Printing Prosthetics

By Lauren Buchanan and Lauren Dargay

Since 3-D printers were invented in 1984, professionals in a wide range of industries have used the devices for a variety of items, including prototypes, models and actual products. Some 3-D printing experts, though, have started using their talents to help people in need around the world.

3-D Printed Prosthetics

Through an organization called e-NABLE, 3-D printing experts and enthusiasts volunteer their time and talents to print hands for people with handicaps. A majority of the hands are printed for children. e-NABLE is web-based, and the unpaid volunteers who work with the organization live in all corners of the world.

Every hand designed and printed by an e-NABLE volunteer is free of charge. Volunteers cover the cost of printing materials, but they often receive donations for materials and printers. All hand files designed by e-NABLE volunteers are open source and freely shared so anyone can access, download, modify and use them.

Aaron Brown of Grand Rapids, Michigan started working with e-NABLE when the organization was created in 2013.  He downloaded a file to print a hand simply so he could learn more about his 3-D printer and test his printing skills.

“I had no idea that printing my hand was going to change the course of the next couple years of my life,” Brown said. He has printed 52 hands since he first started working with e-NABLE, and his superhero-themed hands have been extremely popular with kids.

e-NABLE volunteers constantly update and improve the hand designs available online. After a design is tweaked and chosen, the parts print in approximately 13 to 17 hours. It then takes another two or three hours to assemble the parts. “I like to say that parents can print and assemble a hand for their kid over a weekend,” Brown said.

Kentucky resident Gregg Dennison has printed and assembled six different hands for his 8 year-old son, Luke, who was born without fingers on his left hand.

Luke is extremely involved with the design and printing process of his hands. “We’ll go through, he’ll pick colors out, we’ll print it out and then use it as much as we can to give feedback,” Dennison said.

Funding and Costs

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that approximately 2 million Americans have had an arm or a leg amputated.  Many of those people choose to wear prosthetic limbs.

Prosthetics can be extremely expensive. Each person fitted for a prosthetic device has different needs, and measurements differ from person to person. Because of that, prosthetic devices cannot be mass-produced. That lack of production, according to The National Institute of Standards and Technology, is the main reason behind high prices for traditional prosthetics.

Private insurance companies often partially cover costs for prosthetic limbs, but there is usually a cap on that coverage. According to a white paper published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, insurance companies usually place caps on prosthetics between $500 and $3,000 a year and approximately $10,000 per lifetime.

Additionally, there is no guaranteed funding from the state or federal government for prosthetic devices. Grants for prosthetic limbs often come from non-profit organizations. Government funding does go toward prosthetics research, though. The National Institute of Health, for example, has funded research for prosthetic limbs.

One of the biggest advantages of 3-D printed limbs compared to traditional prosthetic devices is cost. Brown likened the cost of a 3-D printed hand to a pair of shoes. “It’s about $35 to $45 in materials and plastic,” he said. Prosthetic devices cost a bit more, running up to $30,000.

Dennison’s son has never used a traditional prosthetic device, but he has spoken with parents of children who do. “Luke won’t wear his hand all the time. It’s kind of situational,” he said, “and I’ve heard the same thing from parents with kids with prosthetics, but they paid a lot more.”

3-D Printing at Kent State

According to Education News, more libraries and schools are purchasing 3-D because the cost of the devices is decreasing. More people, including students, are now able to design and print items with 3-D printers.

There are several 3-D printers at Kent State. Two are located in the library’s Student Multimedia Studio. The first 3-D printer was a gift from the Class of 2013, and, because it was so popular among students, library staff decided to purchase another in 2014.

Approximately 400 students request to use the 3-D printers each semester. Although the printers are available to all Kent State students, Student Multimedia Studio manager Hilary Kennedy said it is most common for architecture, fashion, engineering, science and entrepreneurship students to use them. Students do not have to pay to use the 3-D printers, nor do they have to purchase the materials used to create their final products.

“We weren’t sure after the first year if it would be a sustainable thing, cost-wise,” Kennedy said, “but the material goes a long way so it’s been something that we’ve been able to continue.”

The Student Multimedia Studio has its own budget for supplies, so some of the costs for printing materials are covered by that. “The library as a whole is not a revenue-generating organization, so we just have to work with whatever funds we have,” Kennedy said.

Students have created a variety of objects with the Student Multimedia Studio’s printers, including black squirrel figurines and small-scale replicas of the human brain. One student, though, took 3-D printing a step further. That student used one of the Student Multimedia Studio’s 3-D printers to create a robotic hand. “It was all the components that they could build together with other pieces to make it into a prosthetic,” Kennedy said. Kennedy also said the Student Multimedia Studio is interested in looking into printing prosthetics.

Watch the video below to get a glimpse at 3-D printing at Kent State and learn more about one college’s e-NABLE group.

 The Future

e-NABLE currently only prints hands and some arm devices, but volunteers are hoping to print additional limbs, including legs, in the future.

“Legs are very challenging because they need to support weight,” Brown said. “If a finger breaks, it’s less likely that the user is going to get injured. If a leg device fails, there’s a high risk of falling.” Despite the challenges, printing larger limbs is possible. Brown believes that he will be 3-D printing legs within the next 15 years. In May, e-NABLE was given a $600,000 grant by Google. Funds from that grant will help the organization provide limbs for even more people in need, and they may also help in the development of more complicated devices.

Although the technology is still evolving, 3-D printing has already made huge impacts in several different sectors of society. As printing techniques become more advanced, it’s expected that those impacts will only become greater.