3D Printing Prosthetics with E-Nable

Details
Title
3D Printing Prosthetics with E-Nable
Usage & Reproduction Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Type
Video recordings
URI / Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/muislandora:2977
Created
2015-01-01T00:00:00Z
Abstract
The first part of this experience was to 3D print a working prosthetic hand for a child with no fingers (based on an open source hand design). The second part of the research was to prove that printing a high quality plastic hand could be done using a $600printer versus a $2000 printer. 3D printing is the next new thing in many fields such as medical or business. Regular prosthetics cost tens of thousands of dollars to make for someone missing a hand, fingers, or a leg. In addition, children rapidly outgrow these expensive prosthetics. Our 3D-printed prosthetics only cost $30 to $50. Our focus is helping children born without fingers, but these could help adults as well, especially people in the military. The research was conducted by first understanding how to use a 3D printer. The technology is still not considered “plug and play” and therefore it requires a large amount of testing to achieve successful prints. Due to the cutting-edge nature of this technology, a variety of challenges had to be overcome.The primary challenge was calibration of the printer. 3D printing depends on very precise alignment of molten plastic emerging from a tiny 0.4 mm nozzle. This nozzle has to rest within fractions of a millimeter from a print surface, necessitating extremely precise setup of the printer. When an issue or problem occurred that couldn’t be answered, the research turned towards help from experts through user forums. We scaffolded our project by spending several weeks perfecting smaller prints (a calibration cube and a shark figurine) and progressing to larger items (finger pins/caps) and finally full palms and gauntlets. Printing the full hand was tedious and revealed unforeseen challenges relating to the length and size of the print. Previous prints were 30-60 minutes, while the palm was a multiple hour job. This introduced new challenges (including recalibration for larger parts, assuring adequate cooling, etc.). After 1 month, we successfully printed our first hand, and I attended a research conference in Baltimore in September 2014 that discussed 3D-printed prosthetics and provided information on assembling a hand. Based on this conference, we adjusted the research to focus on printing the latest design of the E-nable project and I had Marymount join as an official partner of the E-nable community. It took approximately two months to print a fully functional hand with the same quality as the $2,000 printer due to calibration, school breaks, and hours of messed up prints. Our research, however, definitively proves that you can print a hand with the same quality on a $600 printer instead of a $2,000 printer. We are now awaiting a match through E-nable that will connect us with a recipient in need of a hand. We will use the experience of this research project to perform appropriate measurements and provide a custom-printed, functional, 3D-prosthetic hand for an individual in need. This project is significant to my pursuits within the medical field. I want to have a career as a physician assistant.

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