Prima Power Laserdyne has relocated and expanded its manufacturing and operations center, moving to a new facility in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota that includes all manufacturing, research, office, customer demonstration, service, and user training space. Laserdyne machines and Prima Additive DED additive machines will be manufactured in the new facility.

Giovanni Zunino, president of Prima Power Laserdyne, says, “Prima Power Laserdyne continues to bring new technology into the global aerospace and the precision laser processing markets. With the continued growth of 3D laser processing, Prima Industrie, our parent company, is investing in Prima Power Laserdyne and the North American operations. It is crucial we maintain our worldwide market leadership in these sectors. An important component is having a facility customized to fully support the domestic and international needs for 3D laser processing and DED additive technology.” 

Dr. Aaron Montello, operations senior manager, says, “The enlarged manufacturing space will provide the operations team with the capacity needed to meet increasing demand while also improving operational efficiency. Prima Power Laserdyne is a technology leader and key supplier in the precision 3D laser processing market. Now, including the addition of DED additive manufacturing machine production, we have the space required to support our customers with an even wider range of laser processing solutions.”

The new facility will have dedicated customer service, machine demonstration, and training areas.

Mark Barry, vice president of sales and marketing, says, “Whether the process requires welding, drilling, cutting, or DED additive manufacturing, companies worldwide have depended on our expertise and advanced material knowledge to develop and put into practice a laser solution that helps them be more successful in their business. As Prima Power Laserdyne continues to develop new equipment and laser solutions, it is essential we have sufficient space to demonstrate and train our customers on the best laser processing techniques and solutions for their processes.”

The facility opened March 1, 2020, at 7105 Northland Terrace North, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota 55428, USA.

This weekend Daylight Savings time begins - so spring those clocks ahead 1 hour! However, before losing that hour of sleep, here's a little medical additive manufacturing (AM) insight for you in a weekend guest blog. Happy reading and happy times with some extra daylight headed our way.

Medical additive manufacturing/3DP

Since the installation of one of the first two commercially installed SLA 1 machines at Baxter Healthcare in 1988, medical applications have been a leader in applying additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing (3DP). From prototyping for new devices to producing final-use products, manufacturers have found new ways to improve healthcare with AM/3DP.

More than 25 years ago, anatomical models began to be used for planning of complex surgical procedures. In 2000, hearing aid cases were being 3D-printed and within a few years became industry standard. Today, orthopedic implant manufacturers and tissue engineers are making use of the ability to create complex structures to create in-bone growth surfaces on devices and scaffolds to regenerate tissue.

The ability to manufacture from the patient’s data (medical imaging or surface scan) has been compelling to a community always looking for ways to innovate. With improving patient care as the primary goal, 3D printing has directly impacted more than 1 million patients. The estimate increases to more than 2 million if indirect uses such as patterns for clear dental aligners are added. Supported by continually improving machines, materials, and software, new users and applications are being found regularly.

How 3D printing impacts patient care can be summarized by the following areas:

Development & prototypes: Using AM as a prototyping tool to accelerate development has been used by medical manufacturers for about 30 years. One of the first commercial installations of a machine was at Baxter Healthcare in 1988. Today, this lightweight surgical tool concept for tracking hip implant alignment during surgery, took advantage of AM design capabilities including assembly consolidation, topology and surface texture optimization, and ergonomic design features.

• Prosthetics & assistive devices: Using surface scanning, patient-matched prosthetics and assistive devices can be made directly or indirectly AM serves as molding pattern to better, fit, mirror, or address unique needs of a patient. One example is this set of custom orthotics that are barely visible inside an ordinary pair of shoes, and successfully stabilized the walking of a young boy with cerebral palsy.
• Dental: With the advancement of digital imaging and materials, AM/3DP has become a better way to produce many dental devices that are patient-matched. Accurate bite splints and night guards can be made using the E-Guard material.
• Surgical planning: Using medical imaging data, anatomical models can be used as surgical planning tools. Having a physical model often provides a surgeon with a unique perspective of how best to complete the surgery before going into the operating room. Both models and sterilized implants can be accompanied by surgical cutting guides. This example shows both a patient’s model and the surgeon’s cutting guide for an osteotomy to replace the jawbone.
• AM-enabled tissue fabrication: 3D printing technologies can be used to print biological materials (bioprinting) or structures like scaffolds that can be used to regenerate tissues. This scaffold (closeup image) is made of Hyperelastic Bone and is intended for off-the-shelf, generic bone void filler use. It can provide a scaffold on which the bone can grow.

© ASME 

Keep up with the latest developments and advances in Medical Additive Manufacturing by downloading the Medical Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing Year in Review. Covering January 1, 2018 through March 31, 2019, learn how dedicated professionals are transforming healthcare, improving the patient experience and saving lives.

See these trends and case studies presented at AM Medical, an immersive event experience being held this May 27-28 in Minneapolis, MN.

Iniram Precision Machine Tool is Index’s distributor of record for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Western Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. The move reflects Index’s ongoing strategy of partnering with distributors who can offer standard-setting service and support to help meet the needs of a rapidly expanding customer base.

“Index has achieved substantial sales growth over the past three years and we are firmly committed to offering excellent support to our new customers,” says Tom Clark, president and CEO of Index. “In addition to adding internal service and engineering staff to grow our North American team by over 70%, we are also ensuring that our network of distributors is able to offer local support to customers. Iniram has a strong presence in the Northeast, with technical personnel who can provide fast and high quality service to manufacturers. We are pleased to establish this relationship with their team.”

Iniram is headquartered in Middleton, Massachusetts, where it maintains a technical center to demonstrate machine technologies and host customer meetings. The company specializes in selling and supporting technically advanced European machine tools and machine tool automation, and is completely dedicated to optimizing its customers’ productivity and cost performance.

“When we look at the type of company we want to represent, we want to be sure they offer a level of technology that provides a tangible performance advantage,” says Lucien Marini, founder and CEO of Iniram. “Index fits this bill with its portfolio of machines for completely machining parts in a single setup, as quickly as possible. We’re excited to be able to offer their products to our customers.”

A select number of state and local laboratories have permission from U.S. health officials to use diagnostic tests for COVID-19, a coronavirus-caused disease. And, as the virus is spreading nationwide, most communities don’t have access to the necessary tests.

Purdue University biomedical engineers developed a handheld paper device that quickly and accurately detects a different strain of coronavirus, MERS-CoV, even in really small quantities, with clear test result read directly from the device.

Because the device isn’t specific to any virus, the same platform could be used to detect the COVID-19 strain. However, developing a process to manufacture it would cost at least a couple of million dollars.

“Paper-based devices are already manufactured – pregnancy tests are paper-based. Because this device has a more complex shape, a process hasn’t been developed to make it available on a commercial scale. However, many processes in electronics and paper manufacturing could be translated to scaling up this device,” says Jacqueline Linnes, Purdue’s Marta E. Gross assistant professor of biomedical engineering.

Linnes specializes in building portable diagnostic tools to rapidly detect a range of infectious diseases. Devices are made out of inexpensive, robust paper-like materials, such as glass fiber and cellulose, and have been demonstrated to detect HIV and cholera. A sample is positive by looking for a second line to appear next to a control line on the device’s paper strip.

Linnes’ team has just been able to produce these devices at the lab scale, which calls for cutting out the paper components by hand.

“The most difficult aspect of producing this device is definitely the assembly,” says K. Byers, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at Purdue.

These challenges may easily be overcome with existing manufacturing techniques, the researchers say.

The paper device could be produced using the same roll-to-roll manufacturing tools that make pregnancy tests and a pick-n-place process, which is already used to build electronics.

The device format wouldn’t need to change in order to detect other diseases. As the device scales up, however, it would also need to be more sensitive to detect a lower concentration of a virus for clinical relevance.

“This paper device isn’t dependent on a particular virus or sequence. To detect COVID-19, we would just need an assay design specific to that sequence, which could come from a nasal or throat swap sample. Just like with MERS-CoV, a user could load the assay with liquid into the paper platform, fold the device and let it run,” Linnes says.

Folding the device automatically completes a multistep process needed for detecting a virus. When the device folds over, a liquid wash and chemical substances called reagents push the assay up a paper strip to make an easily visible detection line.

Users can check the strip within 40 minutes to see if the sample tested positive.

Because the reagents are already dried onto the device, a hospital worker who might need to test someone outside of a facility wouldn’t have to carry around reagent vials. The worker would simply need a couple of test tubes to prepare the assay.

A patent application has been filed for this technology, 2017-LINN-67688, through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. The technology is available for license.

Linnes’ team collaborated with CrossLife Technologies to design the assay for MERS-CoV.

A research paper on the device recently published in the journal ACS Omega.