When people think about 3D printing, they think about making cool toys in the basement or replacing a broken part of a remote control. But what if 3D printing could change lives?
This is exactly what happened recently to seven-year-old Liam, who was born without parts of his left arm. On 10 January, Liam, a huge Star Wars fan, was led by the Imperial Stormtroopers to a room, where he was given a new prosthetic arm. As soon as little Liam placed the arm over his elbow, he was able to make a fist and hold a cup, as he kept saying "cool" and giggled.
No ordinary arm
A prosthetic limb normally costs thousands of dollars. But this arm cost only $300, because it was printed on a 3D printer by John Peterson, part of e-NABLE.
e-NABLE is an online community comprising thousands of regular people who have access to 3D printers; they have come together to use their printers to make prosthetics for those who need them. The group has designs of "assistive hand devices" for those in need, ranging from entire arms to hands to missing digits. These are made available for free to the group members.
The group's Match Making facility marries those who need the prosthetics with local "3D builders", to help build the 3D assistive hand.
Children are often the recipients of these prosthetics, as typically, they are not fitted with these until they are fully grown. So e-NABLE provides an amazing service to these kids.
South African origin
This kind of collaboration started with a "Robohand" design, and was a project between Ivan Owen, a prop maker from Washington, and Richard Van As, a carpenter from SA. They created the first 3D printed prosthetic hand for a little boy in SA named Liam - and then gave the plans away for free, so that anyone can take and use them to create one for themselves.
Worldwide collaboration
What is incredible is that ordinary people are able to come together in a virtual world to help people they don't know. Using 3D printing technology to print a limb for another human seems almost too simple for these printer enthusiasts who are part of this amazing group; however, the way the people's lives change is anything but simple. Not only do the receiving kids get a new grip on life and are able to perform tasks they couldn't before, but their parents and siblings' lives are also changed forever.
As 3D printing becomes cheaper, more sophisticated and uses more robust materials, it is only a matter of time before we can talk about a time in history when people did not have access to prosthetic limbs. This is the joy that technology can bring a fellow human being.
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