All articles Manufacturing Medical Software

Reconstruction of a Jawbone Using 3D Virtual Planning and Customized Guides

Radhika Dhuru
January 19, 2016
Reconstruction of a Jawbone Using 3D Virtual Planning and Customized Guides

A few years ago, Tan Seng Yam developed a swelling near his jaw. Dentists and doctors assured him that it didn’t seem to be critical, so Seng Yam wasn’t worried—yet. But then it kept growing, for the next five to seven years. That’s a long time to live with discomfort, and eventually it worsened to the point that Seng Yam was unable to eat. That’s when he consulted a specialist, who recognized that the condition was in fact serious: the swelling was the result of a tumor in Seng Yam’s jawbone.

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3D-Printed Hip Joint Held in Place with Stem Cells

Liesbeth Kemel
January 18, 2016
3D-Printed Hip Joint Held in Place with Stem Cells

After six hip replacements left her pelvis bone in fragile condition, 71-year old Meryl Richards was in great pain after her left leg pushed through her pelvis bone and caused the leg to be two inches shorter than the other. Soon she would be wheelchair-bound forever, after having walked with crutches and sticks for years. Fortunately, surgeons at the Southampton General Hospital, UK, implanted a 3D-printed hip joint, held it in place with the patient's own stem cells - an unprecedented approach.

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Can 3D-Printed Models Enhance Patient Communication?

Sandrine Debecker
January 14, 2016
Can 3D-Printed Models Enhance Patient Communication?

A research team from the Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London and the Cardiorespiratory Division of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London performed a study on the feasibility of using 3D-printed models in clinical practice.

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Design Flanders Honors Materialise with the Prestigious Henry van de Velde Company Award

Vanessa Palsenbarg
January 14, 2016
Design Flanders Honors Materialise with the Prestigious Henry van de Velde Company Award

Last night found a well-dressed group of people from Materialise at an illustrious awards ceremony at the BOZAR, the Center for Fine Arts in Brussels. The reason why is that yesterday, Materialise was named the 2015 recipient of the Henry van de Velde Company Award! Accepting the award on behalf of Materialise – in front of a crowd of 1,300 people – was Founder and CEO, Wilfried Vancraen. Design Flanders has been presenting the Henry van de Velde Awards since 1994, with the award serving to confirm the high quality of the work produced and encouraging prize winners to continue to tread the path of experimentation and inventiveness in the creative sectors.

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Charlotte’s Internship at Materialise: Leading the Baobab Express

Radhika Dhuru
January 05, 2016
Charlotte’s Internship at Materialise: Leading the Baobab Express

You’ve heard the cliché of the coveted internship that turns out to actually be merely coffee-bringing and document-printing with a few hours of uninspired sitting at a desk. Charlotte’s internship, however, was nothing like that. In the last semester of her Masters studies in management, Charlotte Gréant joined Materialise as an intern to take charge of a social engagement project in Benin, West Africa: the Baobab Express. The Baobab Express provides safe, reliable and comfortable transportation services to Beninese people, filling in a gap left by sparse public transportation and prohibitively expensive private transport. Charlotte tells us how the Baobab Express project reached public approval and financial success after meeting an initially tentative reception.

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Let There Be LIGHT, Said Fraunhofer ILT: A Mammoth Print Job for Self-Supporting Letters

Radhika Dhuru
December 29, 2015
Let There Be LIGHT, Said Fraunhofer ILT: A Mammoth Print Job for Self-Supporting Letters

How do you create a showstopper display for an exhibition about lasers? You let there be LIGHT! For the LASER World of Photonics 2015 exhibition, the Fraunhofer Institute of Laser Technology ILT wanted to display a set of giant luminescent letters, each taller than an average person, spelling out the word LIGHT. And our Mammoth Stereolithography machines were happy to oblige—even when the size of the data set topped anything that we’ve ever sent to a 3D printer before. (For a detailed look into how this project was designed, prepared, and 3D-printed, check out our case study here!)

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Benin Summer School 2015: What We Learned from Organizing a Scholarship Summer School in Papané

Julien Deckx
December 18, 2015
Benin Summer School 2015: What We Learned from Organizing a Scholarship Summer School in Papané

In early August, I reached Benin with my partner Lotte, Materialise CEO Fried Vancraen and Executive Vice President Hilde Ingelaere. The goal for the next month was to conduct a summer school at the hospital in Papané, with 17 students—the best performers from four high schools in the region—and guide them through the developmental projects they had chosen to work on. At the end of three weeks, three students would be chosen to receive a scholarship to aid their further education. Looking back at my notes over the following month, I think we had as much to learn as the students did.

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Rejoice, Architects! You Can 3D Print High-Quality, Colored Maquettes

Kirsten Van Praet
November 26, 2015
Rejoice, Architects! You Can 3D Print High-Quality, Colored Maquettes

An image says more than a thousand words—architectural models are a great way to represent a future construction. It makes it easier to visualize a construction in a certain setting or to discuss and evaluate the design. Many architecture students, as well as professionals, will remember making maquettes through late night hours with cardboard or Styrofoam. Today, that hassle is no longer necessary! With a 3D printer and advanced 3D printing software, you can generate highly complex, multi-colored architectural models of your designs.

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Gripping Developments: Meet YuMi the Robot, ABB’s assembly-line android with Materialise-made grippers!

Radhika Dhuru
November 13, 2015
Gripping Developments: Meet YuMi the Robot, ABB’s assembly-line android with Materialise-made grippers!

If you want to visualize the supermarket of the future, you need the tools of the future. At the EXPO MILANO 2015, the Future Food District featured all kinds of new technologies working on different areas of the food chain. Among them, we saw ABB’s exhibit YuMi, originally designed to automate small parts assembly in the consumer electronics industry. And Materialise’s 3D-printed grippers are giving YuMi a hand. (For a deeper look into how we designed the grippers, check out our case study!)

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Throwback to Summer: Run4Benin Fundraiser Race at Materialise HQ

Radhika Dhuru
November 11, 2015
Throwback to Summer: Run4Benin Fundraiser Race at Materialise HQ

Late every summer at Materialise, there comes a day when professionally dressed people suddenly transform into runners in full gear. That’s when you know it’s the day to Run4Benin. The race, which takes a route through in the green fields around Materialise HQ, raises funds to co-organize a summer school in the small West African country Benin. It also gets people off their office chairs and into their running shoes, which is great.

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