Beijing funeral home uses 3D printing to reconstruct damaged faces

A Beijing funeral home is doing facial reconstruction by making 3D printed masks of the deceased. Photo: Handout

BEIJING: A funeral home in Beijing has introduced three dimensional printing to restore disfigured corpses.

The Babaoshan Funeral Home has resorted to 3D printing to reconstruct disfigured facial features or skulls of the deceased who suffered severe damage in accidents, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Family members only need provide a photograph of the deceased, the report said.

The technology makes it relatively easy for the funeral home to produce facial masks of the deceased. In the past, funeral directors or embalmers had to reconstruct damaged faces by hand using plasticine, plaster, wax or clay, which could take up to seven days to complete, a manager said.

With the 3D printing, it only takes 10 hours to produce a face mask, while partial repairs only take three hours, the report said.

The technology also enhances the accuracy of the restoration work. In the past, family members sometimes complained that the reconstructed face did not look like the deceased. With 3D printing, the facial mask looks much more similar, the manager said. - South China Morning Post