Formlabs Dental LT Comfort Resin
Formlabs has announced the launch of two healthcare-focused materials for its Form 3B 3D printer series.
Dental LT Comfort Resin and Biomed Durable Resin have been engineered for use on the additive manufacturing company’s Form 3B, Form 3B+, and Form 3BL desktop stereolithography systems in point-of-care facilities, medical device manufacturing, and dental and orthodontic labs.
Guillaume Bailliard, President at Formlabs Healthcare business said these latest resins, which expand Formlabs library to over 40 materials, will enable dental and healthcare professionals “to push the boundaries of device development.”
Dental LT Comfort Resin is durable and flexible material that can be used to produce long-term occlusal splints, nightguards and bleaching trays. Dental practices can now directly print flexible splints that are long-term biocompatible, comfortable for the patient, and require minimal polish to reach high optical transparency for long-term use. According to Formlabs, outsourcing a single occlusal splint can cost between 100-200 USD with a lead time of 1-7 days. By 3D printing in Dental LT Comfort Resin in-house, the cost is said to decrease to 5-7 USD with a lead time of 2-3 hours.
Medical devices 3D printed in Formlabs BioMed Durable Resin
The second material, BioMed Durable Resin, is a USP Class VI material made in an FDA-registered, ISO 13485 facility and can be used in applications for long-term skin, and short-term tissue, bone, and dentin contact. The material is said to address the need for a biocompatible material that can withstand impact, rough handling, and pressure for patient-specific devices, procedure-specific instruments, and medical devices. The material offers impact-, shatter-, and abrasion-resistant properties and excellent clarity and surface finish, which makes it ideal for biocompatible and durable patient-specific instruments, and customisable surgical instruments, such as medical devices that can be hit with a surgical mallet or shaken with a cutting saw.
Mauricio Toro, CEO and co-founder at TechFit, a PSI provider that works with physicians to design and 3D printed surgical instrumentation and has been working with the new material, said: “The increased mechanical properties provide more design flexibility and increased indications while maintaining the biological properties required for reliably producing the best surgical results.”
