Additive manufacturing (AM) sometimes offers a simpler approach to production compared to conventional manufacturing, but just as often, AM is chosen because it permits a design advantage other processes cannot achieve. Eye stents used in glaucoma surgery might be an application that achieves both. Microscale 3D printing promises to simplify how these eye stents are made, while also improving the experience for the patient by reducing the number of glaucoma surgeries from two to only one.
All this is still speculative. 3D printing technology provider Boston Micro Fabrication (BMF) has been working with a maker of eye stents to explore and validate the possibility. But BMF CEO John Kawola recently described to me the promise of this application.
