DWK Life Sciences is known for its glass labware products, developed under its DURAN brand. But recently the company has turned to metal 3D printing and has created a 4-port GL 45 bottle connector cap using metal additive manufacturing. The component is fully functional and 3D printed using medical grade 316L stainless steel. DWK Life Sciences decided to turn to 3D printing for several reasons, particularly the benefits it offered in terms of reduced cost and time.
“Development of new lab ware, especially glass products, is traditionally a slow process. In contrast, the development time for the 3D printed connector cap was very short: from the first idea to the final printed product only took about two months,” said DURAN Product Manager Alistair Rees.
Every batch of the parts takes about 51 hours to 3D print using an EOS system. That’s a lot quicker than traditional manufacturing processes.
Because of the time and money saved through 3D printing, companies like DWK Life Sciences can offer such products more inexpensively, and that’s a big deal for scientists who use these products. Again, lab equipment can be pricey, and the costs add up – and in a field that depends on grants for research, every little bit counts in terms of saving money. 3D printing has resulted in money savings for a large number of other industries, so the lab equipment market should be no exception.
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[Images provided by DWK Life Sciences]