American material company FibreTuff recently announced the opening of a new plant to meet the needs of its own research and development of PAPC 3D printed wire. PAPC is a medical grade 3D printed wire. It is a composite material made of polyamide (PA), polyolefin and cellulose. The material can be used to manufacture Class I and II medical devices such as prosthetic parts and orthotics Rehabilitation aids and can make some orthopedic implants.
Manufacturing implants with conformal sensors or potential applications
FibreTuff developed PAPC 3D printed wires in 2017. In addition to 3D printed wires, FibreTuff also developed 3D printed powder materials and PAPC materials for injection molding. In addition to manufacturing Class I and II medical devices, these materials can also be used to make Class III medical devices such as orthopedic implants such as bone screws, bone plates, spinal cages, and spacers.
Prior to PAPC, common non-degradable polymer materials for making orthopedic implants were polyaryletherketone materials such as PEEK.
PAPC materials have the following characteristics:
Devices made of PAPC materials can be medically examined by X-rays because the material is radiopaque.
According to FibreTuff, the melting point of PAPC materials is lower than PEEK, so the price of fused deposition forming 3D printing equipment that can be used for PAPC 3D printing is generally lower than that of equipment that prints PEEK materials. The three types of PAPC materials currently introduced require 3D printing. The temperature is 230 degrees Celsius-260 degrees Celsius.
A report by Plastics Technology shows that an important feature of PAPC materials is easier adhesion to coating materials, which means that one potential application of PAPC materials is to load drugs on their surface and then implant them into the body to release the drug slowly, or in Its surface produces conformal electronic components.
Based on this feature, nScrypt, an American company engaged in structural electronic and biological 3D printing, has tried to manufacture electronic structural parts.
nScrypt manufactured a conformal strain gauge on the surface of a 3D printed cylindrical part made of FibreTuff's PAPC material.
The same technology can be applied to 3D printed PAPC parts or implants with sensors. If this technology is used to manufacture medical devices, it can monitor certain human health conditions.
The main reason for FibreTuff's recent expansion of production capacity is that existing medical device OEMs have started to use their PAPC materials to make medical devices.