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  1. #11
    Thanks for all the new information - the more you write, the more I learn. I had never thought of "holes" in the part being scanned, because that part of the object couldn't be seen, an the need to take multiple scans, and combine them electronically. My first thought was "yikes!!".

    I'm going to try to get the people involved in this at the hospital to read both thread, printer and scanner, and then ask them what I could do next to help them. Before I posted here, I thought I was trying to find a list of requirements so I could find appropriate hardware to buy. Now it's gotten much more complicated, but in a good way. The more we understand this, the more likely it will be that we'll buy the appropriate equipment, and get the necessary training. I want them to have all this worked out in advance, before buying anything.

  2. #12
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    couple of things:
    1) you absolutely need to know what your budget is. Metal printers start at around the $50,000 mark.

    2) sla and fdm are probably not going to be much use to you, other than for 'rough' prototyping. For final use you'll most likely need a nylon powder based sls system - starting at around the $10,000 mark.
    A polyjet system might also be suitable as they tend to have more available materials.

    3) for small parts like the nozzle thing you posted the picture of - scanning is not the way to go. Simply design from scratch. Looking at that part, it would take about an hour for me to replicate with a set of digital calipers and my cad software. It would take much much longer to try and get an accurate scan and convert it into a model. And even then it would be nowhere near as accurate as the designed from scratch model.

    4) there is software that can convert mri/cat scans into printable 3d models. For things like eye sockets - that's currently your best option. Or as awerby suggests possibly use a soft silicon to make a mould.

    Industrial quality scanners start at around the $20,000 mark.
    For most 'things' it is quicker and more accurate to design from scratch.

    But you need to get a definite top end of your budget before you can even begin to start considering equipment.
    Last edited by curious aardvark; 02-24-2017 at 06:00 AM.

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
    .......4) there is software that can convert mri/cat scans into printable 3d models. For things like eye sockets - that's currently your best option. .......
    Again, a lot of useful advice. I really need the people back at the hospital in India to consider what you just written.

    Regarding the one sentence I quoted above, after doing a search, I found this:

    http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...-a-3D-printab/

    This may or may not solve my initial thought, 3D printing a prosthetic eye to fit a patient's eye socket, but even if we continued with a manual process as we do now, this would give us a realistic scale replica of the patient's eye socket, so the prosthetic eye can be worked on with less inconvenience to the patient. ....but it seems to me that once this scan was converted to data, we could potentially print an eye that would fit correctly into this socket.

    (This has nothing to do with the questions I'm involved in regarding scanning and printing, but it does show what is possible:
    https://www.fastcompany.com/3023276/...-a-3-d-printer
    .....which would make me think something like the Stratasys Mojo, or something similar, might be capable of this kind of result.)

  4. #14
    (To visualize what I'm working with, this YouTube video shows the structure into which the prosthetic eye will need to fit:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKEA4p5k66U
    I am not sure how much of this structure needs to be used to properly support a prosthetic eye. I will ask.)

  5. #15
    Staff Engineer Davo's Avatar
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    I guess I'm late to the game here. Please PM me if you'd like to talk about Hyrel capabilities, or see some of these short videos:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3onGdmW1c

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACoqtNbXE0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGriCCrfkuw

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwrhV74NjCQ

    -Davo

  6. #16
    Don't worry about being late to the party. This is still very early. We are looking into which printers seem appropriate, an trying to identify the types of parts we need to print. I've asked the team to take photos of the parts, and put a photo, a description, and the requirement, along with a sample part, into a plastic baggie, so the people we will be talking to will get a better feel for what we need.

    Two updates, first, the Stratasys Mojo only prints one type of material. We would like the capability of printing several types of material. If we go with Stratays, this means a more capable, and more expensive printer. Second, according to a sales rep at Stratasys, the "Mojo" printer is not able to use the materials that are safe for "internal body use". That seems to cross it off the list for what printer to buy.

    Nothing has been decided yet. Still trying to gather information on the parts that we want to be able to print. That needs to be agreed on before we seriously consider any printer. I'll update this thread as soon as I have the additional information.

  7. #17
    Staff Engineer Davo's Avatar
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    At Hyrel, we don't supply material, so you can use any material which performs as needed.

    For internal biomedical applications, we've printed with HA, PLGA, PCL, PEEK, and others.

    See also: http://hyrel3d.net/pdfs/UML-testimonial-2015.pdf

  8. #18
    I have a coworker that has a prosthetic eye. We are in the process of scanning his prosthetic eye to make a new one. What we are going to do is scan the eye with our scanner we put putty on the front of the part to the scanner table after coating the part with the polishing compound it will make it dull making it able to be scanned. Then flip it over and repeat. Take both the scans and merge them to make a complete model. Then we are going to machine it on one side. Next we are going to print a clam shell fixture to hold it for machining of the last side. It will be out of titanium. Last we will polish. We have Zeiss Comet L3D an use Cometplus 9.52 software with the scanner. We use Geomagic Design X and Geomagic Verify for post processing.
    Last edited by Printmaster; 03-02-2017 at 07:22 AM. Reason: Added info

  9. #19
    Staff Engineer
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    It sounds like you've got the right equipment and software to do a good job of this, Printmaster. If you'd like to share some pictures of the work in progress, I'm sure many of us would love to see them.

    Andrew Werby
    www.computersculpture.com

  10. #20
    I don't mind this is for a coworker so it is a low priority right now we are waiting on the eye doctor to give us the compound he uses to polish. I will say we will scan it hopefully this month.

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