German speciality chemicals company Evonik (Essen; www.evonik.com) has launched “Care M40 3DF”, under its “Vestakeep” brand name, a 3D-printable polyether ether ketone (PEEK) filament for medical applications with body contact of up to 30 days.

The material can be used in applications that range from patient-specific hearing aids to filigree prostheses and orthoses to surgical drilling aids for dentistry or individual surgical instruments. The filament has a diameter of 1.75 mm and comes in natural color on 500-gm spools. It can be processed in common extrusion-based 3D printing technologies such as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or fused deposition modeling (FDM).

Evonik said it also plans to launch an innovative PEEK-based filament with osteoconductive properties, allowing bone cells to adhere to implants more quickly. In October 2020, the German company had developed an osteoconductive PEEK to improve fusion between bones and implants (see Plasteurope.com of 01.10.2020).