think3D Inaugurates India’s Largest 3D Printing Facility in Vizag

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2019-02-26 11:27:00

SPANNING ACROSS 17,500 SQ.FT AND FEATURING A DEDICATED DESIGN CENTER, SCAN CENTER, TINKERING LAB, OFFICE SPACE AND MEETING ROOMS, THE NEW 3D PRINTING FACILITY IS TOUTED TO BE THE LARGEST 3D PRINTING FACILITY IN INDIA TILL DATE

think3D entered into an agreement with AP MedTech Zone; a medical device manufacturing park located in Vizag to set up India’s largest integrated 3D Printing facility. After 18 months of brisk construction, the facility was ready and was inaugurated by Shri. Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

AP MedTech Zone is a novel initiative by provincial government of Andhra Pradesh, India to make Andhra Pradesh an internationally recognized manufacturing hub for medical devices, help in national agenda of import substitution and reduce healthcare costs in India. Currently, around 70% of medical devices used in hospitals in India are imported leading to loss in employment, foreign exchange and increased costs for healthcare in India. To solve these issues and make healthcare in India affordable, the government had devised this manufacturing park under the MAKE IN INDIA initiative.

This new 3D Printing facility is conceptualized to offer rapid prototyping and batch production services to various manufacturers present in the park. To cater to the needs of the manufacturers, think3D has set up 3D Design, 3D Scan, 3D Print, Batch Production centers in this facility. A manufacturer can come to think3D facility with an idea and leave with a small batch of finished items that they can assemble in their facility.

Speaking about the newly inaugurated facility, Mr. Raja Sekhar Upputuri, Co-Founder of think3D said, “Medical device manufacturing requires huge up-front investment in R&D, machinery and QC facilities. Some of these facilities have very little utilization rate but are required as part of the manufacturing process”.

Taking this into consideration, the government had decided to set-up these common facilities in partnership with private entities and offers these facilities to manufacturers within park on pay per use basis thus reducing the upfront investment from manufacturer cost drastically. 3D printing & 3D design facility is chosen as one such common facility”.

Spanning across 17,500 sq.ft and comprising of two floors, the new facility consists a dedicated shop floor, a design center, scan center, tinkering lab, office space and meeting rooms.

Above: Various Manufacturing Units at AMTZ/Image Credit: think3D

“This facility will be used for prototype and batch production of parts for medical devices like MRI, ECG, Ultrasound machines and so on. Once these parts are manufactured, they shall undergo various tests in the biomaterial testing lab present in the park and thereafter these parts will be assembled and send to Gamma Irradiation Facility present inside the park for sterilization. This way, a complete ecosystem for product development, manufacturing, testing is available in the facility”, said Prudhvi Reddy, Co-Founder of think3D.

The facility will provide a number of services including:

1. 3D printing through numerous industrial 3D printing technologies like Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM), Stereolithography (SLA), Digital Light Processing (DLP), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), MultiJet Printing (MJP), ColorJet Printing (CJP), PolyJet Printing (PJP), MultiJet Fusion (MJF), Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS).
2. 3D designing services by offering CAD Modelling, Organic Modelling services using softwares like SolidWorks, UniGraphics, Maya, ZBrush, & Ansys.
3. 3D scanning services with state of art scanning equipment like Artec, Hexagon, Solutionx & Shining3D.
4. CNC & EDM machining and also Injection moulding & vacuum casting for batch production needs.
5. And post-processing services like vacuum heat treatment, machining, shot blasting, sanding, spray painting to offer the best quality surface finish to customers.

This facility, which is one of the largest until now features 3D Printers from companies like EOS, HP, Stratasys, 3D Systems. It has one EOS M290 DMLS machine, 1 EOS P110 SLS Machine, 1 HP 4200 MJF among many other 3D Printers.

The facility also has a well-equipped tinkering lab for innovators & start-ups to work on their ideas. In the tinkering lab, there is a bio printer, composite printer, electronics printer and multi-tool printer. The facility will be completely up and running by January 1, 2019.

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