Additive multi-material manufacturing Million-dollar funding for dental prostheses from the 3D printer

Related Vendors

Fraunhofer IGCV

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA)

Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

The spin-off project of Fraunhofer IGCV Fidentis has received a million-dollar funding as part of the BMWK's Exist Research Transfer. Fidentis will use these funds to produce cost-effective telescopic prostheses through additive multi-material manufacturing and digitalization solutions, thus making them accessible to a wide range of patients.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Foundry, Composite, and Processing Technology IGCV and its spin-off Fidentis have received a grant of 1.46 million euros. This grant is part of the Exist research transfer of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) and is co-financed by the European Union. Including the institute's invested equity, the Fidentis project team has a grant of 1.62 million euros at its disposal to develop the technology to market readiness.

The start-up Fidentis, a spin-off from Fraunhofer IGCV, specializes in the production of telescopic prostheses. This special type of dental replacement is characterized by its high quality and functionality, but is traditionally very cost-intensive. Thanks to the grant, Fidentis will be able to use additive multi-material manufacturing and advanced digitization solutions to substantially reduce production costs and ensure reliable quality. This makes it possible to provide telescopic prostheses to a broader range of patients who have had to forego this particularly high-quality care due to cost reasons.

Cooperation between research and economy

The foundation for the technology used by Fidentis was laid at the Fraunhofer IGCV in the research project Multimaterial Centre Augsburg under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Seidel, Professor of Manufacturing Technology and Additive Manufacturing Processes and mentor of Fidentis as part of the Exist Research Transfer Program. When the members of the Digital Dental Technologies and Treatment Concepts workgroup at the Polyclinic for Dental Prosthetics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich first saw the results from the Multimaterial Centre in Augsburg, they immediately recognized the potential for manufacturing telescopic prostheses. Since then, the two research groups have been closely cooperating in this area.

"The funding is now a crucial step for us," says Max Horn, group leader at Fraunhofer IGCV and managing director of Fidentis. "It allows us to further develop our innovative production technology and bring it to the market. This way, we can significantly improve people's quality of life."

Fraunhofer IGCV is also pleased about the grant. "The spin-off of Fidentis and its groundbreaking approaches in production technology are an excellent example of the innovative power that can arise from the cooperation of research and industry," emphasizes Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Daub, Director of the Fraunhofer IGCV. Dr.-Ing. Georg Schlick, department head at Fraunhofer IGCV, adds: "Our work on additive multi-material manufacturing opens up completely new production-technical possibilities. The introduction of the technology in the dental sector will open the doors to other industrial sectors such as aerospace or nuclear fusion."

This article first appeared on our sister portal www.devicemed.de/.