Materialise NV said today it inked a distribution deal with Canon Lifecare Solutions to distribute its Materialise Mimics Innovation software and care suits in Japan.

Through the agreement, workstations and 3D printers offered by Canon Lifecare Solutions will be offered with Materialise’s open software solutions, including the newly launched Materialise Mimics inPrint designed to allow hospitals to 3D print models based on data from imaging systems.

“At Materialise, we have devoted more than 25 years to identifying meaningful applications of 3D printing and developing the backbone of software and solutions needed to successfully bring them to market. We see incredible potential for 3D printing in medicine, a vision which we share with Canon Lifecare Solutions. By distributing our software solutions, Canon Lifecare Solutions will help accelerate our aim of helping the medical community better integrate 3D printing into their workflow and begin unleashing the benefits it offers, which include potential cost savings and patient care improvement,” Materialise exec veep Hilde Ingelaere said in a press release.

“We at Canon Lifecare Solutions believe in working as closely as possible and as flexibly as possible with local partners in various markets in order to serve our customers. We are proud to now count Materialise as one of these partners, and are honored to be offering software solutions from the Materialise Mimics platform to our customers to empower meaningful applications of medical 3D printing,” Canon Lifecare Solutions prez Koji Ishiwata said in a prepared statement.