3D printing silicone breast implants takes one step closer Published on May 26, 2015 at 7:00 AM ·Sheffield Based Industrial and Product Design consultancy, Fripp Design and Research, announce a breakthrough in the development of their 3D Print technology; Picsima.Picsima is a unique 3D Print Technology capable of creating three dimensional geometry from Room Temperature Vulcanising (RTV) medical grade Silicone. Although the technology is still in its development stage, the company have announced their first attempt at 3D Printing Silicone breast implants. Tom Fripp, one of the founders and inventors of Picsima commented: For some time now we have been asked about the feasibility of 3D Printing Breast implants. Currently the choices of silicone breast implants for women, having to undergo reconstructive surgery, is very limited. This is not good for women for a number of reasons, they have to spend a relatively long time in surgery under anaesthetic because of the time the surgeon needs to do the reconstruction and the resultant reconstruction often does not reflect the desired look a women wants. We wanted to explore how a custom 3D Printed silicone implant could improve this situation. With the introduction of low cost scanning technologies, it is simple for a surgeon to obtain a digital representation of a woman's breast. With the Picsima technology's ability to 3D Print silicone without the need for support material, it will be possible to take that data and 3D Print a silicone breast implant directly, which will dramatically reduce the time a woman would spend under surgery and, equally as important, allow for a better reconstruction of the breast. This is still in development, as is Picsima, but this is a significant step forward because Picsima is the only polymer based 3D Print technology using materials already approved for medical use. Source: Fripp Design and Research
Picsima 3D Printing Silicone without Support Structures Scott J Grunewald BY SCOTT J GRUNEWALD ON WED, OCTOBER 15, 2014 · Fripp Design and Research has just released a YouTube video teasing their new 3D printing Picsima technology capable of printing medical and food grade parts using linked polymers like silicone, epoxy resin and acrylics without the need for support structures. 3d printed silicone without support structures. The Picsima process uses commercially available silicone products, which means that they have already been cleared by the FDA for food and medical applications. The process solidifies the materials with a patent pending process that controls the polymerisation of the silicone. They have already created parts as thin as 400 microns with a shore hardness of 10A. For comparison, Stratasys' flexible Tango Black material has a shore hardness of 27A. The company's long term goal is to create a commercial 3D printer using the Picsima technology and the team is currently working on the product design and raising the required capital. However, currently the machines in the Fripp Design factory are the only 3D printers capable of using this new process and with these they are offering silicone 3D printing services in the interim. The process was developed when Fripp Design was working on a new way to 3D print soft tissue prostheses for a client. While that project never worked out it did set them on the road to developing Picsima. The process will have many medical applications as well as uses for 3D printing custom gaskets and seals. Typically these parts would be 3D printed in a flexible material to test the shape and fit and then have a mold cast so they could be reproduced in silicone. Because the Picsima process does not require support structures, it can completely eliminate that step and print functional end-use parts
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