Additive manufacturing establishes itself in medical technology as a key to series production

3D printing has long since moved beyond the prototype stage in medical technology. Increasingly, companies are using additive manufacturing not only for development but also for the serial production of specialized components. Particularly for small and medium batch sizes, the technology offers significant advantages, as it eliminates tooling costs and allows design changes to be implemented directly in the CAD file.

One example is the biotechnology company Sartorius, which produces around 100 bioreactors per year. Many components need to be individually customized, which would be costly with conventional methods. By using 3D printing, the company can respond flexibly to customer requirements and implement design changes efficiently. Italian manufacturer MMI also uses additive manufacturing for its microsurgical robots, where disposable components and connectors are 3D-printed to enable complex internal structures and optimized assemblies.

“The collaboration with Materialise, where we leveraged the advantages of additive manufacturing (AM), allowed us to significantly accelerate the product iterations for a number of components that are crucial to the development of our microsurgical system. This enabled us to move from prototype to production readiness in a much shorter time,” says Massimiliano Simi, founder and Vice President of Research and Development at MMI.

In the field of hospital equipment, companies such as LMT use 3D-printed housings and enclosures, for example for MRI-compatible incubators. These components are lightweight, sterilizable, and meet high standards of mechanical stability and surface quality.

“For a project like ours, this is crucial, as we need to remain flexible to advance development. With precision instruments, even an adjustment of just one hundredth of a millimeter can have a significant impact on performance. While changing production molds for each new iteration would be incredibly expensive, 3D printing allows us to stay agile in our development process.”

“In our experience, successful applications arise particularly when additive manufacturing is part of the product development process from the very beginning and is already used in the prototyping phase,” explains Radhika Dhuru, Market Manager for Medical Technology at Materialise. “A good example is products with multiple components that don’t have to be manufactured separately. With 3D printing, they can be produced as a single part, eliminating the need for assembly altogether.”

The example of MMI’s modular training board shows how additive manufacturing can link product development and training. 3D-printed modules can be quickly adapted and expanded as needed – a flexibility that is becoming increasingly important in the highly regulated medical technology sector. As a result, 3D printing is evolving into an integral part of serial production and product innovation in healthcare.

Learn more about Materialise at materialise.com.