3D Printing News Unpeeled: Oil Rig & Brain parts, Custom Medicine and Patents

Nigerian oilfield services firm RusselSmith Group has gotten approval from regulator the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to use PEEK 3D printed parts from Roboze’s material extrusion platform in oil field services MRO. 

Researchers at the University of Oxford have 3D printed neural cells using a droplet based piezo-electric 3D printing system to make mice cells that mimic those of the cerebral cortex. The researchers include Yongcheng Jin, Ellina Mikhailova, Ming Lei, Sally A. Cowley and others.

Finnish startup CurifyLabs has launched a GMP compliant drug 3D printer using inks to allow hospitals and compounding pharmacies to make customized drug formulations.

According to Lexology, the “Innovation Trends in Additive Manufacturing” by the European Patent Office (EPO), the ¨number of international patent families (IPFs) in 3D printing grew at an average rate of 26.3% between 2013 and 2020, almost eight times faster than all other technologies combined (3.3%) over the same period. Altogether, more than 50,000 IPFs have been registered for 3D printing technologies worldwide since 2001.¨ The US has 39.8% of all 3D printing IPFs, Europe 32.9%, and Japan 13.9%., Germany has the most patents in Europe with 41% of the total, followed by France with 12%. This is great news but also potentially limiting since there are only so many ways to butter a sandwich.