Shetty is CEO and co-founder of PrinterPrezz, a startup launched with this challenge in mind. The company is interesting not only for the conduit it potentially brings to medical devices — that is, a single pipeline from surgeon inventor through development and regulatory approval and into manufacturing — but also because of the important point it illustrates about AM in general. Today, industrial supply chains and product development practices assume conventional manufacturing. They respect the limitations of conventional processes. Additive takes away previously accepted limitations, but taking advantage of the resulting freedom entails rethinking the way manufacturing proceeds, how the manufacturing provider is organized, and what role the provider plays. PrinterPrezz is among the very clearest examples of this I have found: a ground-up reimagining of the manufacturing organization for AM, and for medical device AM in particular.
The company brings various components to the solution to the problem of making medical device ideas real. Its team includes surgical expertise in the same proportion as engineering and AM expertise, allowing the inventor to relax his or her direct role in product development. That is, PrinterPrezz contains the bridge between surgical and engineering knowledge so the inventor does not have to bridge this distance personally.
Source: Additive Manufacturing
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