Collaborative implant design using the virtual manufacturing approach

Because of the increasing amount of plastic surgery in Japan, many hard tissue implants, especially custom-made ones, are required by the market. However, an appropriate design for custom-made production needs a preliminary surgical operation, which is not easily accepted by patients. Among several materials, porous ceramics are regarded as an ideal material for hard tissue implants, which grow into the tissue to become compatible. However, their fragile features are not suitable for mechanical processing even if an appropriate design of implants is available. Considering these two issues, a new solution is proposed that uses a virtual manufacturing approach to design and produce any desired shape of implants made of porous ceramics. The paper describes the overview of the idea behind the approach and shows some of the key technologies.