The casualties of war are many and the consequences can be great. War permanently damages the lives of civilians and soldiers in more ways than one. One such cruel reality that follows war is the life-changing injuries that can be suffered. In particular injuries sustained by those from very poor families stuck in the crossfire, such as the fourteen year-old Daniel Omar from Sudan, who lost both of his arms to a bomb. Not only do these wounds threaten the lives of people with the prospect of festering wounds and infection, but in the fact that life afterwards becomes impossibly more difficult with the new handicap. Without use of legs or arms, many people are incapable of working and incapable of survival.
Mick Ebeling of the United States and Elliot Kotek of Australia, co-founders of Not Impossible Labs, named Project Daniel for Omar. With a motto of “Technology for the sake of humanity”, Not Impossible Labs has brought the technology of 3D printing in order to provide affordable massed prostheses for more than 500 000 amputees in Sudan, and has the intentions of extending aid to other countries in similar need of the technology.
Ebeling and Kotek were inspired by the work of South African Richard Van As, who developed a functional prosthetic hand dubbed the “Robohand”, and published the files and code on MakerBot’s Thingiverse site, allowing anybody with a 3D printer to duplicate the prosthetic and assemble for themselves, with significantly less time and money than other available prosthetics.
Even outside of war, 3D printed prostheses are seen as a feasible alternative for low-income families in any country, replacing $5000+ models with only $50-100 of materials. The rise of 3D print centres in metropolitan regions means that a family would not even need to own a printer in order to achieve this— a good thing, since they can range in cost from a few hundred to several thousand dollars themselves. Of course, these prosthetic limbs rely on physical stimuli in order to function, unlike the expensive myoelectric devices, and are not quite at the same level of quality as other models. However, they can restore basic functionality to the amputees who might otherwise go unassisted.
The prostheses are primarily made of the plastic, printed in many static pieces that can be joined with bolts, screws, and wires in order to make a functional arm, hand, or leg. They take only a few hours to manufacture from an available template, including the time required to measure the patient, printing, assembly, and fitting of the prosthesis. The limbs are strong, too— by finely tuning the fill percentage of each part during the print, tested prosthesis are said to withstand forces that would break a human hand.
There are other benefits to basing the prosthetic technology in 3D printing as well — the speed and ease of printing means that growing children will be able to afford multiple replacement of limbs during puberty and not have to struggle with an ill-fitting prosthesis. In addition, groups like Project Daniel are capable of helping many people in the same amount of time, and acceleration in research and development of new model designs; edits to prototypes can be made in minutes instead of weeks. Finally, there is the added benefit of the puzzle-like nature of the prosthetics: if a single part breaks, a replacement can be printed and replaced instead of having to create an entirely new limb.
We have come a long way in terms of the relevancy of 3D printing technologies— what critics once hailed as nothing but a means to make trinkets is now stepping up to taking a large role in the aid of war victims and low-income families with disabilities. It causes one to wonder where else Not Impossible Lab’s motto “Technology for the sake of humanity” will be applied next.
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