3D Printed bionic hand
The 3D printing kindness has opened the doors to many possibilities. Bionics companies develop affordable assistive devices that enhance the human body. They have started the Hero Arm, a stylish multi-grip bionic hand. Upper limb prostheses exist as hooks, grippers, or expensive bionic hands.
We’re on a mission to make beautiful bionic limbs more accessible. “So the open bionics team wanted to build assistive devices to give people more freedom and independence. And team wanted these devices to be affordable. So at the moment, this fantastic bionic technology exists, but it’s out of reach for most patients because it’s so expensive. Around $1000 and open Bionic’s arms take roughly 40 hours to 3D print. The person’s limb is scanned with a tablet. The design of the prosthetic is then planned out. The prosthetic is finally 3D printed. The Bionic team wants to completely change that and make it accessible and de-marketize a really helpful technology. So at the moment, everything is really exciting at Open Bionics because we’re gearing up to launch. We’ve been trialing our bionic hands with children as young as eight; Open Bionics teamed up with the National Health Service in the UK. The NHS spends approximately $75 million per year on prosthetic services; I think the most remarkable thing about this is we’re working closely with amputees, not just designing a solution for them, they’re helping us design the solution. So yeah, I think it’s a really exciting time. We are very shortly focusing on launching the first 3D-printed bionic limb. The cool thing about my job is seeing people fitted with bionic limbs for the first time, and that’s a really big moment. Young children often don’t have access to these devices because they’re not small enough or just too expensive, so their parents can’t afford to supply them, or the NHS cannot afford to supply a patient with them. So, seeing a young child being able to move fingers individually for the first time is excellent. The future of prosthetics is low cost, lightweight, multi-grip, and excellent control. And even further in the future, it’s all about hyper-personalization.”
