Tritanium C Anterior Cervical Cage
Last month, Stryker’s spinal division received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Tritanium C Anterior Cervical Cage, a 3D printed interbody fusion cage for the cervical spine. This week, the company will formally introduce the latest addition to its Tritanium product line at the North American Spine Society (NASS) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Stryker’s Spine division will showcase the cervical cage at Booth #500, and will also present an abstract, titled “Evaluation of Bony Fusion with Tritanium PL Used in Mini-Open Approach to Posterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion,” during Thursday afternoon’s Innovative Technology Presentations.
“After the terrific feedback and success we’ve seen with the Tritanium PL Posterior Lumbar cage, we are excited to introduce the Tritanium C Anterior Cervical Cage to spine surgeons this year at NASS. Tritanium Cages feature ‘precisely randomized’ pore formations, in contrast to other technologies with longitudinal channels and traverse windows that result in a uniform structure, as well as cages that offer porosity only on the surface,” said Bradley Paddock, President of Stryker’s Spine division. “As a result, Tritanium implants are designed to become ‘one with bone’.”
Yissum Announces 3D Printed Food Platform
This week, Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, introduced a novel technology platform for 3D printing personalized food that’s based on natural, calorie-free nano-cellulose fiber. The platform, which will allow for personalized 3D printed food according to pre-set criteria, can serve multiple food markets, including meat substitutes, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan, and low-calorie. Thanks to the self-assembly properties of the nano-cellulose fibers, you can add and bind together different food components, like fat and proteins; the food texture can also be controlled, and the technology could also bake, cook, fry, and grill while 3D printing.
“This promising technology is an excellent example of the kind of multidisciplinary, transformational inventions that originate from our Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment and from the Hebrew University in general. The ability to automatically prepare, mix, form and cook personalized food in one device, is a truly revolutionary concept,” said Yaron Daniely, PhD, the President and CEO of Yissum. “The idea is to enable full control of the substances used, for the purpose of creating healthy and tasty meals that can be eaten immediately. This has the potential to address a variety of challenges facing the field of nutrition, from the demand for personalized food for people with diseases such as celiac or diabetes, personal nutritional habits such as vegetarians, to addressing the problem of lack of food in developing countries.”
Prof. Ido Braslavsky, the director of the Inter-Faculty Biotechnology Program and Head of the B.Sc. Program at the Institute of Biochemistry, Food Science, and Nutrition, will present the novel platform at the university’s 3D Printing and Beyond: Current and Future Trends conference tomorrow.
Shining 3D and Verisurf Partner for 3D Scanning Reverse Engineering Solution
Chinese 3D printing and digitizing company Shining 3D announced that it is releasing a complete reverse engineering solution to end users with measurement solutions company Verisurf Software, Inc. The solution includes an affordable software bundle of Shining 3D’s EinScan-Pro and EinScan-Pro+ handheld 3D scanners and the Verisurf 3D Scan Data & Reverse Engineering Suite, which is CAD-based and features a set of tools for meshing, editing, and advanced surfacing of points, mesh data, and point clouds.
“We are pleased to announce the launch of this reverse engineering solution together with Verisurf,” said Oscar Meza, the VP of global sales at Shining 3D. “The software special software suite makes it even more affordable for small labs or individuals to use the latest in highly accurate and efficient 3D technology.”
From now until December 31st, customers can receive a combined 20% discount of EinScan handheld 3D scanners, together with the Verisurf software suite.
YouTube Star Attempts Largest 3D Printed Statue
41-year-old designer, YouTube star, and XRobots majordomo James Bruton – whose 3D printed projects we’ve admired before and whom we have had the pleasure of meeting at the last two TCT Shows where he has accompanied LulzBot – is attempting to break a record by creating the world’s largest 3D printed sculpture. Bruton filmed and documented the entire 500-hour-long building process of the 50 kg sculpture created in his likeness; it’s constructed of over a dozen interlocking, 3D printed plastic sections. The sculpture is currently on display in the auditorium of the Winchester Discovery Centre in Hampshire, while Bruton waits 12 weeks for the Guinness World Records adjudicators to determine if his statue, which he claims stands 3.62 meters tall, beats the previous 3.06 meter-tall world record holder. Guinness sent a quantity surveyor and two independent witnesses to see the statue, to ensure that it is self-supporting, free-standing, and made of only 3D printed materials.
“I decided to print myself to avoid any potential copyright issues,” said Bruton. “I thought it would be fun to try and do a world record attempt and settled on the biggest humanoid statue because it was the most manageable, some of the other 3D printing world records are insane.”
Aectual Creates 3D Printed Floor for Amsterdam Airport
Aectual, based in the Netherlands, is on a mission to bring 3D printed architecture to the masses – the company uses huge six-axis 3D printing robots to fabricate sustainable, customizable flooring out of recycled bio-plastic material. Once the construction is big enough, it’s moved onsite so terrazzo material – a recycled granite or marble composite – can fill in the empty spaces. The company 3D printed the bespoke floor at the Loft retail brand’s flagship store in Tokyo, and is currently building another 3D printed floor, together with design partner DUS Architects, which will be installed at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam next month. Aectual developed the robotic 3D printing technology in-house, and officially launched its product at Dutch Design Week, currently taking place in Eindhoven.
“The extruder is mounted on a robot arm, itself mounted on a track. The maximum print areas of the several printers available are 2x2x4 meters, 8x2x2m or 2x2x2m,” explained Hans Vermeulen, the CEO of Aectual. “The 3D printer can deposit between 1 – 15 kg/hr of material. Using an automated material feeding system, the printer can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
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