Bionic Pets: Restoring Animal Mobility with Custom 3D-Printed Prosthetics and Orthotics

Application Overview & Challenges

Bionic Pets operates within the veterinary medical device segment, specializing in professional-grade veterinary orthotics and prosthetics. The company serves animal owners and veterinarians globally by producing fully customized parts tailored to each animal’s unique anatomy, weight, and activity level. These devices are designed to meet functional and mobility needs while ensuring comfort and durability for the animals’ day-to-day life.

To support a growing demand and output for affordable custom prosthetics, Bionic Pets required a solution that could:
• Enable highly customized prosthetic feet, specifically adjusting the thickness and stiffness based on each animal’s weight, activity level, and the type of movements.
• Support the production of soft, flexible components that can be produced on demand with faster turnaround times.
• Reduce overall production time, as current cycle time ranges between 6-48 hours depending on stiffness level of the print.

Solution

Bionic Pets has previously relied on the Raise3D E2 IDEX 3D printer for their in-house production of customized prosthetic components. While the E2 provided dependable dual-extrusion capabilities, the increasing demand for faster turnaround for customized TPU 3D printing has led the team to upgrade to the Raise3D E3 IDEX 3D printer. Designed for faster printing of flexible materials, the E3, paired with the Raise3D’s Flexible Filament Auxiliary Feeder, enables quicker TPU prints of up to 200 mm/s and better print consistency. With the E3’s IDEX 3D printing capabilities, Bionic Pets can print multiple iterations and colors within a single job, typically producing two parts per print cycle. And depending on the size and stiffness requirements of each prosthetic foot, print times were reduced to as quick as 1 hour, enabling flexible and responsive production scheduling.

Using Kexcelled’s TPU 95A filament, Bionic Pets was able to produce durable prosthetic components that adapt to different surfaces while providing shock absorption, comfort, and enhanced mobility for animals. Combined with Raise3D Filament Dry Boxes and Flexible Filament Auxiliary Feeder, this optimized workflow has led to improved print quality, higher material yield, and more efficient production of customized veterinary prosthetics.

Results

Following the upgrade to the Raise3D E3 paired with the Flexible Filament Auxiliary Feeder and Filament Dry Boxes, Bionic Pets achieved measurable improvements in production efficiency, product quality, and manufacturing flexibility. Key results include:
• Streamlined design iterations and resulting in faster production times, down to as quick as 1 hour of print time, depending on size and stiffness required.
• Enabled on-demand manufacturing with shorter turnaround times to better meet individual patient needs.
• Improved print performance, quality, & consistency with fewer gaps, holes, and stringing issues.
• Increased material efficiency and filament spool utilization.
• Produce replacement parts within the same time frame.

Future Outlook

Through the adoption of Raise3D’s IDEX 3D printing solution, Bionic Pets successfully optimized it’s production workflow of custom veterinary prosthetics and orthotics. The transition to the E3 enabled more efficient manufacturing, improved part quality, and greater design flexibility, allowing the company to provide highly customized prosthetics and orthotics solutions that help more animals regain their mobility and independence.

With a fully in-house, on-demand manufacturing workflow, Bionic Pets continue to scale their operation while maintaining high standards of quality, customization, and affordability that ensures every animal they treat receives a solution tailored to their unique needs.