Material supplier Henkel collaborated with Nex3D, a 3D printer manufacturer based on stereolithography technology, to launch a polypropylene material suitable for 3D printing biocompatible medical and wearable devices. Henkel stated that the commercial xMED412 is made entirely of Loctite MED412 and includes all relevant permits, tests and certifications.
This medical grade plastic is described as a strong and durable photopolymer whose mechanical properties are similar to polypropylene in terms of elongation, impact strength and compressive strength. The xMED412 parts printed on Nexa3D's NXE400 need to be post-processed and cleaned in accordance with the company's recommendations, and can be machined, tapped or polished to achieve the desired production surface effect.
Ken Kisner, head of Henkel's 3D printing innovation department, said that the two companies have developed and tested several approved workflows on the NXE400 3D printer to fully exploit the potential of xMED412's physical properties and biocompatibility. "Nexa3D and Henkel provide digital manufacturing solutions for more and more medical devices, sports wearables and personalized audio products. Especially for the current COVID-19 epidemic, we are very happy to use xMED412 on NXE400 Manufacture of nasopharyngeal swabs. The swabs produced have passed clinical trials and meet ISO 10993 testing and FDA Class I exemption classification," Kisner said.
Nexa3D, headquartered in California, joined Henkel's materials partner open platform in April 2020. Nexa3D chief operating officer Izhar Medalsy said that the common goal of the two companies is to develop a series of co-branded high-performance photopolymer product portfolios that can benefit from Nexa3D's leading printing speed, mass production and intelligent resin management technology. In the United States, Nexa3D said it was able to quickly identify and expand the production capacity of a single printer so that it could produce 5,400 nasopharyngeal swabs per day. The company is also printing ventilator parts and other medical equipment parts, including venturi tubes and connectors, at productivity and scale.
Henkel said that in order to promote the miniaturization of biocompatible medical and wearable devices, design engineers are incorporating new materials into the device design to increase the flexibility of the product life cycle. Key components in medical equipment usually need to bend and flex to be used on or near the patient's body, and components printed on NXE400 with xMED412 can achieve these performance levels.