One of the most promising areas for additive manufacturing (AM) adoption is in the healthcare industry, through its ability to produce customized medical devices with personalized fit, feel and functionality. The shift from conventional manufacturing systems to AM implies several changes throughout the medical product’s life cycle phases, from workforce qualification to the relationship with customers. This study investigates the social impact of adopting AM in the medical devices industry. To this end, two case studies related to medical devices were developed: a prosthesis and an orthosis, by applying a social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. The methodology measures and compares performance and impact of developing, producing, and using the two devices produced by AM, and by conventional processes. The results show how the different stakeholders along the product life cycle stages are affected by the change in the manufacturing technology. Evidence of positive social impacts were found in the ‘Customers’, ‘Local community’ and ‘Society’ stakeholders. A negative social impact was found for the stakeholder ‘Value chain actors’. Furthermore, this study illustrates the suitability of the S-LCA methodology to pinpoint the benefits and negative impacts of AM in each case under study.

Off-the-shelf orthoses used in rehabilitation medicine present challenges in the lack of individual comfort offered and in the support of the different motor conditions of the affected individuals. Although custom-made orthoses address these issues, their current fabrication method consists of a laborious and material wasteful process performed by skilled orthotists. Combining 3D scanning, 3D modelling and 3D printing, this paper proposes and assesses a method for the fabrication of custom-made products for rehabilitation medicine. In collaboration with CMRA, a Hospital dedicated to rehabilitation, the method is applied to the design of a customised knee positioning orthosis for a patient with cerebral palsy. This project is exploratory on the capabilities of the use of 3D printing in patient specific customisation of orthoses. Having developed, prototyped and tested four different concepts with the patient, from which one was successfully accepted, it is possible to demonstrate the potential of industrialisation of these technologies.

With the increasing interest in sustainable solutions in material design in the last decade, research on natural materials (animal, vegetal or mineral) has increased at a rapid pace. Of these materials, Basalt Fibers for composite construction provide an interesting set of mechanical properties, equal or above to those of Glass Fibers, with advantages in terms of cost effectiveness and production to vegetable based Natural Fibers. Basalt fibers offer some advantages versus current materials, it is fireproof, requires no material addition, has better mechanical properties than most types of E-Glass, and it is cheaper than Carbon Fiber. This paper studies the mechanical properties of a Basalt Fiber composite in an Unsaturated Polyester matrix produced by Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), with the composites subjected to tensile, compression, shear and flexural tests. The results aligned with the predicted values by using the mixing rule, albeit with a high coefficient of variation, which microscopic analysis confirmed to arise from production issues with RTM

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is the leading high-performance thermoplastic biomaterial that can be processed through material extrusion (ME) additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, for patient-specific load-bearing implant manufacture. Considering the importance of cyclic loading for load-bearing implant design, this work addresses the high-cycle fatigue behaviour of 3D-printed PEEK. In this work, printed PEEK specimens are cyclically loaded under stress-controlled tension–tension using different stress levels between 75% and 95% of printed PEEK’s tensile strength. The experimental results are used to document 3D-printed PEEK’s fatigue behaviour using Basquin’s power law, which was compared with previous fatigue research on bulk PEEK and other 3D-printing materials. As a pioneering study on its fatigue behaviour, the results from this work show that 3D-printed PEEK exhibits an above-average fatigue strength of 65 MPa, corresponding to about 75% of its tensile strength. Fracture surface analysis suggests that a transition can occur from ductile to brittle fracture with maximum stresses between 85% and 95% of the tensile strength. Evidence of crack propagation features on fracture surfaces under scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation suggests crack initiation in void defects created by printing deposition that propagates longitudinally through line bonding interfaces along layers. Considering this, 3D-printed PEEK’s fatigue behaviour can be strongly related to printing conditions. Further research on the fatigue behaviour of 3D-printed PEEK is necessary to support its use in load-bearing implant applications.