Artificial hand from 3D printing technology

With 3D printing technology, there have been many artificial parts of man made but this is the first time to build human hands.

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Richard Van As is a carpenter living in Johannesburg - South Africa. In an accident with the table saw, he lost two fingers on his right hand. Since she was in the hospital, Van As was determined to find a way to correct her mistake so she could go back to her favorite carpenter job.

In the process of searching, Van As discovered 3D printing technology and self-built fake hand parts with this technology. Since 3D printing technology has become popular, there are many prosthetic and medical support devices manufactured. However, human hands are particularly complicated and have always been a challenge with technology for prosthetics. The complexity of the hand-made structure pushes the price of fake hands up to several thousand dollars, a high price for many people, including Van As.

Richard Van As is assembling fake hands for boy Liam Dippenaar.(Source: NPR)

While in a standstill, Van As stumbled upon a YouTube video clip of Ivan Owen. Owen is a special effects specialist and puppeteer at Bellingham, Washington - USA, who has successfully created a large puppet arm using steel wires to replace tendons, allowing fingers to move flexible like real hands. Van As and Owen worked together to complete a fake hand for Van As.

When Owen flew over South Africa to end the project for Van As, an interesting event happened: A woman came to the pair of inventions to beg them to help her 5-year-old child with a lack of finger at right hand. It is the boy Liam Dippenaar with ABS (Amniotic band syndrome), a congenital disease with fibrous membranes covering the arms or legs, cutting off the blood supply and causing the fingers to fall off in the womb.

The miracle is that in just a few days, Owen and Van As have completed a metal hand with 5 fingers made of aluminum, operating based on the movement of the wrist. Owen still remembers the moment when they first attached a fake hand to the boy: 'The boy curled his wrist and made his hand clenched . You can see the boy's face glowing when he says:' It catches. imitate you! ' . It was a magical moment. '

Upon returning to the US, with the help of 3D printing technology company, MakerBot, Owen and Van As have simplified the production and testing process. In the past, it took them a few weeks to measure and cut parts, now it only needed about 20 minutes to design, print and test. A more complete version was built, named 'Robohand' , tested by the boy Liam himself. With only a short time of practice, he was able to handle many different objects, including small objects like coins.

The two inventors posted Robohand's artificial hand model on Thingiverse, which shares 3D prints, allowing anyone to create them at a cost of about $ 150. This invention immediately became a hot topic when it was posted on the internet in January this year. Since then, Van As, in addition to carpentry work, has helped to mount prosthetic hands for more than 100 children, completely free of charge.