Cancer patient gets a 3D-printed titanium rib cage

[arm55]

This is one of those situations in which incremental improvements in technology add up enough that they enable some pretty amazing applications. Very cool.

Aside from the 3d printing, this is possible largely because of huge advancements in immune-inert implantable materials and anti-biofouling coatings. I think we're ready to see this sort of thing become the norm very very quickly.

[eru]

Material science is behind lots of advances in the `cooler' technologies. (And better numerics are behind lots of advances in the `cooler' parts of computing.)

[rch]

I'm curious why they needed to use additive manufacturing instead of machining and joining the parts.

[toomuchtodo]

Additive manufacturing allows for better bonding then machining and joining the parts. Its essentially molecular welding, depending on whether you're doing SLS (sintering) or SLM (melting).

[Mithaldu]

I don't understand though why the rib replacements are so thin. it seems dangerous to have a lot of soft tissue around such thin and hard metal bars.

[DasIch]

I would assume that titanium has a higher density than bone and rib bones aren't that large to begin with. Making them larger and thereby heavier would probably cause a few problems.

[Justin10s]

Question directed to people in the 3D printing scene: What undiscovered uses for 3D printing do you think can really help?

[bitwize]

"That's so cool. I look like freakin' Wolverine!" --Dave Lizewski, Kick-Ass

[dang]

Url changed from http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/11/spanish-cancer-patient-ge..., which points to a gizmodo.com article which points to this.