With body contact up to 30 days, Evonik’s new material opens up new opportunities for individual treatment using additive manufacturing
Evonik has just announced the release of another 3D printing filament: a PEEK Care biomaterial dedicated to medical 3D printing.
This announcement follows the recent release of the polymer powder INFINAM® PA 6005 P (polyamide 613) – developed in collaboration with Farsoon Technologies. It is absolutely not to be confused with the company’s implant-grade filament for medical applications released last year.
Named VESTAKEEP® Care M40 3DF, the new material in the specialty chemicals company’s portfolio is a polyether ether ketone filament with body contact up to 30 days. It completes the company’s “Care Grade” line based on the high-performance polymer VESTAKEEP® Care M40 and opens up new possibilities for individual treatment of patients with AM.
Therefore, applications that can be made possible with this new solution include patient-specific hearing aids, filigree prostheses, orthoses as well as surgical drilling aids for dentistry or individual surgical instruments, to name a few of them.
As far as properties are concerned, needless to say that as a biomaterial solution, the filament ensures biocompatibility. According to Evonik, it also delivers excellent temperature and chemical resistance, very good sterilizability, and easy handling.
From a technological standpoint, it can be processed by common extrusion-based 3D printing technologies for PEEK materials, such as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or fused deposition modeling (FDM).
Furthermore, with a diameter of 1.75 mm, it is available in natural colour on 500-gram spools. Given the vital industry in which it is leveraged, the filament should be processed under cleanroom conditions and is subjected to strict quality management for medical materials.
“Following the commercial success of our VESTAKEEP® i4 3DF filament for 3D printing long-term permanent implants, we are now expanding the possibilities of modern medical technology for the individual treatment of patients with this new Care product,” says Marc Knebel, head of the Medical Devices & Systems market segment at Evonik. “In order to open up further medical applications for even better quality of life, a broad material landscape is needed. We have our fingers on the pulse with our portfolio of 3D biomaterials and are consistently developing it further. Doing so, this year we plan to launch an innovative PEEK-based filament with osteoconductive properties allowing bone cells to adhere to implants more quickly. Our goal is to revolutionize medical technology by offering innovative material solutions.”
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