Oventus Medical, a medical device company based in Brisbane, launched its new Victorian 3D printing facility at the CSIRO's Clayton offices.
The plant uses titanium 3D printing technology to produce the customised O2Vent sleep apnoea device.
It marks the next step in Oventus’ collaboration with CSIRO wherein an R&D project has grown into a beneficial partnership.
Research director of CSIRO Manufacturing, Dr Keith McLean, said the Oventus project has evolved speedily to this stage due to the CSIRO's multi-disciplinary capabilities.
{loadposition sam08}“Combining our research team’s additive manufacturing experience with the software capabilities of CSIRO’s Data61, meant we could create a one stop in-house process for making personalised mouth pieces that are individualised for each Oventus customer,” Dr McLean said.
“Additionally, we have been able to help Oventus upscale their manufacturing process to allow large volume manufacturing of the devices at the Clayton facility.”
Oventus founder, Dr Chris Hart, agreed that his business had taken advantage of CSIRO’s cutting-edge capability in both additive manufacturing and computational modelling.
“CSIRO were able to help us not only develop the 3D printing process, but also create the crucial software needed to design the individual devices,” Dr Hart said.
“Because a patient’s bite is as individual as his fingerprint, we needed special software to help us create a perfectly customised O2Vent from a patient’s dental imprints.”
The O2Vent delivers air to the back of the mouth, avoiding multiple sites of obstruction including the nose, soft palate and tongue.
The company recently listed on the ASX following a successful IPO which raised $12 million. It is set to launch in the US in early 2017. More than 37 million people suffer from snoring in that country.