Design and Manufacturing Process

The Meshworks design and manufacturing process combines advanced technologies, dedicated design skills and metal additive manufacturing to produce custom implants of the highest quality quickly and efficiently.
Technology

There is a strong clinical precedent for titanium implant scaffolds in bone reconstruction surgeries, and they typically give excellent clinical outcomes. But for patients with complex bone conditions such as large bone or significant displacement, it can be difficult for surgeons to prescribe a standard, off-the-shelf implant of the ideal size and shape for the defect. While some solutions exist for surgeons to customise existing implants, the design process can be daunting, and procurement can be both prohibitively slow and expensive. Consequently, custom implants are often not considered even in cases where they could offer significant benefit.

Meshworks’ design and production platform has been designed in close collaboration with surgeons to create an intuitive design process that can be used to plan the most complex cases. By combining advanced design tools with rapid, state-of-the-art additive manufacturing capabilities, Meshworks aims to reduce patient readmission and improve quality of life for patients with a broad range of bone conditions.

Design
After an implant is prescribed, surgeons meet with our dedicated engineers to design the best implant for the patient on our online design platform. Simulations are run to ensure that each implant will perform well in the clinic. Both our design platform and validation software are certified to meet medical industry standard ISO13485. 
Production
Implants are produced in Oxford at our ISO13485 accredited manufacturing facility. Using metal additive manufacturing (AM), specifically Selective Laser Melting (SLM) — a powder bed fusion (PBF) process, implants are built using additive manufacturing layer by layer from titanium alloy powder. SLM is a rapid 3D printing technique that uses a high-power laser to melt and fuse metallic powders together, and can produce more complex geometries than traditional fabrication processes, stimulating innovative solutions that can be tailored to specific individual anatomical defects. The SLM process is also a fast manufacturing process that allows more control over surface finish and increases the capacity of osseointegration.

Producing orthopaedic implants via the SLM AM process also allows for the creation of mesh constructs, which means the implant stiffness is decreased due to thinner strut formation which more closely mimics bone structure.

Under our validated quality management system, each implant and its associated surgical instruments are independently evaluated to ensure they meet the prescription before being delivered directly to hospital.

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