Medical 3D Printing & Why You Might Move to Taiwan (Part 3)

“We purchased the EOS M290,” Peter says, “because it is a high-level machine because most of our customers are in the medical industry. The accuracy is important, especially in regards to the roughness of a part for implantation. But, we also purchased the SISMA machine because it is almost an open platform for all kinds of materials.”

DETEKT’s clean QA room.

DETEKT also hopes to supplant its dental 3D printing services, which rely on DWS’ portfolio of materials and in-house dental scanners, with customer-focused dental software. One day, he envisions dental labs from all over owning complete solutions for 3D scanning, modeling, and printing. In fact, Peter, seems to have a clear vision of the future and a strong understanding of the complete ecosystem of digital manufacturing. In addition to this complete dental pipeline, DETEKT sells virtual surgery simulators from Surgical Science. Like 3D Systems’ Simbionix subsidiary, Sweden’s Surgical Solutions produces haptic VR devices for rehearsing virtual surgeries. From VR to 3D printing, Peter is prepping for the complete mixed reality ecosystem that is starting to form as we speak. Because DETEKT also performs 3D printing for design projects, with a talented team of artists, I wouldn’t be surprised if they began selling haptic styluses for 3D modeling as well.

Outside of engineering and printing, DETEKT also retains industrial systems. They are an EOS reseller, but uniquely, they also sell Optomec’s Aerojet machines for electronics 3D printing, too, with Peter telling me that some firms in mainland China have purchased multiple units. This is a very interesting tidbit, as these machines cost half a million dollars and perform the very niche function of spraying conductive tracks on curved surfaces. So, what these Chinese businesses want with them could be very important, once that information becomes public. But, as with many Optomec customers, the use cases are top secret, as were many of the things I saw, while visiting the beautiful, small nation of Taiwan.