Scaling manufacture of three-dimensional microstructures for the medical devices industry

医疗器械行业三维微结构的规模化制造。该项目旨在通过一种新的软压花工艺将微型三维原型转化为廉价的大批量制造工艺。尽管三维打印被誉为一项颠覆性技术，因为它可以直接根据图纸打印复杂的形状，但它在微观规模上太慢，无法进行大批量生产。这项研究将开发用于无痛采血、血液分析和药物输送的微型设备。这些具有成本效益的微型设备的制造预计将进入大型医疗设备行业，从而在护理点和药物输送市场建立新的业务。

Scaling manufacture of three-dimensional microstructures for the medical devices industry. This project aims to transform microscale three-dimensional prototyping into a cheap high volume manufacturing process through a novel soft embossing process. Although three-dimensional printing has been hailed as a disruptive technology, because it can print complex shapes directly from drawings, it is too slow at microscale for high volume manufacture. This research will develop microdevices for painless collection of blood, its analysis, and drug delivery. Cost-effective manufacture of these microdevices is expected to tap into the large medical devices industry, leading to establishing new businesses in the point-of-care and drug delivery markets.