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New lab for testing AM technologies in the medical area

Santi Cervera · 25th abril, 2024

The IAM3DHUB has inaugurated the 3DP Medical Lab, a “test before invest” space available to hospitals and companies in the medical sector to test and experiment with all kinds of specialized AM technologies for medical and healthcare applications.

The IAM3DHUB, operated and managed by Leitat, has inaugurated on April 25 the Medical Lab at its facilities at DFactory Barcelona, coinciding with the celebration of the third edition of the Additive Medical Spain congress. These state-of-the-art facilities are at the disposal of hospitals, health organizations and companies, to test and prove the most advanced additive manufacturing technologies, developing projects and applications for the medical sector.

The Medical Lab of the International Advanced Manufacturing 3D Hub (IAM3DHUB), operated and managed by Leitat, has become part of the Hub facilities at the DFactory Barcelona building, owned by the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), The laboratory, managed by Leitat’s technical staff, allows the development of medical applications and devices, providing technical support and being a test bench for hospitals, organizations and medical companies. This scientific infrastructure will be a European leader, offering a showcase of additive manufacturing technology for the healthcare sector.

Laboratory equipment:

  • 1 Delta Tower MT Fluid 3D printing machine, on loan from Delta Tower, with Elkem 3DP silicone materials.
  • 1 S300X 3D printing machine, lent by Lynxter, to print with silicone.
  • 1 Moso 3D Multimaterial printing machine, on loan from Moso 3D and one medical package, to print in multimaterial.
  • 1 Stratasys Medjet J5 machine, on loan from Leitat, as part of the DIM3D project (Red Cervera).
  • 1 3D scanning machine, on loan from Shining 3D, to obtain precise images for the development of medical applications.
  • 3 workstations to work with Materialise Mimics, standard software for segmentation and anatomical analysis, planning and design.

At the inauguration ceremony of the facilities, on April 25, has intervened the strategic director of the Innovation and Transformation Commission of the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Ramon Maspons; the vice-president of HP and president of the IAM3DHUB, Ramon Pastor; the president of Leitat, Jordi William; the general director of Leitat, Jordi Cabrafiga; the technical director of the additive manufacturing area of Renishaw, Marc Gardon and the director of 3Dnatives’ contents, Lucía Contreras.

Additive Medical Spain 3.0

The inauguration of the Medical Lab is part of the Additive Medical Spain 3.0 congress, the day dedicated to users of 3D printing in the healthcare sector, organized by 3D Natives with the support of the IAM3DHUB. It is a hybrid congress that is divided into a first part in online format and a second part in person at DFactory Barcelona, with workshops, panels, networking, showroom and demos with the participation of the main actors of the medical additive manufacturing in the region. Xavier Tutó, Principal Researcher in additive manufacturing at Leitat, will moderate the panel: “How has precision surgery evolved with the arrival of additive manufacturing?

The previous edition, also held in DFactory with the collaboration of the IAM3DHUB, gathered more than 125 attendees at the in-person event.

IAM3DHUB, accelerating the adoption of additive manufacturing

The IAM3DHUB is a consortium that is operated and managed by Leitat and brings together the most representative companies of the sector along the 3D printing value chain: technology suppliers, materials developers, post-processing partners and software developers.

It was created in 2016 to provide industry with a center that offers access to different additive manufacturing solutions with support throughout the process. It now has its headquarters at DFactory, the Industry 4.0 node of the Zona Franca Consortium of Barcelona.

The IAM3DHUB offers a single-source service to advise and guide companies that want to bet on 3D printing, contributing to a new era of production of the coding to the material without tools as a fast, safe and efficient manufacturing method.

El conformen socis tecnològics com HP, Leitat, Renishaw, BASF Forward AM, GPA Innova, Abrast, AM Solutions, CIM UPC, Materialise, Delta Tower, Lynxter, Hyperganic, Twikit, Toffee X.

It also integrates ecosystem, marketing and communication partners such as 3D Natives, 3PrintR, 3D Printing & Design, Interempresas, AMGTA, 3D Incubator, 3D Pioneers Challenge. In addition, it has the support of the public administration by ACCIÓ – Generalitat de Catalunya.