Sports and Social Change http://solutions.sportsandsocialchange.org, in collaboration with the Anderson Strategy Group http://www.andersonstrategygroup.com and UCLA Anderson School of Management, released the results of a 14-week research project that explored 3D printing to address the high cost of adaptive sports equipment. 

e-NABLE, after recieving a $600K grant from Google, outlined their goals including giving 6,000 new recipients 3D printed prostheses over the next 2 years, and engaging 10,000 new fabricators (such as high-bandwidth automated fabrication via an industrial partners).

According to the inventor, Fraser Leid, “the Inspiration behind the Printed Prehensile was the idea that it came in a kit — something that a person without the limb would be able to buy and have assembled — which in turn, would greatly lessen the cost of the prosthesis and also allow the user the opportunity to personalise it (Hands building Hands).

This project from Martin Vincent Bloedorn is a 3D printed prosthetic hand which in many ways functions just like a human hand, but it uses actuated motors with a linkage that drives each finger via a threaded rod.  

According to an interview in 3DPrint, Peter Graven, a science teacher for 8th graders in Wisconsin, worked with his class to create a spiderman prosthetic hand for a local 5-year old.  

UNYQ is expanding their line of fairings, and forming partnerships with some of the biggest names within the 3D printing industry.  Today they announce a partnership with the global leaders in prosthetics, Ottobock, to provide stylish cosmetic fairings to lower limb amputees.

The Victoria Hand Project (VHP) designs and develops low-cost, highly functional, easily manufactured, upper-limb, 3D printed prostheses (3D-PP). We use advanced, yet cost effective tools such as 3D printing and 3D laser scanning, to create our devices.

3D Print reports that a Reddit Group has been working on a 3d printed arm prosthesis that can be used for weightlifting.

Thanks to University of Central Florida aerospace engineering student Albert Manero, Alex has just become the recipient of the world's first ever 3D-printed myoelectric prosthetic arm.

Engineers in Germany have built a biologically inspired artificial hand with muscles made from bundles of 'smart' wires. An electric charge is all that's needed to make these wires tense or relax, meaning the hand can operate without the bulky and cumbersome electronics that often make artificial prosthetic hands impractical.

Jonathan Yap and Gianni Renda or Swinburne University of Technology from Australia presented a paper entitlted "Low-cost 3D-printable Prosthetic Foot" at the Design4Health conference.

Limbitless Solutions, a non-profit which provides 3d printed prosthetics to children, has created a new custom arm which was delivered by a Dolphin.

3D Systems is partnering with the e-NABLE Community Foundation (ECF) to support e-NABLE, the global network of makers, inventors and designers using 3D printing to make functional, prosthetic hands that are donated to people in need.

A 3D printer in a library in Massachusettes was used to print a partial prosthetic hand for a man who was badly burned in a gas explosion 14 years ago in Guatemala, which killed two of his sisters.

A team from the University of Cape Town, working in conjunction with the Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing at the Central University of Technology in South Africa, made waves recently by developing a new mechanically operated prosthetic.

Taketo Kobayashi, collaborating with designer Yoshinori Sakamaki, is taking 3D printed prosthetic legs to the next level with their XSENSE brand, incorporating influences from anime and abstract expressions of Japanese subculture. 

The Prosthetics and Assistive Technology Challenge two-day event offered designers from the general public the opportunity to transform lives by improving the quality of life for veterans through the creation of personalized, tailored 3D printed devices.

E-NABLE is seeking help from the community of 3D printer owners worldwide to print 1000 hands by mid-September.  To support this effort, a variety of 3D printer and filament manufacturers are offering discounts.

3-D prints under National Health Services will be producing fibrocartilaginous matrix to provide as an alternative to current treatments of temporomandibular joint disorders and hence engineering TMJ discs.

After losing his left leg in 2013 Syrian civil war, Asam Hasna decided to 3D print his prosthetic leg. However, working with MENA 3D, he discovered the potential of 3D printing technology. Today, he is the leader of ROW3D (Refugee Open Ware)  organization.

Back in 1845 when Dental Surgeon developed hand prosthetic made of whalebone and metal pulleys, it was used by Corporal Coles until his last day. This went to Health Museum of South Australia, where it became inspiration for Ivan Owen to develop the world's first 3D Printed Hand Prosthetic.

Nini, a young woman who had lost her hand after an accident, was expecting a baby when e-NABLE found her. Christian Schild helped her 3D print her hand after 2 months of hurdles of lacking material. While the Indonesian woman is happy for her new life with her child, 3D Printing continues to serve the world.

13 year-old girl Rebekah Jensen from Virgina was surprised when she received 3D Printed prosthetic hand at Marymount University. When falimy was rejected the traditional prosthetic hand by insurance companies, Dr. Eric Bubar through e-NABLE helped Rebekah for prosthetic hand costing as low as 50$.

Amos, a young boy from Uganda was helped by Dr. Elizabeth Langran who brought the case to Marymount University. Amos from Arlington Academy of Hope received the prosthetic arm several years later when his real arm was torn off by an animal.

Open Bionics, a prosthesis developing company has just paired with gaming company Eidos Montreal to create royalty free prosthetic hand based on Deus Ex franchise. Although prototype, they have perfect functionality combined with Sci-Fi look and will be available by next year.

Amy Karle, a media artist, is prototyping a hand after she wished an exoskeleton for herself. Working with bioscientist Chris Venter in Pier 9's Bio/Nano Lab and Autodesk materials scientist John Vericella, she is currently developing the hand using Stem cells and Ember printer.

Frankie Grieco of Wilmington, a 9 year-old kid was born without right hand and always wished to ride bicycle. Her mother, Rachel approached e-NABLE, and 18 third-grade boys in Frankie’s Cub Scout pack helped him build his prosthetic 3d Printed hand.

11 year-old Logan was unable to shoot into basketballs with his traditional prosthetic. Combining efforts of AIO Robotics and 3D printing for Everyone(3D4E), Logan received his 3 fingered prosthetic hand which he tested at UCLA campus for perfect shoots.

Lillie McGregor, four year-old girl from Glengormle was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome, which has left her unable to use the fingers of her left hand. Thanks to 3D Printing of e-NABLE, she received a brand new prosthetic hand. Craig Kelly, a second year mechanical engineering student helped her get Rapunzel-themed hand.

After forming an Inter-Continental partnership between Ishmael, Joe and Sena, e-NABLE was founded for Ghana. With no 3D Printers in ghana, they had to deliver 40 pre-printed hands, later to set the remarkable chapter.

With normal prosthetics, you can have motor functions, but not the sensory touch. Researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies have built a 3D printed prosthetic hand that can help you "feel" while you touch. Fingertip is composed of an electrical sensor coated in a polymer, which translates surface coarseness into current pulses relayed to a nerve in the arm.

Anthonny, a four year-old boy in chile recently received a prosthetic hand from e-NABLE. With 4 member e-NALBE team, Prohand3D developed a prosthetic hand for anthonny after Team Unlimbited arm design, which was printed resembling Spiderman.

Yukako, a japanese mother, was inspired by the 3D printed prosthetics being delivered around the globe. After downloading the blueprints from the internet, she instantly reached 3D prnting companies and brought a prosthetic hand for his son, Siego. Unhappy with simple design, she approached e-NABLE for help, who printed them Cyborg Design Hand.

Niazai from Afghanistan was using a poorly made prosthesis that was creating some serious infection to his leg. After meeting Marco, an engineer from Trieste, Italy, he received a 3D Printed Prosthetic leg with DeltaWasp 20 40 design, free of charge. Later, he also received a new home from Trieste Refugees Association.

Frankie Flood, professor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM), is working on "Next Step" with help of three of UWM students. Next Step is a project that involves the creation of a 3D printable prosthetic leg covering to restore anatomical shape of the affected limb, to be customizable and to be 3D printable specifically for Veterans that intend to have leg prosthetic designed according to their personality.

After meeting a horrible accident with a train, James Young, 22 year-old from london, lost his arm just to get a bionic arm for himself. This 4.5kg Cyborg arm, inspired from character Snake of game Metal Gear Solid, is multi-function with some being as battery power at backpack, mood lightings and laser torch.

Dubai had it's future office 3d printed recently, and now it is looking for medical field to be taken care by 3D printing technology. The Dubai Health Authority announced to create prosthetic limbs for patients for less than Dh400(108.9$) and develop printable ceramic teeth in less than 20 minutes around 2025. The Authority believes 3D printing will accelerate patients’ healing process by up to 80 per cent.

A team of fifteen students from Massimiliano Massimo Institute,Rome, made a 3-D printer which makes prosthetic hands from plastic waste, received blessings from Pope Fracis. These 3d Printers are going to Uganda and Congo to make new hands for people maimed in civil wars, accidents, and by disease after crowd-funding from Crowd4Africa

German Paralympian cyclist, Denise Schindler will be using 3d Printed leg prosthetic for 2016 Rio Olympics. AutoDesk will be providing her with replacement prosthetic, and she believes it is far better as previous plaster prosthetic was slow to produce and relatively expensive.

Nunavut amputee, Romeo Tucci, suffered frostbite in early April, and was left with two missing hands. With help from his sister, Christina, he approached World of 3D Printing company and will soon be receiving his 3D Printed hands as the parts have already been printed.

Morriston Hospital in Swansea is testing a revolutionary and attracting looking new Splint to help people with damaged brachial plexus causing paralysis, by connecting the spine to the upper limbs. This research project is the result of Mr.Lloyd, surgical design expert Dominic Eggbeer and 26-year-old patient Tom Wheeler and is being trialed by kickboxing champ Leif Thobroe.

Emelie Strömshed from School of Engineering at Lund University in Sweden, has developed a step-by-step process to combine prosthetic arm socket CAD data with 3D scan data of a patients residual limbs to create perfectly fitting 3D printed prosthetic arm sockets. This process is intended to guide prosthetist without requiring extensive experience in CAD and also allows socket to be adopted for passive and active myoelectric prostheses.

Nia Technologies, Canadian nonprofit which provides “3D PrintAbility” orthopedic solutions in developing countries, received over $1.5M CAD ($1.16M USD) by Grand Challenges Canada, Google.org, Autodesk Foundation, and Stronger Philanthropy. Already undergone preliminary testing in Uganda in 2015, Nia Technologies will now be helping 225 children and young people to walk with 3d Printed Prosthetics.

Damba Koroma, a survivor of Sierra Leone Civil war was left without a hand, thanks to Florida Atlantic University engineering graduate students who build her 3D Printed Prosthetic hand out of their pockets. Weinthal and Coarsey are now looking forward with bigger hopes for their "The Bionic Glove Project".

The four day annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) event in Las Vegas had its "Printing with a Purpose" campaign held by Robo3D for funding e-NABLE Community Foundation. Robo3D announced that they received 35 3-D Printed Prosthetics which were used in Enable Community Foundation's recent 'Hand-a-thon' held on the expo floor during BodyHacking Con in Austin.

Emmy Hoffman from Philadelphia was born with Symbrachydactly, which didn't allow her to fingers to grow since birth. Shoemaker and a team at Mission College collaborated to produce a 3D Printed Prosthetic hand for Emmy, helping her ride her new bike again.

Around 2014 Youbinoics announced about their Prosthetic hand which received quite an attention, and now it is here for just €1,200 and not €20,000, thanks to 3D Printers. It comes with flexing the finger and carpus tendons will trigger the hand and fingers to activate and Arduino microprocessor equipped.

Daniel Hobbs, 11 year-old was born with congenital absence of his lower left arm for which his parents approached to prosthetics but were upset with prices and constant fitting changes. However, 3DSystems and Intel designed them $400 3d Printed Prosthetic Hand which weighs less than 2 pounds and comes in 16 movable pieces.

The Enable Community Foundation has challenged individuals to design a 3D printed sport-specific terminal device (TD) to fit an industry standard transradial prosthetic socket. The deadline for design submissions is July 31st, 2016 with winner getting $750 which will be judged on points system.

Sheffield-based design company Fripp Design developed a process for 3D printing with silicone materials called Picsima, which received UK patent today. The Picsima silicone 3D printing process can be used to 3D print realistic prosthetic body parts using high-quality 3D scans, including noses, ears and even dentures.

36-year-old Rajesh Ojha, a mechanic, lost four fingers of his left hand in 2015 while working in industrial plants, received a prosthetic through the experimental venture between Mumbai-based (India)  Anatomiz3D Healthcare and Dr, Mukesh Doshi. The prosthetic modified was Gyrobot’s open source Flexy Hand 2 design produced after using a 3D printer and hand held scanner.

Ethan James, a 10 year-old boy received prosthetic hand for himself after he and his fellow fourth-grade classmates at Roy B. Kelley Elementary School designed it. With some role from e-NABLE, this boy born without his right hand, is now able to live a better life with his new hand.

Researchers at University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have developed a Prosthetic Implant that can be fitted as per amputee requirement and timing. These implants need t conform to patient's specific anatomy and require 12 month rehabilitation. However, FDA has not approved implanted prosthetic sockets for general use; but only for research purposes.

Eastman Chemical Company recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Chung-Ang University on a collaborative project. With this project, the school will use 3D printing technology at its Seoul campus to produce prosthetic hands with Eastman Amphora™ 3D polymer, an advanced thermoplastic.

In Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, the founders of robotics startup Exiii revealed their latest open-source prototype called Exii Hackberyy which only costs about $200. The Exiii Hackberry has a flexible wrist, partially motorized fingers and low-cost parts such as an Arduino controller and a digital camera battery.

Colleen Murray lost her left ear in car accident 55 years ago became the first person in Australia to receive a new ear produced from 3D Printing technology. Prosthetist Brenton Cadd and team made the ear after using a scan and skin-like silicon material.

Shirley Anderson lost his lower jaw after surgery and radiotherapy for his tongue cancer diagnosed in 1998. However, meeting with Dr. Travis Bellicchi, a maxillofacial prosthetics specialist, he received a 3D Printed Jaw prosthetic printed from Formalabs 3D Printer.

NY based Create Prosthetics created the first ever medical-grade 3D Printed arm prosthetic which was delivered to a young Haitian mother by Jeff Erenstone. The 20 year old Haitian mother, Danis Exulise had lost her hand after being trapped under rubble of earthquake in 2010. The arm weighs 2 pounds and Create Prosthetics now seek North America for selling these arm kits.

Special Neck Switch for19-year old Christopher Hills with Cerebral palsy and Quadriplegia, Customized Bionic eye for people with vision loss, Atari Joystick for a young Atari lover, Personalized Grip Covers for Disabled workers, uncountable prosthetics for disabled, are some of the achievements 3D Printing has been grabbing. There's still more for 3D Printing to come, and still more to present landmarks.

Karissa Mitchell from New York, was born without her right hand, but students at Siena College helped her get 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand. The students, along with an eight-member team at e-NABLE, created a 3D-printed prosthetic hand in an ice blue color with decorative snowflakes to represent Mitchell’s favorite movie, Frozen.

Ottawa Hospital of Canada is revolutionizing the medicine with 3D Printed Body parts and research prototypes. With replica body parts as surgical guides, customized prosthetics, low-cost medical devices, surgical tools and even new skin for burn patients, Dr. Frank Rybicki is seeing to generate a commercial hub for themselves.

With funds received from Vinnova, Innventia has started it's project AMPOFORM (Additive Manufacturing of Prosthetic products based on Forest Raw Materials) which will utilize nano-cellulose and carbon fiber sourced from lignin to produce Prosthetics. Since these 3D Printed Prosthetics will be produced from plant-based material, the team believes it will reduce burden on fossil-based materials and simultaneously create environment-friendly methods.

Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rijeka completed a complicated operation by attaching a 3D-printed ear to a patient who lost his ear due to skin cancer (Basal Cell Carcinoma). On February 20, Dr. Dubravko Manestar attached the ear which was made from biocompatible silicone.

3D Printing is helping the Veterans and War Officers to regain their parts of life lost during battle by providing them with Prosthetics. Liacouras, Director of Service for 3D Medical Applications Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, is one of those who uses 3D Printing Technology to improve people’s quality of life by pushing the fields of prosthetics and orthotics forward.

Dozens of schools participating in 3D Printing Project by e-NABLE Community have incorporated the e-NABLE hand design and assembly into their S.T.E.M. based learning courses. Some schools, like Crossroads Intermediate School, have gone above and beyond the creation of 3D printed hands. Looking forward to evolving the 3D Printing Technology, e-NABLE is seeking students and teachers with their first CREATE T.I.M.E. Design contest.

Alfie from Ballynahinch in Co. Down was born without his right hand when Megan Tissington from Dublin designed the robotic arm for him as part of her final year project at The National College of Art and Design. The project is called “aumentarM” which is a 3D printed arm and hand system for children aged between four and 12 years.

Team UnLimibited has launched its Alfie Edition Arm 2.0 which is a modification of its previous version, the Isabella Edition which had issues with growing anatomy of children and hence its proportionality with user. They have currently hosted the files on Thingyverse through Customizer and are expecting the global users to provide them feedback on the new launch.

Mir Bayyaan Baloch, a kid from Pakistan was born with a partially developed arm when engineers at Bioniks, Bayyaan decided to present him 3D printed prosthetic arm. The 3D Printed Prosthetic Arm took 2-3 days to print which was added with his favourite "Super Hero" touch and Bayyaan could now move his fingers with the help of his elbow movement and hold things

Ten-year-old Torrae Owen and her father Ivan Owen, were recently invited to talk about their gift that keeps on giving at TEDxFoggyBottom in Washington, D.C. They were the one who developed a 3D printed prosthetic hand for a child named Liam through e-NABLE. Ivan currently participates with e-NABLE as a volunteer designer and Torrae has learned how to make hands and how to teach others to do so.

MatterHackers, Ultimaker, e-NABLE and Pinshape recently teamed up to launch a design contest- Within Reach. The contests ask to create a 3D printable tool to assist individuals with limited use of their hands and the winners will be judged by Dave Gaylord, Jen and Ivan Owen, Les Hall and Brandy Leigh Scott. The entry can be made till September 6th and prizes include 3D printers from Ultimaker, MatterControl T10 3D Printer Controllers, MatterHackers PRO Series Filament, and MatterHackers gift cards.

The first 3D Printing Factory had already started construction in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The project started after the Fengdu county government of the municipality and the Hkable Biological 3D (China) Co Ltd, a joint venture between U.-based Hkable and local biotechnology company Jintai, signed a cooperation agreement on Tuesday. The factory is estimated to cost 50 million yuan ($7.5 million) and will produce human part molds to help with surgery for orthopedics, burns and dentistry, and artificial parts such as limbs.

17-year old Aaron Westbrook from Ohio is seeking e-NABLE to create 3D Printed Prosthetics which will have much less impact on the environment. With his official non-profit organization, Form5, he is developing ways to make low-cost 3D printed devices from reused and recycled plastic, especially ABS and PLA.He has also started a Kickstarter campaign to grab some funds to buy the tools required for this innovative idea.

Felipe, an 8-year old from Colombia was born without his right hand when he decided to seek e-NABLE community for the help and wishing for a Captain America 3D Printed Arm. Christian Silva and his team through the e-NABLE Colombia 3D Printed his Captain America Arm using Reprap Prusa I3 3D printer which took more than a year.

CIFP Don Bosco, a vocational training center located in the Basque Country of Spain, began working with 3D printers and soon its students and staff signed up with e-NABLE as volunteers. They immediately met two recipients from Mexico – 54 year old Rodolfo and 57 year old Gustavo for which Don Bosco students created the Flexy Hand 2 model. Since then, CIFP Don Bosco is working with e-NABLE to help people requiring prosthetics for a better life.

8-Year old Michael Bell was suffering with Moebius Syndrome, a neurological disorder that left him without his left arm. However, he received a 3D Printed Hand from CMU’s MakerBot Innovation Center, Breckenridge where Austin Brittain created the device for him using the e-NABLE template. The device was named Phoneix hand and costs less than $100.

Autodesk, Enable Community Foundation (ECF) and Voodoo Manufacturing have prepared the biggest hand-drive to date with help from volunteers, including 6,000 volunteer hours just from Autodesk team. The 28 Autodesk offices in different parts of world combined to work on 750 Prosthetic Hands for Children who have lost their body parts and helped them recover into a better life.

Prashant Gade, a maker from Pune, India met a 5-year old girl who was missing both of her arms from the elbows down and he created Bio_Nick, a 3D printed electronic prosthetic arm actuated by signals from the foot for her. Motivated by the cause, Gade launched an Indiegogo Campaign with the goal of raising $150,000 and create more prosthetics for the children having similar difficulties in life.

Thierry Oquidam from France, IT Director in communication started volunteering to help as the e-NABLE Matcher for all of Europe and later delivered the first 3D printed e-NABLE hand in France to a young fellow named Maxence. He has made 7 devices and the whole e-NABLE France chapter has delivered 9 devices so far with currently 15 in process for the recipients requiring 3D Printed Hand or Arm. He is currently seeking donations in form of 3D Printers or materials to create more devices and help more people in need.

Nick Brookins, media services engineer at Akamai Technologies was left with amputed finger in the hospital after a motorcycle accident in the mountains near San Diego. Inspired by the original Owen Replacement Finger design, he then developed his own 3D Printed Prosthetic called the Knick Finger from scratch using OpenScad code and printing it on his Printrbot Simple. The 3D Printed Knick Finger also protects his very sensitive nerve endings and reduces pain, he stated.

From 3D Printed Prosthetics, Super-Healing Casts, Hairs, Skin and 3D Printed Micro-Lens for surgery to Implants of almost every body part, 3D Printing is helping in medical field making everything possible for the miserable lives of patients. But what is the future of 3D Printing? One day we will be able to 3D Print entire human body from simple DNA, as some researchers have already started to work on 3D Printing Real Organs for transplants in human bodies.

Aaron Brown of AXISLAB3D, an e-NABLE Community volunteer and sponsor of January CREATE T.I.M.E Design Challenge started working on 3D Printing when he sold his truck to buy first ROBO3D Printer. Till date, he has created over 50 devices for children in need with his most recent recipient, a young girl and her family who came to visit him at his 3D print shop in Grand Rapids, MI.

French-based company 3DCeram worked with Dr. Joël Brie and the maxillofacial surgery department at Limoges University Hospital to develop Cranial Prosthetics using 3D Printing technology. The 3D Printer used is Ceramaker which utilizes pastes made from photopolymers combined with alumina, zirconia or hydroxypatite (HA) and can 3D Print Cranial Prosthesis in about 48 hours using SLA Technology.

Five year-old Katelyn Vinick from Texas was born without a fully-formed left hand, and she and her family looking for an alternative to cosmetic hand for which they approached to Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library, home of the Jocelyn H. Lee Innovation Lab, a free community makerspace containing, among other tools, multiple 3D printers. Branch Librarian, Jim Johnson selected the e-NABLE’s popular Team Unlimbited Arm for her which was 3D Printed after scaling the design.

e-NABLE has launched an Android App called Augmented Reality Raptor Reloaded Assembly Manual which available on Google Play Store and has been created specifically for e-NABLE ommunity by Derek Delizo, a junior in electrical engineering at University of Washington Bothell,along with mentors Rafael Silva andIvan Owen. The main goal of this new AR learning app is to teach the volunteers how to assemble prosthetics on their own.

Veronica Yoko Plebani, an Italian athlete who suffered impairments to both hands and feet due to bacterial meningitis, is now ready to hit Rio Olympics 2016 with the help of 3D Printing. Marco Avaro, a Biomedical Engineer and part of the WASPmedical team 3D printed the perfect braces for Veronica to hit up the canoeing.

Lake Placid, New-York based Create Orthotics and Prosthetics is launching integrated medical grade 3D Printing system which allows clinical practitioners to design 3D Printed devices in their own clinics. Currently allowing eight unique devices, the cost has been reduced by 65% and works with Flexy Fit prosthetics filament for light weight devices.

Brian Jordan lost his parts of index finger and thumb after an accident with saw and started seeking prosthetic for which he reached Robiotech Corp. Working with lab manager Tony Ingelido at the MakerBot Innovation Center at University of Maryland, they together developed 3D Printed Finger Prosthetics. Currently, they are awaiting the plans of registering the device with FDA.

Team of researchers headed by David Scott at MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Technology Office Innovation Laboratory (TOIL) are now working on ways of improving the 3D Printed Prosthetics. Better finger motion, non-electronic temperature, motor technology and tactile feedback are the starts, and they can be added to any e-NABLE prosthetics at a cost around $350.

Shawn Jones, who received Shapeways Education Grant 2016 has revealed a 3D Printed Prototype of Prosthetic that will allow not just walking or running, but also swimming. Working with Operation Blue Pride (OBP), a non-profit organization, he will use the $1,000 grant to launch the device and help veterans who lost their limb to swim.

Australian researchers from Queensland University of Technology and Brisbane-based Hear and Say Centre are working on FutureHear Project which aims to create 3D printed prosthetic ears for children suffering from microtia, a condition with underdeveloped/missing ears. After failing to receive any help from government, they have now headed to Pozible Crowdfunding campaign for raising around $200,000.

A team from the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) in India has developed unique software, which helped them make a 3D printed ear in just one week for 32-year-old patient from Kondhwa. The newly developed software is called Osto3D, and reduces the fabrication time greatly. The successful auricular prosthesis surgery was performed last month, when doctors from the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) attached the artificial ear.

Joni Inman and Anna Claire Richey, two high school students from Paris High School have formed a charity called Give Me Five with partnership with a software company to distribute 3D printed prosthetics. Their first 3D Printed Prosthetic, which took 28 hours to print and 7 hours to assemble, is awaiting approval from their software company. Although the medical prosthetic hand can cost around $11,000, the Give Me Five prosthetics will cost only $75 and will be distributed around for free to those who cannot afford it.

A Colombian company called Fabrilab founded by engineer Christian Silva in 2015 has started manufacturing Unique Prostheses for children amputees who cannot afford them. These personalized prosthetics mimic the attributes of their favorite superheroes and cost around $250-$500 each and some functionality to boot, with an ability to grasp ordinary objects.

Victoria Sear, a graduate student from University of Michigan- Dearborn was introduced with 3D Printing Technology during an internship with SME and variety of things 3D Printing could offer. As a Bioengineering student, she was fascinated to learn about 3D Printed Prosthetics as replacement limbs, 3D Printed Heart models that were used to help prepare medical teams for surgical interventions, and a wide variety of medical devices that could be custom fabricated for patient-specific needs.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known in English as Doctors Without Borders, a foundation that reached out to 3D Printing Technology for its hospital to treat war-wounded Iraqis without access to health care. As the reach extended, the MSF Foundation started providing 3D Printed Prosthetics to Syria, Palestine and Libya through the hospital’s reconstructive surgery program. These prosthetics are faster and cheaper to produce using desktop Ultimaker 3D Printer.

A 29-year old, Dr. Lars Brouwers is a physician from Tilburg, Netherlands, who is on a mission to deliver 3D Printed Prosthetic Hands to children who faced war violence in Sierra Leone. For the charity, he is also delivering a desktop 3D Printer, Ultimaker 3 with cost of $3,000 but donated for free by Ultimaker. Using a 1995 Saab for three week long drive to Sierra Leone, they will supporting the charitable international Global Minimum organization, and its Innovate Salone program for school children, with their 3D printed prosthetic hands.

The research team, Gil Weinberg, Minoru Shinohara, Chris Fink, and Levent Degertekin, have been working with amputee Jason Barnes, a musician, to develop a prosthetic hand based on Open Bionics’ open source design that can move each finger individually. Instead of electromyogram (EMG), they used Ultrasound to detect muscle movements which allowed them to create prosthetic that could move each finger individually.

Four students from MVJ College of Engineering, Bangalore had planned to 3D Print a Robotic Prosthetic Arm for their Final project in the college. But things were not easy, for which they turned to Fracktal Works, a Bangalore-based 3D Printing Company which helped the students to optimize their design for 3D printing and add a power source with 12 Gesture codes into the hand. The final device was 3D printed in PLA, in 40 parts, which was then assembled.

Porimy 3D Printing Technology Co., Ltd, a start-up offshoot of the Kunshan Industrial Technology Research Institute, China, has announced their high-performance 3D Printer that can 3D Print Dentures after 3D scanning for a superior fit. They also released a ceramic slurry to 3D Print the prosthesis using the 3D Printer, which will cost around ¥700,000 to ¥800,000, translating to around $110,000 US.

Francisco Piedra, 61-year old man from Florida, was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis in 2016, for which he was given drug Heparin. The drug made situation worse and led to clots, forcing surgeons to amputate his hands and legs below knees, for which he approached Hanger Clinics from where he received Legs, but not Hands since they were above $100,000. Ultimately, eNABLE came to help and through Richard Brown, he received 3D Printed Prosthetic hand which took 20 hours each to 3D Print.