Korean company Lugo Labs has developed a very unusual set of materials for the medical industry.
You can see at the top some 3D prints representing several body parts. You can also see spools with interesting labels: “Bone”, “Skin”, “Fat”, etc. What’s going on here?
It turns out Lugo Labs has been collaborating with a university professor to develop these filaments. They offer the same X-ray properties as the named features have in the human body. In other words, an object 3D printed in “fat” material would look exactly like actual human fat in a CT scan, which uses X-rays to peer inside the body.
By combining these filaments in a single 3D print, it’s possible to print a “CT scan-analog” of an actual human body component. If the 3D printed foot or arm were to be put through a CT scanner, the resulting images would be near-identical to those from an actual human subject.
Why do this? The idea is to easily prepare simulated body parts for use in training medical students and equipment operators. This allows them to freely use the machine to learn the operation without unnecessarily exposing anyone to excess X-rays.
Another possibility is to 3D print samples of various injuries, which would allow medical professionals to train how to recognize them.
Obviously, these materials aren’t for everyone, but they do clearly demonstrate the wide range of application possibilities that can be achieved with 3D print technology.
Via Lugo Labs
