Due the number of requests we have had recently, we are now going to be offering Objet MED610 material. This Bio-Compatible transparent material is rigid and features great dimensional stability and colorless transparency. We now have the capability to print with this clear, bio-compatible material offering builds in high quality 16 micron layers.

MED610 is ideal for applications requiring prolonged skin contact of over 30 days and short term mucosal-membrane contact of up to 24 hours. The material therefore is useful for a range of medical and dental applications, such as custom surgical guides and hearing aids.

This material has 5 medical approvals including Cytotoxicity, Genotoxicity, Delayed Type Hypersensitivity, Irritation and USP Plastic Class VI. It is manufactured under the ISO 13485:2003 certification, which specifies that every batch of the raw material undergoes biocompatibility conformity testing; including GC-FID before it is sent to us ensuring the highest biocompatible standards for medical and dental application requirements.

 DISCLAIMER: It is the responsibility of the Customer and its respective customers and end-users to determine the biocompatibility of all the component parts and materials used in itsfinished products for their respective purposes, including in relation to prolonged skin contact (of more than 30 days) and short-term mucosal-membrane contact (up to 24 hours). GROWit will ship a certification of conformance; including all procedures taken to process parts made of MED610, but cannot be held accountable for final product bio-compatibility or improper uses.

OBJET MED610 Spec Sheet

To request your MED610 quote today, Click Here

By: Brad S. – Project Manager

If you are anything like me you were left with a little frustration last week not knowing how the project turned out. Well, read on and decide for yourself…

Recap: Our customer had the front end of a go-kart continually break, requiring other owners of the go-kart like himself to purchase an entire new front end. Our customer wanted to fix that problem and produce a solution that was more reliable than the O.E.M product.  We 3D scanned the front end to design a fix to their problem. That was the easy part. Next, we taxed ourselves with the challenge of improving the O.E.M. design. With a little CAD magic from our team we came up with two new designs (in addition to minor modifications of the original concept).

The Result: We created fenders with incorporated headlights (left below) and a F1 styled front end (right below). Our customer does not need to sell entirely different front-ends either because the style options are easily interchangeable depending on personal preference and just require unbolting the end pieces!

What’s Next?: Now that the data for these parts is in our system, we have the ability to quickly scan and design other parts to coincide with any these existing parts, making the opportunities to manipulate or change the style of this front end limitless.

Conclusion: We could have made the simple fix to the front-end that the client requested and they probably would have been very pleased. However, we are always looking at how we can improve designs. With 3D scanning and additive technologies we are able to improve the product development life cycle. The client now has a much more stylish and not to mention more durable front end with interchangeable options. It is important to not just create products, but to add value.

One last thing: In case you were wondering how we actually fixed the broken part, you can see the before and after images below. The image on the left shows the broken part and the image on the right shows the designed fix for it.  Quick, simple and very cost effective.

As we can see from companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google the aftermarket is constantly changing due to improvements in technology. 3D design and Additive Manufacturing are technologies that are predicted (and have already begun) to significantly impact aftermarket industries for a number of reasons. For one, it can eliminate the costly and time-consuming process of production assembly lines by producing fully assembled parts directly from 3D CAD models. Creating 3D printed tooling can also speed up the production process, duplicating production outcomes for limited runs. Additive technologies give designers the freedom to create with fewer limitations than they had when using traditional manufacturing processes. 3D design changes can be employed with complete flexibility, resulting in no wasted inventory, nor the typical wait times associated with costly tool changes.

For groups like SEMA, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, who has an enormous impact on the automotive aftermarket industry, this technology is groundbreaking! If you haven’t heard of their Technology Transfer program, you should make a point to check it out. The program aims to eliminate the necessity of acquiring O.E.M parts and capturing the data for reverse engineering. It gives members access to an entire library of O.E.M CAD files of car parts that they can use for the product development process. This is a HUGE tool for anyone in the car manufacturing business because it will cut lead times and costly processes tremendously, a big advantage in this economy! To think that anyone could have all 3D data would be a tremendous feat, thus GROWit’s reverse engineering services help fill the gap to jumpstart product development cycles.

Redesigning a Go-Cart Front End (Part 1)

By showcasing a recent project of redesigning the front end of an electric go-kart (MiniMoto) we will demonstrate how Additive Manufacturing technologies, along with engineering, scanning, and RTV casting and molding, allows us to provide customers with exactly what their projects require.

The Problem: Our customer reported that the front ends of these go-karts have a small bracket that commonly breaks and requires owners to purchase an entire new front end (not exactly an efficient design).

The Solution:  The original front end was removed and prepped for 3D scanning. Using the Konica Minolta Vivid 9i, we digitized the original part and then formed useable CAD data in Rapidform XOR3. We typically scan parts a few times from different angles to collect all of the required geometries. After attaining the multiple scans we are able to connect all of those scans three dimensionally to view the scanned objet as one solid CAD model. From that point we can make modifications or add geometry as needed to accurately replicate the original part.

Problem solved, our work is done, right?

The Enhancement: While in the process of fixing it, our CAD design team came up with the idea to not only fix the go-cart, but also create a modular design that would allow easy customization with little work from the consumer. With the permission of our client we decided on two new design variants that we thought would be very marketable to the consumer, a F1 styled front end and fenders with incorporated headlights. The F1 Styled front end was fully designed by our team using SolidWorks and the fenders with incorporated headlights data was gathered by scanning the front end of a mini bike (see below left).

Using the new CAD data, we created modular interfacing features for both the F1 style wings and the headlight equipped fenders. By designing and modeling alternate parts to fit the scanned part in CAD you can be assured that the parts will fit together properly after they are 3D printed. After the parts were perfectly aligned and fitted, we were ready to 3D print them in an ABS plastic on one of our FDM machines.

The Result: We have to build some anticipation so check back next week to see what the customer received!

Rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing are about more than just creating prototypes for testing and mocking up parts.  The process can be used as a fun and efficient way to design and build your own usable creations.  With this as my inspiration, I decided to build my own radio control rock crawler so I could configure it exactly to my liking.

First, here’s a little information on radio controlled rock crawlers.  These are a specific category of radio control car that are designed to travel slowly through trails featuring the most extreme terrain, where it is often required to climb over rocks and other such obstacles.  Because it is so expensive and involved to build a full-size rock crawler, 1:10 scale R/C versions have become very popular and offer most of the fun in a much more manageable package.

The basis for any vehicle is the frame and for this build I quickly decided on what is called a ladder style chassis.  This uses two vertical plates tied together with crossmembers.  This design allowed me to pack all the components in more tightly.  I used a laser cutter to make the side plates from 1/8” multi-density fiberboard (MDF) to quickly and inexpensively produce multiple pieces to find the design that performed the best.

For most of the structural pieces of the chassis I turned to the rapid prototyping technology called Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM as it is more commonly referred.  This builds with layers of ABS plastic to produce a durable, accurate, and affordable part – perfect attributes for my rock crawler project.

One of the biggest advantages to using rapid prototyping for a project like this is the ability to create and test different variations of parts to find the best design.  Using the Polyjet technology from Objet, it is even possible to create tires with different tread patterns and shore values to find the best combination for performance.  

Overall, the challenge of designing this project with rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing really paid off and as a result I have a very capable, functional, and good looking rock crawler to play with and enjoy.

As the years go on we see more and more Rapid Prototyped Cranial Implants being used. Now that knee and hip replacements have become increasingly routine surgeries, the next challenge in artificial human bone is the skull. Titanium has been widely used in all sorts of implants including Cranial. Its downside is that it can be temperature conductive after implantation which can lead to problems with long term fit and comfort.

There has been a focus on a new material made from PEEK (polyrtheretherketone) plastic. PEEK’s lighter weight, strength, biocompatibility and other positive characteristics make it a desirable alternative to titanium. The laser-sintered implant geometry has a unique, bone-growth-promoting lattice structure that can only be created with additive manufacturing.

Current design applications are now giving us the capability to replicate nature as best as we can. The Sensable Haptic device is widely used in this process to create 3D sculpted data. This allows us to create a more realistic and accurate implants for the skull. With precise customization and better fit, such implant would require less time in surgery, faster recovery times and provide greater comfort to the patient.

To see a real life example click here: