Boston-headquartered Rize is home to the Rize One, a hybrid 3D printer using both fused filament fabrication (FFF) and piezo jetting. With this new hardware, users can create a wide range of custom parts made with high isotropic strength via Rize’s patented augmented polymer deposition (APD) technology. Rize has been sharing real-world case studies highlighting their technology in customers’ environments as the 3D printer has made its way onto the market, and recently released details about how CONMED is using the Rize One for prototyping and creating parts.
CONMED is a global company specializing in surgical and monitoring products for use by doctors in the following specialties:
- Orthopedics
- Laparoscopics
- Robotics and open surgery
- Gastroenterology
- Pulmonology
- Cardiology
- Critical care
CONMED uses 3D printing and additive manufacturing mainly for research and development in their Model Shop. David Perron is the Group Manager of R&D at CONMED, overseeing a team of five model makers supporting the following:
- Largo Sports Medicine and Power Groups in Utica, NY
- Design Center for Electro Surgery in Denver, CO
- Imaging Facility in Westborough, MA
The CONMED team uses SOLIDWORKS—which Rize recently deepened their partnership with—as they develop product concepts in 3D. Concepts and prototypes are continually produced in their Model Shops as they evaluate as many iterations as necessary until parts are ready for pre-production and the eventual launch of a product, which is often the culmination of months or years of hard work. Use of 3D printing has become so ingrained in CONMED’s methods they use it for nearly every product currently in development. Like so many other businesses involved in industrial applications, CONMED realizes how enormously beneficial 3D printing is—especially in the savings of time—and their 3D printers run around the clock as they make prototypes and tooling, along with implants, molds, and parts like functional handles for medical instruments.
“Timing is critical; everything is urgent,” says Perron.
In researching new 3D printers, Perron eventually settled on the Rize One 3D printer, an industrial system purchased through reseller EMS. The Rize was chosen to be the ‘workhorse’ at CONMED, due to its ability to produce parts that have good strength and surface quality.
“CONMED uses their Rize One 3D printer primarily for functional prototyping of handles for medical instrumentation and other parts of assemblies in the company’s cadaver labs, as well as parts for ergonomic testing and surgical planning. They have also seen great results using Rize to print molds for end-use silicon and low-temperature parts,” states the Rize case study.
The Rize One is unique also as it can 3D print part and version numbers on the objects made in their facility. Along with that, dry post-processing requires very little effort on the part of the operator, taking only a few minutes.
“Perron sees an ideal application for Rize 3D printing in CONMED’s Tool Shop to produce functional tooling and replacement parts used in production. And, given Rize’s clean and safe process, he can also envision placing Rize 3D printers in the product groups’ engineering offices. The opportunity to strategically use Rize 3D printers at scale across the value chain at CONMED are virtually unlimited,” concludes the Rize team in their CONMED case study.
Rize continues to look toward spreading the word of accessible technology, bringing strong 3D printing capabilities for an immersive engineering experience.
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[Source/Images: Rize]
