Objective3D | BLOG

The 3D printed plastic material that can kill 99% of bacteria could revolutionise dental implants Scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have invented a type of 3D printed plastic that can kill 99% of bacteria that touches it, which could pave the way for a multitude of medical, dental, food hygiene and child safety applications. The researchers took the dental resin polymers that are used to make artificial teeth implants and embedded antimicrobial quaternary ammonium salts inside the polymers. The salts are positively charged, which causes negatively charged bacterial membranes to burst and die. The polymer was then put into a 3D printer and used to print out a range of dental items, including replacement teeth implants and orthodontic braces, with the objects hardened using ultraviolet light. When the objects were coated in a mix of saliva and Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay, the researchers found that the new mat...

Matthew Garnett, owner and MD of Merseyside-based orthodontic dental laboratory, Thermadent Ltd, has something to say about the future of digital dental technology. "Let's get digital..." Matthew has 25 years experience in dental technology, beginning as an apprentice in 1990. he went on to Liverpool Community College where he qualified in 1996 with distinctions and won the "Student of the Year Award for Excellence" in dental technology. His passion for perfection remains undimmed and he believes we must never rest on our laurels. Before launching Thermadent in 2011 he worked in a number of laboratories right across the North West as an orthodontic technician, gathering valuable experience in all aspects of the craft. He took a lot of pride in his work and he made every appliance to the best of his ability, preparing each one as if it was for one of his own children. This level of commitment runs through the work of every member of the Thermad...

When 4 year old Anthony of Shelbyville, Kentucky lost his vision after an operation to remove a brain tumor, Wayne Whitworth, a family friend and former United States marine, offered a solution to help the little boy regain his independence. Whitworth turned to 3D printing to develop a customized spoon on the Stratasys uPrint SE Plus 3D Printer at UPS store 0830, located in Louisville, Kentucky. Simple daily functions like self-feeding posed frustrating challenges for Anthony and his family. “Anthony is blind so finding a spoon that he liked was a real challenge,” said Anthony’s mother, Cierra Brettnacher.   Anthony celebrated his 4th birthday last month using his Stratasys 3D printed spoon to eat a piece of birthday cake Anthony was drawn to a particular spoon he encountered during physical therapy. The special curvatures and features help visually impaired children like Anthony adapt to feeding themselves. Reproducing a utensil with a unique shape would require a...

Acclaimed artist and designer Daniel Widrig collaborated with Stratasys to create a futuristic 3D printed art collection. The collection, entitled Descendants, was unveiled at the ‘GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution’ exhibition, at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany, on October 30. DESCENDANTS by Daniel Widrig in collaboration with Stratasys produced using Stratasys’ PolyJet 3D printing technology. Size: 1751 x 452 x 292mm (Female), 1848 x 627 x 342mm (Male). Photo credit: Yoram Reshef Exploring a futuristic context where technological development and computational capacities continue to spiral, Descendants addresses the increasing possibility of superior artificial intelligence and technological singularity, and how future synthetic bodies might look and feel. “With advanced technologies, such as 3D printing, already facilitating the customization and enhancement of the human form, the concepts of a post-human era of non-biological intelligence is now much more conceiva...

Jay Leno has a lot of old cars with a lot of obsolete parts. When he needs to replace these parts, he skips the error-prone machinist and goes to his rapid prototyping 3D printer. Simply scan, print and repeat. Learn the benefits of 3D Printing for the classic car industry. Come visit Objective3D at stand 107 at the Motor Classica and you stand a chance to win $300 worth of 3D Printed Parts One of the hardships of owning an old car is rebuilding rare parts when there are simply no replacements available. My 1907 White Steamer has a feedwater heater, a part that bolts onto the cylinders. It's made of aluminum, and over the 100-plus years it's been in use, the metal has become so porous you can see steam and oil seeping through. I thought we could just weld it up. But it's badly impregnated with oil and can't be repaired. If we tried, the metal would just come apart. So, rather than have a machinist try to copy the heater and then build it, we decid...

ICON Aircraft is betting on a future where private recreational planes are as popular as powerboats and motorcycles. Its ICON A5 is a giant step toward that goal: A plane that “will handle like a sports car with the top down,” according to the Discovery Channel. To speed this beauty onto the runway for a major air show, they came to Stratasys Direct Manufacturing. We not only saved ICON time and money, our approach enabled complex features that other manufacturing methods could not. ICON Aircraft recently took flight with the unveiling of its ICON A5, a small, recreational plane that its founder, Kirk Hawkins, hopes will revolutionize a market already enamored with powerboats and motorbikes. He calls the two-seat ICON A5 “the ultimate recreational vehicle,” able to reach speeds up to 120 miles per hour. Speed was important when it came to creating some of the aircraft’s parts, too. The unveiling of the plane at the Experimental Aircraft Association Air Venture in Oshkosh...

Doctors at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute utilize 3D printing technology from Stratasys Direct Manufacturing to recreate accurate models of their patients’ hearts before performing surgery. As the physicians at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute (TCAI) can attest, the heart is an enormously complex organ; no two human hearts are exactly the same. In fact, because of the organ’s complexity, it is virtually impossible for even the most brilliant physician to diagnose a heart condition without extensive imaging of the patient’s heart. While CT scans, echocardiograms, and ultrasounds, among other technological advances, have made incredible progress for doctors in the field of cardiology, the study of heart conditions, there’s no comparison to being able to see an actual model of the human heart in question—one the physician can hold in his or her hands. Dr. Vikram Devaraj, director of solid materials research for the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Foundation h...