As 3D printing becomes a normal service, many are using it to perform a variety of functions, whether it's building a car or a gun. But in one new practice, the technology is being used to build artificial hands for boys and girls who lost a limb.
Earlier this week, 3D printing nonprofit Enabling the Future gave 7-year-old Faith a new artificial hand, according to the Associated Press. The limb was pink and purple, just as Faith requested, and is completely made of 3D printed parts. The hand was ready to use right off the printer.
Faith lost the bottom half of her arm when she was young and has lived most of her life without a full right arm. So, the opportunity to have a full limb was a new and exciting experience for Faith.
The girl showed she could manipulate her new hand by moving her upper arm back and forth, AP reported. Mark Muller, a prosthetics professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who helped design the hand, said Faith could receive a replacement hand after she outgrows her current robotic limb in six months or a year.
Enabling The Future is a nonprofit that asks its collection of volunteers to use their 3D printers to produce artificial limbs for kids. Child-sized artificial limbs are particularly hard to handle, since kids tend to grow out of them over time. 3D printed limbs are significantly cheaper than other limbs and are much easier to recycle and replace. 3D printing also allows kids to customize their limb's design. For example, Robert Downey Jr. gave a young boy a 3D-printed limb last week that looked like Iron Man's arm.
"It's wonderful to see these sorts of things happen. 3D printing has long been derided as a gimmick but with these and other similar projects popping up and gaining traction we're looking at an era where everyone, not just prosthetic experts, can help people who are disabled or disadvantaged" TechCrunch reported.
Watch Faith show off her new hand in the video below.
