In a method for producing an implant from a biocompatible silicone, a 3D mathematical model of an implant to be produced is used to create a 3D model of a casting mold for the implant as a negative. The casting mold is produced from a polymeric material through an additive manufacturing process and coated through vapor deposition of a coating material from the parylene family at least in a region that comes into contact with the biocompatible silicone to be cast. A platinum-catalyzed 2-component thermosetting silicone as the biocompatible silicone for the implant is introduced into a mold cavity of the coated casting mold, with a residence time of the implant in a patient's body of more than 29 days. The casting mold is heated to vulcanize the biocompatible silicone, and after cooling down the vulcanized implant is demolded from the casting mold.

The present invention relates to a material system for 3D printing, to a 3D printing process using a lignin-containing component or derivatives thereof or modified lignins, to soluble moldings that are produced by a powder-based additive layer manufacturing process and to the use of the moldings.

The present invention provides a metal mold and the method of making the metal mold for casting directional gecko-inspired adhesives that require deep, slanted features and an undercut wedge structure. The durable metal mold can be used for high quantities. In one example, compression molding is used to mass produce the adhesives. What normally takes 24 hours to produce now with compressing molding takes 5 minutes. Compression molding allows us to increase daily production from 1 adhesive patch to thousands per day.

A method of forming a model of a porous structure includes three dimensionally printing a mold of the porous structure using a polycaprolactone mold material, filling the mold with a polymer mixture, and heating the filled mold at a temperature above a melting temperature of the mold material to cure the polymer mixture, where the cured polymer mixture forms the model of the porous structure.

An endoscopy instrument is configured to be adjustable between a retracted position and an extended position. The endoscopy instrument includes a snare forming a loop extending from a proximate end to a distal end and a plurality of basket wires. Each of the basket wires includes a proximate end coupled to the proximate end of the snare and a distal end coupled to the distal end of the snare. The snare and the plurality of the basket wires cooperate to form a basket portion configured to contract when the endoscopy instrument is adjusted from the extended position towards the retracted position during entry of the basket portion into a tubular member. The contracting of the basket portion aids in grasping an object in need of retrieval from a patient.

The present invention includes: a connector unit configured to disconnectably connect an injection container unit and a lid member; and a vertically driving mechanism configured to cause the injection container unit and the lid member to move up and down together when the injection container unit and the lid member are connected together and to cause the lid member to move up and down when the injection container unit and the lid member are not connected together.

Techniques for evaluating support for an object to be fabricated via an additive fabrication device are provided. In some embodiments, a three-dimensional representation of the object is obtained and a plurality of voxels corresponding to the representation of the object is generated. A first supportedness value may be assigned to a first voxel of the plurality of voxels based on an amount of support provided by a support structure to the first voxel, and a second supportedness value determined for a second voxel of the plurality of voxels, wherein the second voxel neighbors the first voxel, and wherein the second supportedness value is determined based on the first supportedness value of the first voxel and a weight value representing a transmission rate of supportedness through voxels of the plurality of voxels.

A molding mold includes a shell mold provided with a plurality of vacuum suction holes and a backup mold for backing up the shell mold, a back surface of the shell mold and a front surface of the backup mold having the same shape and being fitted to each other. A ventilation groove is formed on the front surface of the backup mold or the back surface of the shell mold, leaving a receiving surface for receiving a mating surface, a plurality of striped grooves and ridges between the striped grooves are formed on the back surface of the shell mold or the front surface of the backup mold, the striped grooves having a feed pitch of 0.5 mm to 5.0 mm and a processing depth of 0.01 mm to 0.4 mm, and the vacuum suction holes and the ventilation groove communicate with each other through the striped grooves.

This flexible mandrel for molding a composite material containing a thermosetting resin includes: a main body containing a first material; and a thermally conductive layer containing a second material having a higher thermal conductivity than the first material, the thermally conductive layer being formed so as to cover at least a portion of the main body. The thermally conductive layer extends from a contacting surface of the flexible mandrel, which comes into contact with the composite material during molding, to a non-contacting surface which does not come into contact with the composite material.

The present invention provides a method for preparing a microgroove array surface with a nearly cylindrical surface based on an air molding method, and relates to the technical field of functional surface preparation. The method includes the following steps: (1) preparing a microgroove array surface, uniformly spreading a layer of a liquid polymer film to be formed on the auxiliary plate, and placing a spacer block in an empty position on the microgroove array surface; (2) placing the auxiliary plate spread with the liquid polymer film on the spacer block on the microgroove array surface, maintaining this state, and feeding the auxiliary plate into a vacuum drying oven; and (3), setting a pressure in the vacuum drying oven according to a designed pressure, heating and solidifying the liquid polymer film, and separating the microgroove array surface to obtain the microgroove array surface with the nearly cylindrical surface.