Orthoses & Braces
Wrist, ankle, knee and spinal devices built from a surface scan, with thickness and venting that vary across the part instead of being constant.
INDUSTRY · MEDICAL AIDS
Medical Aids & Custom Devices — Patient-Specific, Low Volume, Made to Fit
Orthoses built from a scan instead of a cast, guides built from a surgical plan, models built from a CT dataset. In this sector a batch size of one is normal, and the honest limits matter more than the sales claim — so this page states ours at the top.
Non-implantScope
±0.1 mmResin tolerance
1 pcMinimum order
SLA + SLMPrimary processes
OVERVIEW
What we do, and the line we do not cross
Additive manufacturing suits this sector for a structural reason: every part is different. A spinal brace, a wrist orthosis or a drill guide is made for one patient from one scan, and a mould only makes sense if you are going to repeat the shape. Printed from a scan, the geometry costs nothing extra — the vent pattern can change across the part, the walls can be thick where the load goes and thin where it does not.
What we print falls into three groups. Aids and orthoses: wrist, ankle, spinal and knee devices, built from a surface scan rather than a plaster cast. Guides and models: drill templates, cutting guides, and anatomical models for planning and for consent conversations. Instrument parts: handles, brackets, trays and components in titanium or stainless steel that have to survive an autoclave cycle.
The line we do not cross is implants, and we want to be blunt about why. We are a printing shop, not a medical device manufacturer. We do not hold regulatory clearance in any market, and we are not the legal manufacturer of your device — we print what your design specifies, to your specification, and the clinical file, the risk assessment and the regulatory submission stay with you. Where a part touches a patient, the design has to come from someone qualified to sign it, and the material has to be one your file already approves. We will print to it and we will document the build; we will not pretend to be something we are not.
WHAT WE PRINT
What We Print for This Sector
All of it non-implant. If you are not sure whether your part falls inside that line, describe it and we will tell you straight away rather than after a quote.
Surgical Guides & Templates
Drill guides and cutting templates generated from a surgical plan, in a resin that can be cleaned to the standard your protocol requires.
Anatomical Models
Patient-specific models from CT or MRI data, for pre-operative planning, plate bending and explaining the procedure to the patient.
Instrument Parts & Handles
Titanium and 316L components that survive repeated autoclaving — handles, brackets, trays and custom-shaped instrument bodies.
Prosthetic Sockets & Interfaces
Non-implant interface components and socket hardware, printed to a scan so the fit is measured rather than approximated.
Custom Trays & Positioning
Instrument trays, positioning blocks and set-organisation hardware sized to one specific kit or one specific patient.
Reproduction & Archive Parts
A discontinued component re-made from a scan when the original is unavailable, for equipment that is still in clinical use.
See the parts gallery for examples across SLM, SLA and SLS, grouped by process.
PROCESS FIT
Which Process We Would Use
Tolerance and lead time are read from the process pages, so what you read here is the same figure the quote engine works to.
| Process | Why it fits this sector | Typical tolerance | Typical lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLA Resin 3D Printing | Detail and surface. Guides, models and orthoses where a fine feature or a smooth patient-contact surface matters, in a biocompatible resin grade. | ±0.1 mm | 2–4 days |
| SLS Nylon 3D Printing | Toughness without supports. Devices that get worn, flexed and handled daily, and geometries with internal channels that resin would trap. | ±0.3 mm | 3–5 days |
| SLM Metal 3D Printing | Sterilisable metal. Titanium and 316L instrument parts, brackets and guides that go into an autoclave, printed dense enough to machine afterwards. | ±0.2 mm | 7–10 days |
These are typical values we hold routinely, not absolute limits — send us the drawing and we will confirm what is achievable on your geometry. Compare all processes, or see post-processing & finishing for what happens after the print.
MATERIALS
Materials for Medical Work
Ask for the datasheet of the specific grade before you design against it — a trade name on a supplier website is not a specification.
Photopolymer Resins
Six resin families covering detail, toughness, heat, transparency, casting and medical models. The finest surface finish we offer, and the only process that reaches class-A straight off the machine — and the most sensitive to picking the right grade.
Full material data →Nylon PA12
Tough, chemically resistant and dimensionally stable, and it prints with no supports to remove. The default material for functional prototypes, brackets, housings and low-volume end-use parts.
Full material data →Titanium Ti-6Al-4V
The reference SLM alloy. Highest strength-to-weight of anything we print, and effectively immune to salt water. The default for robot joints, aerospace brackets and non-implant medical instruments.
Full material data →Stainless Steel 316L
Tough, ductile and highly corrosion resistant — the grade that survives chlorides and food acids. Manifolds, process hardware, tooling and marine parts that cannot be serviced.
Full material data →We buy biocompatible resin to a named grade, not to a colour. If your file names a grade we do not hold, tell us and we will say whether we can source it rather than substituting quietly.
QUALITY
What We Document, and What We Do Not Claim
Two different lists. The first is what we control; the second is what we deliberately will not say.
- Material grade and lot recorded against the build, so a question asked six months later has an answer.
- Build parameters and date kept per order, so a repeat prints the same way.
- Support removal and cleaning planned so no uncured resin is left trapped inside a lumen or a hollow section.
- Metal parts stress-relieved and passivated as standard; autoclave cycles confirmed with you before the material is chosen.
- Critical dimensions inspected and reported on request — we will tell you what we measured, and to what.
- We do not claim ISO 13485 certification, CE marking, FDA clearance or any equivalent, and we are not the legal manufacturer of your device.
HONEST LIMITS
The Limits, Stated Plainly
Every item here has cost somebody a project at some point. Reading them first is cheaper than discovering them during a clinical trial.
Strengths
- One-off geometry costs the same as a hundred, which is the whole point for patient-specific work
- Patient contact surfaces can be made smooth without a second process
- Sterilisable, machinable metal parts from the same supplier as the models
- Repeats print from the archived build record, so a second unit matches the first
- No minimum order, so a single case is a legitimate order
- We will tell you when a part is outside our scope instead of quoting it anyway
Limits to know
- We are not a medical device manufacturer and hold no regulatory clearance in any market
- No implants, and no parts where a clinical sign-off would rest on us
- Biocompatible resin is not sterility: cleaning and sterilisation are your protocol, on your validation
- Printed surfaces are not a substitute for a machined bearing or sealing face
- Resin parts have limited heat resistance — an autoclave cycle can deform some grades
- Material traceability is documented per build, but we do not operate a certified quality management system
FAQ
Medical Aids & Custom Devices — Common Questions
Do you make implants?
No. We do not print implants, and we do not print anything where a clinical decision would rest on our process. We make non-implant aids, guides, models and instrument parts. If a part goes inside a patient, it is not a job for us — and you should be cautious about a printing shop that says otherwise.
Can you print from a CT or MRI scan?
Yes, with a caveat. A scan is a dataset, not a model: it has to be segmented (bone or tissue separated from everything else) and converted into a watertight solid before it can be printed. If you send the segmented model we print it as it stands. If you only have the raw scan, say so and we will tell you what is involved.
Which material should a surgical guide be printed in?
That is your decision, not ours, and it should follow from your protocol and your cleaning process rather than from a material name. We will send you the datasheet for the grade we hold so you can check it against your requirements. What we will not do is pick a material and call it suitable — that is a clinical judgement.
Will a printed part survive autoclaving?
Metal parts will, repeatedly. Most resin grades will not — autoclave temperature is above the heat deflection point of a lot of standard resins, and a part that survives one cycle can creep or distort over twenty. If your part must be autoclaved, titanium or 316L is the safe answer, and we would rather say that at the quoting stage.
How do you handle patient data?
We work from geometry and a part number. We do not need a name, a patient ID or a clinical history to print a part, and we would rather not have them — send an anonymised identifier and the model. Files are kept only as long as the job and a repeat window require.
Can you re-make a discontinued part for equipment still in use?
Often, yes. If you still have a working part we can scan it and rebuild it; if you have a drawing we can work from that. This is one of the more useful things printing does in a hospital — a component with no supplier is not the same as a component that cannot be made.
GET STARTED
Tell Us the Part and the Constraint
Send the model, the scan or the requirement, and describe what the part has to survive — cleaning cycle, load, skin contact, temperature. We will tell you which material fits, what it costs, and whether the job belongs with us at all.
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