with 3D printing

Partnering with 3D printing helps prosthetics developer create better products, gain workflow efficiencies, meet increasing demand, and shift to titanium 3D printing, all within in 6 months.

Point Designs is an innovator in the field of partial hand prosthetic design and provides artificial digit solutions through a combination of additive manufacturing (AM), mechanical design, and clinical care. Founded by researchers out of the Biomechatronics Development Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Point Designs needed manufacturing support when demand for its products outpaced in-house capacity.

With early access to lab resources at the University of Colorado, the company’s developers created its Point Digit solution with 3D printing in mind from the beginning.

The development team took advantage of the benefits of design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) by creating organic shapes, semi-hollow structures, and assemblies in situ. These types of features are uniquely enabled by AM and are a compelling reason for many to use the technology, enabling parts to be designed specifically for their intended function, at reduced weight, and with reduced assembly. However, achieving a successful 3D print can be tricky, especially when the final product entails detailed mechanisms that require strict tolerances. According to Point Designs CEO Levin Sliker, working with 3D Systems helped his team improve its designs to be optimized for the printing process.

The company’s team selected 3D Systems as its production partner to help solve its supply issue and advance its product development process. Through close collaboration with 3D Systems’ experts, the company changed from steel to titanium material in just six months, gaining workflow efficiencies and valuable knowledge to advance its portfolio.

3D printing offers the ability to develop custom partial hand prosthetics.

One key AM-enabled feature that Point Designs uses is a live hinge, which is printed as an assembly in situ and allows rotation for more natural movement. Sliker says the ability to print this assembly in place is an incredible benefit because the hinge components are not only small, but they are internal components. “To assemble them any other way would be difficult, if not impossible,” says Sliker. “Not only would it be time-consuming, but you’d have to keep track of some really tiny parts. Printing everything in place with a live hinge really simplifies our assembly and manufacturing.”

Despite the short timeline to product launch, the development team had some design-related challenges to overcome when it started its work with 3D Systems, in particular when it came to part orientation. They had selected a build orientation to accommodate the critical dimensions and tight tolerances of its final parts. However, this orientation was not optimized for scaled production. Together, the 3D Systems team and the development team worked together to devise a new print strategy that would enable substantially more parts to be printed in a single build while taking downstream processes into account. To avoid support scarring on critical surfaces, the two companies worked together to come up with support structures that would be easy to remove, as well as post-processing techniques to deliver the desired finish on those surfaces.

Shifting to premium titanium material

When the development team was searching for a manufacturing partner, its primary concern was capacity. By selecting 3D Systems, Sliker says it gained titanium as a bonus. But Point Designs is not the only one benefitting. Jeff Soelberg is an end-user of the Point Digit solution and has worn both the steel and titanium versions. With a 30% reduction in weight enabled by the new material, the difference was instantly noticeable. When wearing the steel device, Soelberg said it felt as if he was carrying around a small weight: “The switch to titanium feels so much lighter and much more natural,” he shared.

Designs

Beyond weight reduction, the material and design of these devices have earned a plethora of positive feedback from end-users because they offer strength, durability, and easy washing. Recipients can take them into any environment they would take their regular fingers. Soelberg said that with practice, he is back to doing 95% of the activities he pursued prior to his accident.

In switching materials, 3D Systems helped the development team navigate titanium-specific challenges, sharing know-how that will translate to future projects. Primary among these was assistance in designing to accommodate titanium’s shrink factor.

“By working with the 3D Systems team we’ve definitely improved our design process for existing and future products, so that the next product will be easier to implement and quicker to achieve a frozen design file ready for mass production,” said Sliker.

The titanium Point Digit 2.0 solution is printed using 3D Systems’ direct metal printing (DMP) technology and LaserForm Ti Gr23 (A) material, which features best-inclass oxygen levels (<25 ppm) and an inert printing atmosphere, ensuring exceptionally strong and accurate parts with high chemical purity and repeatability. By using the same digital data package per part, the printing machines enable scalability of production by delivering the same outcome across all DMP machines with no global off-sets.

Reduced assembly

The two companies collaborated on four products, each comprised of multiple 3D printed components and available in multiple sizes for a total of 17 SKUs and 107 unique components. Once the development team receives the printed parts from 3D Systems, they are assembled using a combination of off-the-shelf and custom components. Following assembly, the development team delivers its products to a prosthetist, who creates a custom prosthetic socket for each recipient.

“The fact that 3D Systems’ Application Innovation Group could support us through printing using its own technology was really enabling for us,” says Sliker. “The familiarity they have with the capabilities of their machines proved allowed this partnership to flourish.”

In terms of solving its supply issue, Griffin Drye, business development specialist at Point Designs, says that since working with 3D Systems, the companies have established a reliable production cadence and Point Designs hasn’t experienced any back-ordered products since, which is a meaningful and welcomed achievement. This has been possible through the close and open communication between the two companies, allowing each to have visibility into the other’s timelines for accurate forecasting and planning. Following the successful launch of Point Digit 2.0, a Class I medical device, Point Designs is now pursuing numerous other prosthetic offerings which will leverage 3D Systems’ expertise.

The final results

The use of 3D printing has resulted in:

• 30% weight reduction for a better end-user experience

• greater DfAM know-how based on the guidance of AM experts

• product lauch in six months due to 3D printing

• elimination of back-orders thanks to an effective production schedule.

3D Systems www.3dsystems.com