Aimplas, Technological Institute of Plastics, and Arburg have started a collaboration that will make it possible to carry out a series of experiments and tests on materials to be processed by additive manufacturing to meet the needs of demanding sectors such as medicine.
In particular, the Freeformer 200-3X was installed with Arburg's own additive manufacturing technology. This allows the use of a wide range of materials, from commercially available granulates approved for the medical sector (FDA) to biopolymers or polylactide (medical application) through to modified original materials or combinations thereof. In this way, it is possible to equip the parts with different functionalities such as strength, fracture resistance, reversibility, solubility or waterproofness, which enables the development of parts such as orthoses or absorbable implants for the treatment of bone fractures.
Another advantage of this innovative system is that the properties of the component can be specifically changed by varying the process parameters and this programming can be retained for repetition in the form of small series with the possibility of individual changes.
The cooperation between Arburg and Aimplas provides for the freeformer system to be loaned for one year so that the technology centre's research staff can further develop their tests and experiments to respond to some of the challenges facing the medical sector, such as personalised medicine. To this end, Arburg trainers provided customised training for Aimplas staff last September.
