A New 3D Bone Printer

Bone grafts are a painful, often risky method for repairing complex fractures or bones that have been damaged by disease. Recently, a lot of research has gone into making the procedure easier and safer through 3D printing. Montana State University, along with Bacterin, a subsidiary of Xtant Medical Holdings, have developed a 3D printer specifically for printing bone. Details have not been released, but the printer has the potential to have a lot of impact on bone grafting. Read more at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/109167/bacterin-montana-state/
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...Fix_8a_540.jpg

I was wondering if anyone could provide guidance on the best 3 d appliances/ technique for recreating bony structures for a non medical application, such as copying an elephant or mastodon tusk out of hydroxyapatite, but not as a biologic substrate or scaffolding for incorporation into a living organism, but for historical preservation. Could an elephant or mastodon tusk be recreated out of dense hydroxyapatite through 3d printing or is this impractical and ceramic reproduction would be better?

Or you could print it with ceramics.

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Originally Posted by Davo

Or you could print it with ceramics.

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At first I thought you meant for bone grafts so Mr Glass crossed my mind:
https://youtu.be/6vdT0GbN3DM
:cool:

thanks for ideas. I see that a corporation called Pembient is working on this very project using 3 d printers