The Digital Thread

Digital manufacturing is shaping the future of prosthetics and orthotics by producing more personalised and comfortable solutions faster and at a lower cost. It is also accelerating the development of new ideas through rapid prototyping to test new solutions.

Digital manufacturing is revolutionising surgery. It provides both surgeons and instrument manufacturers with the information and equipment that they need to achieve better results faster and more cost effectively.

Getting a new medical device from concept through approval and to manufacture to the deadlines that you and your team expect is a real challenge. Yet something that the recent pandemic has taught us is that it is possible to innovate and achieve production quickly when it is really needed.

3D printing is making major inroads into customising medical implants for individuals. It allows implant manufacturers and sometimes even hospitals to create complex geometries and patient specific solutions that saves the surgeon time and improves a patient’s outcome.

Major dental work traditionally takes days of time and effort but as technology evolves even complex treatment is possible in just a few hours thanks to digital technology.

Our new consultative design service addresses design feedback and gets your parts ready for manufacturability within our automated system.

Our original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners in the medical industry are constantly pushing the limits with metal 3D printing, challenging us and other outsourcing suppliers to advance and innovate within this process.

Every year, more than 12 million people visit their physicians for impacted earwax removal. Now, this new ear-care medical device has been developed, with help from Protolabs’ Cool Idea Award, which can clean a patient’s ear in just 35 seconds, bringing a much-needed—and fast—solution.

Japet Medical Devices is a French start-up specialising in medical robotics, created in 2016 by Antoine Noël and Damien Bratic who had both recently qualified from Centrale Lille University. The company, based in Lille’s Eurasanté park, is preparing to launch Atlas, the first functional rehabilitation exoskeleton designed to relieve lumbar pain.