Rapid Prototyping: Creating New Body Parts Without Controversial Hype
Today, scientists explore ways to reproduce new body parts through stem cells. This highly controversial method leaves many patients in limbo who could benefit from cloned parts, but it does not have to be that way. Rapid prototyping, which has advanced significantly in the last twenty years, has just as many benefits without the controversial hype.
What Rapid Prototyping Can Do for the Medical World
It used to be that when you wanted a custom-made prototype of a new surgical tool, you had to wait months, maybe a year, to get a single product model. Now, with CAD software, a computer and a 3D printer, you can have that surgical tool prototype in under a month, sometimes less. Given that a 3D printer can create all of the parts of an electric car, and once assembled, the car is completely functional, there is virtually nothing this technology can make to assist patients short of the human brain.
Here are some examples of medical items produced by a 3D printer:
- Skin grafts
- Artificial limbs and stump covers
- Multiple prototypes of artificial heart valves
Additional body parts, from artificial bones to blood vessels, are currently under research and development for future use. Surgical tools are the easiest prototypes to produce because they do not require flexibility, whereas many body parts and internal organs need to expand and contract, making them a little more difficult to produce in a 3D printer.
What It Means for Stem Cell Research
In some cases, companies are combining stem cell research with 3D printing to produce bio-technology. The implications of combining the two technologies using just adult stem cells means that much-needed body parts for patients can be more flexible and available, but without the controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cell cloning. Other companies remain staunchly against combining stem cell research with their rapid prototyping technology, and instead focus on finding ways around that controversy to produce body parts. It appears that the jury is still out on whether or not stem cell research will have competition or collaboration in this area of medical science.
What You Can Request of a Rapid Prototyping Company
Essentially, if you can create a basic drawing and description of a replacement body part that does not require a stretchability factor, a 3D printer can create it. You do not have to concern yourself with the engineering side of things, since engineers are on board to sort these difficulties out when you request the prototype. The prototype production is costly, so you will have to have the funding to back its creation, but you will be able to see, examine, and potentially test the product before you patent it and send it to production for more.
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