Design and Manufacturing of Custom-made Medical Implants using Rapid Prototyping Technology

Rapid Prototyping (RP) technology represents a new set of manufacturing processes that can fabricate a representative 3D physical model of any shape directly from a computer aided design (CAD) model using layer fabrication technique. As the result of the development in modern imaging, computerized three dimensional data processing and advanced engineering techniques, an implant and customized patient specific parts can be accurately designed from computer aided design (CAD) technique and the physical model of implant can be produced through rapid prototyping (RP), rapid tooling (RT), and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) technology. This paper discusses the method of design and fabrication of custom-made medical implants for prosthetic operations and rehabilitation using RP technologies