LithaBone HA 480 released by Lithoz

Lithoz, a worldwide leader in ceramic additive manufacturing has created the LithaBone HA 480 material through close cooperation with users. This material was created to make 3D printing bone replacements more efficient and economically feasible.

Ceramics are ideal materials for medical devices and implants because of their biocompatibility and low thermal conductivity. However, some ceramics can be resorbed easily by the body. This reduces the risk associated with second surgeries. Because of the large number of bone structures within the body, ceramic materials for bone substitute must cover all bases and be biocompatible and resorbable. The planned interaction of the bone substitute material with adjacent bone and tissues depends on the optimized design of geometries which – accordingly – determines clinical success, as bone regrows along the material’s guide structures and the ceramic dissolves in the body.

Lithoz’s LithaBone HA 480 offers several major improvements, including a significantly higher wall thickness of 10mm – a key requirement for versatility reasons; more precise imaging accuracy of fine structures, with the material showing strongly reduced over polymerization with a simultaneously improved depth of cure, resulting in a simpler selection of build parameters and a significantly more stable manufacturing process; and a 10x longer shelf life. Parts are also significantly easier to clean – thanks to an improved binder composition.

KLS Martin is a German pioneer in medical technology and has been a significant user of 3D printed bones substitute implants ever since 2015. LithaBone’s HA480 was developed in collaboration with LithaBone customers. The specification of the development goals and the design of the product were then finalized.

”We at KLS have been producing CMF implants for human use on our Lithoz CeraFab printer since 2015, with excellent results in terms of accuracy of fit, tolerability, and healing success. We already have had the chance to work with HA 480 and the results are outstanding: from mechanical properties over higher wall thickness to size and lattice structures, LithaBone HA 480 has convinced us of a considerable improvement compared to its predecessor,” said Adem Aksu, Director of Development for Biomaterials at KLS.