New Partnerships for Renishaw, Dassault Systèmes Center on Digital Technology

The ADT Foundation was founded in 2010 as an organization dedicated to advancing education in the field of head and neck reconstruction – particularly involving digital technology. One of its main functions is to organize and present conferences and workshops centered on professional development in head and neck reconstruction, including the Advanced Digital Technologies in Head and Neck Reconstruction conference. Recently, Renishaw became a gold sponsor of the volunteer-run ADT Foundation, meaning that it will have expanded access to share its knowledge and technology with scientists and clinicians.

The sponsorship allows Renishaw to attend ADT Foundation events, discuss its technologies, showcase its products and run workshops.

“Reconstruction is a life changing procedure for cancer patients with head and neck tumours,” said Ed Littlewood, Marketing Manager of Renishaw’s Medical and Dental Products Division. “The procedure aims to improve cosmetic and functional deficits that can otherwise lead to psychological, physical and occupational disabilities. With the introduction of pioneering digital technology and the communication and education support around the industry, clinicians will be able to avoid these detrimental consequences in patients.”

Renishaw has been working to further develop patient-specific titanium craniomaxillofacial implants using 3D printing, based on data through CT scans.

[Image: Renishaw]

“Renishaw is a pioneer in the development of additive manufacturing and its applications,” said Dr. Dominic Eggbeer, Head of Surgical and Prosthetic Design at PDR and Treasurer of the ADT Foundation. “The company’s unique perspective as a global engineering company can give clinicians and other healthcare professionals the latest insight of a leading additive manufacturing expert. Ultimately this could enable surgeons to treat more patients and save costs due to reduced surgery time and number of surgeries per patient. Patients will also benefit as they may only require one operation and their recovery time is likely to be reduced due to the accurate fit of the implant.”

In other collaboration news, French construction company Bouygues Construction is partnering with Accenture and Dassault Systèmes to develop a digital environment for collaborative construction management based on Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

“The transformation programme we are launching with Dassault Systèmes and Accenture marks a fundamental change for Bouygues Construction, signifying a modernisation of our businesses,” said Philippe Bonnave, Chairman and Chief Executive of Bouyeges Construction. “By providing our employees and our supply chain with a digital work platform, employing all our project data across the board, this solution will guarantee greater efficiency to help us satisfy our customers’ expectations.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which has been used in a wide variety of sectors from aerospace to shipbuilding, and from city planning to naval defense, will help Bouyeges Construction to centralize information throughout the entire project life cycle and share it with all involved, both internally and externally. It will also help the company to standardize processes.

“Smart and sustainable cities include complex networks of systems that require a new way of thinking in the construction industry,” said Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO of Dassault Systèmes. “Natural resources must be used more efficiently, construction costs reduced, and designers, contractors and operators brought closer together. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform gives Bouygues Construction a unique opportunity to be the pioneer in the construction sector with business processes and a holistic approach integrating the company and its supply chain into a value creation chain. Thanks to the parallel exchange of data between the virtual world and the real world, Bouygues Construction will be able to set new standards of efficiency and capture all the business value expected from its digital transformation.”

Several years ago, Bouyeges Construction adopted the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology, a framework for integrating technologies and processes for greater efficiency in construction. The adoption of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform will further enable the company to streamline its operations.

“This is one of the very first such initiatives in the construction sector,” said Christian Nibourel, Accenture’s Country Managing Director for France and Benelux. “By using the latest digital technologies to enable the simultaneous collaboration of the whole ecosystem of a construction project, Bouygues Construction will have better control of costs and deadlines while minimising risks and adapting to subsequent changes in customers’ needs and in the standards in force, which can be very numerous during the construction process.”

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