Injection Moulding Asia 3D Printing
Bioprinting: Body parts on demand Though riddled with structural and ethical
The global 3D printing market is expected to be worth nearly US$3 billion by 2022, expanding challenges, organ fabrication through 3D across the medical/healthcare sector with a range of applications in medical implants, tissue engineering, bioprinting may be the holy grail to mitigating surgical devices, drug manufacturing, and others, organ shortages, promoting the quality of life, according to IQ4I Research & Consultancy in its forecast. and ultimately saving lives, says Angelica In Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, the investment Buan in this report. into 3D printing is likely to reach over US$4 billion by 2019, which is thrice as much as the current US$1.5 billion, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The market accounts for a bigger rgan transplantation is challenging in terms of share of hardware spending in the international 3D supply and ethical contentions, to say the least. printing market. Conversely, more 3D printers are Demand exceeds supply to the point that organ being used in North and South America than in Asia, distribution results in practices crossing beyond what it added. is legally and ethically acceptable. Organ trafficking Some of the major companies included in 3D has become rampant due printing healthcare market to organ shortage vis-à-vis are 3D Systems, Arcam AB, “...the market is expected to be EnvisionTEC, EOS, ExOne, recipients, as the waiting list of recipients grows by the day. worth nearly US$3 billion by Materialise NV, Optomec, Crushing the so-called Organovo, Reinshaw, 2022…” black market for organs, Nano3D, SLM Solutions particularly for kidneys, is and Stratasys. as galling as eradicating the poverty problem, a major condition that has forced Reducing the cost of the technology some people to sell their organs. The World Health There is no doubt that cost of the technology is an Organisation (WHO) has found this to be rampant in impediment, but an extensive choice of viable 3D Southeast Asia, which is the leading organ exporter printers is available where 3D Systems and Stratasys and has become known as a hub for organ tourism. play a major role. Meanwhile, newer, smaller and more userBioprinting: a saviour? friendly machines are being introduced, such as The advent of 3D bioprinting is expected to allow the Aether 1, which US-based Aether describes as access to replacement for body parts and organs faster, a bioprinter with eight syringe extruders, twice with lesser complications and in the longer term, be more than a normal bioprinter, plus laser-assisted more cost effective. Although in its nascent stage, 3D bioprinting and droplet jetting capabilities.Though bioprinting has already reported successes in prosthetic not released yet, it is expected to retail at US$9,000, parts, though it’s current use is for preparation of which is said to be a steal considering that high-end anatomical models and medical equipment. bioprinters retail at around US$250,000. An offshoot of 3D printing or additive Another US manufacturing (AM), the technology is much more company BioBots complex. A paper on bioprinting by the Pennsylvania has created a State University describes it as a “computer-aided compact printer biofabrication of 3D organs that utilises rapid retailing at prototyping technology to print cells, biomaterials and US$10,000. In cell-laden biomaterials individually or in pairs, layerBioBot1, unlike by-layer, directly creating 3D tissue-like structures.” other 3D printers, Bioprinting “is an extension of tissue engineering”, according to the paper’s authors, Ibrahim Ozbolat and Yin Yu, adding that, “it uses bioadditive BioBots’ printer uses manufacturing technologies including laser-based UV light to cure and writing, inkjet-based printing and extrusion-based harden the layer deposition.” structures
O
1 M A R C H / A P R I L 2 016
www.injectionmouldingasia.com