Medical

Additive Manufacturing in Medical Sector

From the concept phase through to short-term patient-contact parts and devices, 3D printing enables faster innovation, smarter designs, and better solutions for patients.

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Additive Manufacturing in Medical Sector

Challenges

What does the medical industry demand – and what is our solution

Biocompatibility

3D-printed components offer significant advantages for the medical industry, primarily because they can be manufactured from materials certified for biocompatibility. This ensures they are safe for contact with the human body – plastic parts are suitable for contact with mucous membranes, bone, or skin for up to 24 hours, and with intact skin for more than 30 days. Biocompatible materials are carefully tested to ensure they do not cause harmful reactions such as cytotoxicity, irritation, or allergic responses, in accordance with international standards. This capability enables 3D printing to support a wide range of medical applications, including surgical guides, prosthetics, implants, and anatomical models.

Thermo-Mechanical Durability

Additively manufactured medical components exhibit exceptional thermo-mechanical durability, ensuring they maintain their structural integrity, chemical stability, and functional performance under mechanical loads and elevated temperatures. This quality depends on the choice of material, the manufacturing process, and post-processing techniques, which together improve strength, layer adhesion, and resistance to deformation, wear, and thermal stress. Components with high thermo-mechanical durability retain their shape, strength, and functionality even in demanding clinical environments, making them ideal for both end-use devices and rapid prototyping applications.

Customization / Personalization

3D printing plays an important role in the medical field by enabling a high degree of customization for components, tools, and supporting parts. Unlike conventional manufacturing methods, which often rely on standardized designs and mass production, 3D printing allows each part to be produced based on specific needs, dimensions, or functional requirements. A key advantage of 3D printing is the ability to tailor components to individual users or specific medical applications. This includes custom housings for medical devices, patient-specific anatomical models for training or planning, specialized surgical guides, and ergonomic tools for medical personnel. These individualized components can be easily adapted in digital design software and produced without the need for new molds or tooling. 3D printing also supports rapid prototyping and iterative refinement. Medical manufacturers and developers can quickly test and optimize designs, making it easier to improve functionality, comfort, or usability. Minor design changes can be implemented efficiently, which is particularly valuable when components are produced in small quantities or for highly specialized applications.

Anatomical Models

A significant development in medical model making is the Stratasys® J850™ Digital Anatomy™ 3D printer, which enables researchers, medical device manufacturers, and healthcare providers to produce highly functional and precise models of human anatomy for a wide range of applications. This printer creates 3D models that faithfully replicate the appearance, feel, and behavior of human tissue, bone, and vessels, using state-of-the-art materials and software. The J850™ Digital Anatomy™'s ability to produce 3D models that are exceptionally similar to human tissue, bone, and vessels in terms of appearance, feel, and functionality is unmatched. Specialty Ssuch as GelMatrix, TissueMatrix, RadioMatrix™, and BoneMatrix – which in combination can produce hundreds of unique digital materials – are used to achieve this level of realism. The J850™ Digital Anatomy™ features advanced design tools that allow you to choose from more than 500,000 colors when full color capabilities are required, to define transparencies, and to specify textures and surface finishes.

Properties

TissueMatrix: Tensile Strength: approx. 0.7–0.9 MPa
BoneMatrix: Tensile Strength: approx. 29–30 MPa
RadioMatrix: Flexural Strength: 75–110 MPa
GelMatrix: Maximum Quantity: 2 kg (avoid overflow of the bath)

Use cases

Vascular systems: arteries, veins, and complex bifurcating structures with variable wall thickness and compliance, to replicate healthy versus diseased vessels
Heart: detailed hearts including myocardial layers, valve leaflets, etc.
Parenchymal organs: liver, kidney, lung, and other soft tissue organs with adjustable softness

Surgical Guides & End-Use Parts with Biocompatibility

Stratasys® Somos® BioClear™ is a high‑performance transparent resin designed for medical 3D printing where safety, reliability, and clear visibility matter most. It is ideal for surgical guides and end‑use parts that come into contact with the body for a limited time, such as dental guides, cutting jigs, and positioning tools. Patients and clinicians benefit from its glass‑like clarity, which helps surgeons see underlying anatomy, drilling channels, and screw paths more easily during procedures.

Parts printed with Somos® BioClear™ are strong, tough, and dimensionally stable, so they can withstand drilling, screwing, and handling in the operating room or clinical environment without brittle failure. The material delivers the precision needed for patient‑specific instruments.

For safety‑critical medical applications, biocompatibility is essential. Somos® BioClear™ is tested according to relevant ISO 10993 standards (including cytotoxicity, irritation, and sensitization) and USP Class VI when processed according to the validated guidelines, making it suitable for limited‑duration contact with skin and mucosal tissue.

Properties

Tensile Strength at Break: approx. 50 MPa
Elongation at Break: approx. 15%
Flexural Strength: approx. 69 MPa
Flexural Modulus: approx. 2,200 MPa

Use cases

Guides for soft tissue procedures
Orthopedic / trauma guides
Neurosurgical guides

Large End-Use Parts with Biocompatibility

ULTEM™ 1010 resin is a high-performance Polyetherimide (PEI) thermoplastic and a robust 3D printing material. It offers exceptional heat resistance and the lowest coefficient of thermal expansion among FDM materials, ensuring dimensional stability even under extreme thermal conditions. Combined with its outstanding mechanical strength and chemical resistance, ULTEM™ 1010 is the strongest available FDM material, making it ideal for the medical sector.

For applications requiring strict regulatory compliance, ULTEM™ 1010 CG (certified grade) provides additional documentation for adherence to industry standards, including ISO 10993 and USP Class VI biocompatibility as well as NSF 51 food safety certification. This makes it particularly well-suited for the production of large end-use parts in the medical field, such as custom surgical tools, medical device housings, diagnostic equipment components, and other critical healthcare parts. The combination of high strength, heat resistance, chemical stability, and certified biocompatibility enables manufacturers to produce robust, high-performance components that withstand repeated sterilization processes and demanding operating conditions while simultaneously meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

Properties

Tensile Strength at Break: 79.2 MPa (XZ orientation), 28.2 MPa (ZX orientation)
Elongation at Break: 4.0% (XZ orientation), 1.1% (ZX orientation)
Elastic Modulus: 3.04 GPa (XZ orientation), 3.00 GPa (ZX orientation)
Flexural Strength at Break: No break observed (XZ orientation), 81.6 MPa (ZX orientation)

Use cases

Custom surgical tools
Diagnostic equipment components
Housings for respiratory and ventilation systems: ducts, manifolds, and mask components that repeatedly come into contact with mucous membranes or skin, utilizing the material's biocompatibility