In the past, there were not many options for patients with a variety of conditions, i.e., there were established methods for treating them, and most of them were not perfectly aligned with the needs of many people.
It is important to remember that, although many people have the same condition, most of them do not share the same living conditions, so it cannot be expected that everyone has to receive the same treatment for each case.
This problem was constantly observed, so the manufacturers of medical devices decided to take matters into their own hands, and began to incorporate new forms of manufacturing to their list of options, while physicians began to take into account the situations of their patients in a particular way.
What was the impact on medical devices manufacturing?
First of all, it could be determined that each diagnosis was unique, so it would need a customized solution to alleviate and cure the patient’s condition. Then, the manufacturers’ duty was to take all that information and turn it into a real, but, above all, functional part.
As a consequence, procedures such as modeling were considered in order to be able to capture the essence of the medical devices requested, and to be able to attend the patient who required such equipment in a timely manner.
And so it worked for a long time, however, the industry was evolving again and with it the process of creating parts. Thus came rapid prototyping, 3D printing, CNC Machining, among other processes that are considered quite modern today.
So, what these processes achieved was the following:
Adapt to the correct measurement
As we mentioned, previously all medical devices complied with a standard of measures, which did not work correctly for everyone, which is why the advent of procedures linked to rapid prototyping considerably improved the use of these.
It was possible to create the exact parts, with the ideal size and shape for each patient, and this improved when a low-volume type of manufacturing was included.
Creating parts with accuracy
Not only is it enough to comply with the measurements of the part of the piece that will be in contact with the patient, but also the internal mechanism must be very well created, without having to fail in any measurement, as it would compromise the functioning of the whole piece.
An example of this lies in the creation of parts that will replace some part of the body or some internal component, since in this case a manufacturing defect could be fatal.
Rapid prototyping
There are some patients who need some medical devices, not only to improve their quality of life, but rather to save it. This means that they do not have a lot of time to wait for a device or a part that takes a long time to be manufactured to their needs.
In this case, rapid prototyping makes it possible to create such a part in a short time, and also to analyze it quickly, to prevent it from failing or having a defect.
Post time: Oct-12-2022