ABSTRACT
Additive manufacturing (AM) in the context of brachytherapy attempts to address shortcomings of standardized applicators with the ability of creating customized, robust, sterilizable applicators that aim to conform the applicators to suit the patient's needs. AM is a process that has been in development for the last 30 years and began with the invention of stereolithography by, Charles W. Hull. AM is also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing and refers to seven distinct process types. Prototypes and end-use components created using AM are now in use in various industries from consumer products, automotive and aerospace, to medicine utilizing a multitude of materials including plastics, ceramics, metals, and composites. AM starts with the generation of a 3D model created using a computer aided design (CAD) software program with the finished model being saved as a standard tessellation language (STL) file which breaks the model into tiny triangles.
