A young Florida boy was born without a right
arm but is now sporting a prosthetic replacement made by university students
using low-cost 3-D printing.
by John
Tyburski
Copyright © Daily
Digest News, KPR Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
Armed with
only a 3-D printer, students at the University of Central Florida “printed” a
low-cost alternative prosthetic limb for a young boy born without a right arm.
Medical prosthetic limbs can cost as much as $40,000, but this custom “one-off”
cost only $350 to make.
Alex Pring,
six, of Florida, was born with only a small portion of his right arm, inspiring
Albert Manero and his team to design and produce plans and a prototype in just
seven weeks.
“I feel
good. I feel everything good, even my robot arm,” Pring told reporters. “It’s
not even heavy.”
Manero, a
Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering, found his inspiration from a letter he
read posted by Alex’s mother to an online forum for people devoted to making
prosthetic hands. She wrote that because Alex was born without an arm, the
family’s insurance company would not cover the cost of a prosthetic limb. The family
had no way of paying for one out-of-pocket.
Manero got
the idea for using 3-D printing from a story he heard about a man in South
Africa who made an artificial hand using the low-cost fabrication technique.
“I was
really inspired,” Manero said. “When I got back, I talked to my colleagues and
friends and said, ‘We can do this.’”
Amazingly,
the limb is not just a static piece but has functionality. It can operate for a
full day on one battery charge. Manero published the his plans for the device
online so that others can take what he created and make improvements.
“I have no
doubt that the international community will try to move this technology forward
and lower the cost,” said Manero.
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