT of the maxilla of a real patient that imitated several traumatic dental injuries, which was then used in a hands-on training course on Dental traumatology for undergraduate students in their final year in the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology in Munich, Germany. While half of the students were provided with access to dentaltraumaguide.org, the others didn’t. The students were then evaluated, where 57% reported it to be ‘very realistic’ and 43% choosing ‘rather realistic’, therefore concluding that 3D Printed Dental Models assisted students in correctly managing traumatic dental injuries.

This year’s IDS Summit 2019 held at Cologne, Germany, saw collaboration between California’s Nexa3D, a manufacturer of 3D printers offering stereolithography (SLA) for production-grade users, and BEGO, a provider of materials for dentist’s offices. Together, they are marketing the Varseo XL, to be sold by BEGO, headquartered in Germany. The new dental 3D printer is customized with Nexa3D’s proprietary Lubricant Sublayer Photo-curing (LSPc) technology, which functions via a high-speed light matrix, and will allow dental offices to print six times faster at ten times the volume, with a print area that is five times greater than any other dental 3D printer on the market. The Varseo XL will be showcased at IDS 2019 at booth M20/N29 – Hall 10.2, Koelnmesse, Fair Grounds, Cologne-Deutz until the fair closes on March 19, 2019.

Researchers from China’s Zhejiang University used 3D Printing to study Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (APVC), an uncommon congenital anomaly in which pulmonary venous blood flows directly into the right side of the heart or into the systemic veins. 3D printing of the personalized heart models was completed via an ISLA 650 3D printer (Shining 3D, China). Each patient-specific heart model took around half an hour to two hours to model, with 3D printing requiring anywhere from two to five hours. Surgeries were performed on all 17 patients, and each procedure was successful.