The manufacturing equipment and process stability are the prerequisites for the commercialized application of PEEK 3D printed medical implants. For example, 3D printing technology can construct interconnected and integrated porous structures to facilitate osseointegration of PEEK implants, improve x-ray accuracy, and achieve elastic modulus that closely matches human cancellous bone.
Taking the advantages of additive manufacturing/3D printing technology in fabricating complex structures, the bioactivity of PEEK materials can be improved at the design level. For example, in the aforementioned skull reconstruction surgery at Tangdu Hospital, the medical team “tailored” PEEK implants for the patient based on the FDM/FFF 3D printing technology of INTAMSYS, and the skull pieces were perfectly embedded with the patient’s natural bone, contributing to quick post-operative recovery. As the medical implant production switches from the conventional standard mass production to patient-specific customized implant production, 3D printing is taking on an increasingly important role in the medical implant manufacturing industry, making it possible to realize batch production of patient-specific and small-scale customized PEEK implants.įDM/FFF 3D printing technology based on material extrusion process is one of the more economical and efficient production approaches for small-batch production compared with the traditional manufacturing approaches.
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