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

用于医疗器械行业的三维微结构的规模化制造。该项目旨在通过一种新颖的软压印工艺将微型三维原型制作转化为廉价的大批量制造工艺。虽然三维打印被誉为一种颠覆性的技术，因为它可以直接从图纸上打印复杂的形状，但对于大批量生产来说，它在微尺度上的速度太慢了。这项研究将开发用于无痛采血、分析和药物输送的微型设备。这些微型设备的成本效益制造有望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.