Himed, Adva Cera Collaborate on Production Path for 3D-Printed Bioceramic Devices

Himed and Adva Cera have formed a strategic partnership to create a complete development-to-production pathway for 3D-printed calcium phosphate (CaP) components used in dental, orthopedic, and spinal applications. Customers working with Himed to design and optimize additive bioceramic implants will now have a seamless route from inception and planning through scalable production with Adva Cera.

The partnership builds on the 2024 launch of Himed’s Bioceramics Center of Excellence (BCoE), a contract research and development center that allows medtech startups and established manufacturers to leverage Himed’s 35 years of materials expertise to refine 3D-printed bioceramic designs before committing to full-scale production. With Adva Cera as a scale-up partner, customers can smoothly transition from prototype to production without requalifying materials, validating a contract manufacturer, restarting development cycles, or making significant capital expenditures in printing infrastructure.

Fully bioceramic implants have long been a focus of research in orthopedics and dentistry. Since calcium phosphate is the mineral phase of bone itself, a CaP implant can bond directly to surrounding tissue in ways that inert metals and polymers cannot. Ceramic additive manufacturing has now matured to the point where complex internal geometries with controlled porosity and intricate lattice structures can be printed reliably, and the market is responding: Additive Manufacturing (AM) Research projects the ceramics 3D printing sector to reach nearly $900 million by 2033. The leap from prototype to qualified, large-scale production, however, remains a practical barrier. The Himed–Adva Cera partnership aims to close this gap.

“Customers who come to the Bioceramics Center of Excellence now have a clear production pathway,” Himed President Craig Rosenblum said. “Partnering with Adva Cera means two companies can move customers from a fully optimized 3D-printed implant design into qualified, production-scale ceramic additive manufacturing with the regulatory rigor that goes with it. Their serial production capabilities will allow our customers to bring an exciting new generation of implants to patients.”

The partnership also offers a fully domestic, vertically integrated pathway from R&D through serial production, which is becoming more important to OEMs seeking to reduce dependence on overseas additive manufacturing.

“Himed has built something immensely valuable for the medtech industry—a center where customers can develop bioceramic technologies with the help of a highly specialized team of material scientists,” Adva Cera President Hugh Roberts stated. “We’re excited to be the scale partner for that work. Our team is set up for serial production of advanced ceramic components, and our near-net-shape capabilities mean parts go quickly from the build plate to finished components. Partnering with Himed is a natural fit.”

Since 1991, Himed has been on the vanguard of bioceramics characterization. With an all-in-one research and production facility in New York, Himed supplies raw calcium phosphate biomaterials for a wide array of applications and provides tailored, biocompatible coating and texturing solutions through its MATRIX surface treatments. Himed is U.S. Food and Drug Administration-registered and ISO 13485:2016-certified.

Adva Cera, formerly SiNAPTIC Technologies and a subsidiary of SiNAPTIC Holdings, is a Broomfield, Colo.-based service bureau that leverages additive manufacturing platforms to produce technical ceramic components. Adva Cera partners with clients across the aerospace, medical, semiconductor, energy, and industrial sectors to produce advanced ceramic components; making parts that feature complex geometries and high-performance ceramic parts that conventional manufacturing methods cannot achieve. Adva Cera aims to advance the production capabilities of ceramic additive manufacturing, focusing on precision, scalability, and innovation.