The Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), has officially launched a Research Chair as awarded by the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARCI) through the Department of Science and Technology (DST). This Research Chair will be focusing on medical product development through additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, and was awarded in recognition of the phenomenal work that CUT is doing in this dynamic and exciting field.
“When we launched our Vision 2020 in 2012, we pledged ourselves to ensuring that CUT becomes an engaged university that focuses on producing quality social and technological innovations that address development,” says Professor Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at CUT. “We have remained true to this vision, setting goals to educate by example and to lead in areas of social and technological innovation and research. As a result of our commitment to these ideals and the hard work of our team, we have been chosen as the host of the Research Chair in Medical Product Development through additive manufacturing, a signature honour and an incredible opportunity.”
The Research Chair will run for a period of five years and will enable CUT to create new platforms through AM and open up new ideas that come with this technology. 3D printing is set to play a fundamental role in the new industrial revolution, especially within the medical space where innovation can potentially transform people’s lives and CUT is at the cutting edge. The Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (CRPM) at CUT uses Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Manufacturing, Rapid Tooling and Medical Product Development technologies to further education, understanding and development within this space.
It is thanks to the many years of hard work put in by CRPM that led to the Research Chair being awarded to CUT. The centre’s commitment to leading AM in the higher education sector in Africa and the pivotal role it is currently playing in the medical field have ensured that the Chair is in great hands.
“Through the Research Chair, CUT will continue to provide its partners with exceptional tools and solutions that will help them to maintain their lead in 3D printing technology and to bring about the social and technological innovations that the country needs as a whole,” says Mthembu. “We are incredibly proud of this achievement and will be working towards making the most of every day going forward.”
The focus of the Research Chair at CUT will be on medical product development through the layer-by-layer manufacturing process known as additive manufacturing. The activity within this space has been divided into three focus areas that include: patient specific prostheses, medical devices and AM technologies that support Medical Product Development. The five-year programme for the chair has already been assessed with research activities planned out over the next three five-year cycles.
“In the patient-specific space, the use of AM to create titanium medical prostheses is not new and many of these have been successfully implanted internationally,” says Gerrie Booysen, Director at CRPM. “However, this manufacturing process through AM is still new in South Africa and currently the prostheses are made through conventional Computer Numerical Control (CNC) which is slow and expensive. At CRPM we have achieved some success in creating titanium prostheses with six implanted in living patients — two in Cardiff, (in the UK), one in Maribor (in Slovenia) and three in South Africa.”
Five-year goal
It is a significant achievement and one that is testament to the hard work of the CRPM and its vision for the future. The five-year goal of the centre is to deliver a service to the community through the manufacturing of implantable patient-specific titanium prostheses as requested by South African medical practitioners in South Africa. This bold vision has already been given significant support by CUT, with three milestones set out to ensure that it is achievable.
The first milestone was the infrastructure — the CRPM required specific tools in order to manufacture titanium prostheses, along with the right software for the designing of the implants. At this stage, CRPM also needed the resources for staff training and forging alliances with collaborators that have the requisite clinical backgrounds.
The second milestone was certification, as the titanium prostheses need to be certified according to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 standards before they can be implanted. Certification is elaborate and lengthy and so CUT has engaged a consultant with expertise in this field to assist the team in setting up the initial documents. In addition, research has to be undertaken to optimise and monitor the manufacturing process to ensure that all prostheses are produced to a high standard.
Final milestone
The final milestone is for CRPM to approach companies in South Africa that already have ISO certification and to form a partnership with one that will be willing to handle the distribution of the AM manufactured titanium prostheses under their name. Then CRPM will work with them on a sub-contractor basis and thereby simplify the process for manufacturing the prostheses at CRPM.
“The second objective of the Research Chair is to manufacture patient-specific maxillofacial silicone prostheses through secondary AM processes,” says Professor Ihar Yadroitsau, Research Chair in Medical Product Development through Additive Manufacturing at CUT. “Current techniques of manufacturing these prostheses by hand are time-consuming and labour intensive and so the national need is not met. So the next five years will focus on research to develop the process chains needed for the manufacturing of these prostheses.”
Challenges
The CRPM has outlined two milestones that must be achieved in this arena. The first is to obtain the necessary infrastructure required for the manufacture of these prostheses and the second is to investigate different techniques to improve on the traditional techniques used to date.
“We are also focusing on contributing to medical equipment development through the design of innovative devices and production through new AM techniques in combination with conventional machining techniques,” says Yadroitsau. “AM makes designs possible that conventional methods could not achieve so we are going to definitely look into medical equipment development under this research objective with an emphasis on disabled patient assistive devices.”
This research into assistive devices has enormous positive potential in improving the quality of life for patients and enhancing the prospect of employment, education and deeper engagement with their own lives.
“These devices can restore the dignity of people with disabilities and transform the attitudes of others towards them,” says Booysen. “It also reduces their dependency on others, decreases their cost of care and makes their healthcare far more affordable. Currently most of the assistive devices in South Africa are imported and provincial hospitals cannot afford them. Through our work we are hoping to make a huge impact on the lives of these patients.”
CUT’s Research and Innovation Plan is based on the leading principles of sustainable development, socioeconomic development, input leading to outcomes and outcomes leading to impact. The Research Chair on Medical Product Development through AM processes is to form part of CUT’s core strategic goals.
Focus on STEM
“As a University of Technology our focus is on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM),” says Professor Alfred Ngowi, Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. “Three research clusters with 14 strategic STEM research programmes were identified to facilitate research and innovation namely; industrial design, quality of health and living and people and skills development. The Research Chair will be part of the cluster on Industrial design, communication and development and heralds an exciting future for CUT and the CRPM.”