US college student develops prosthetic hand using 3D printing

A student, who is a teaching assistant at the Ithaca College 3D Printing Lab, has created his own 3D printed hand prosthetic after coming across a number of open-source designs online.

Ryan Bouricius used the college's 3D printers to make a functional prosthetic hand

From these, Ryan Bouricius was able to 3D print and assemble a 3D printed hand in one day. After he had completed  making his first 3D  printed hand, the physics major decided to make some adjustments and improvements to its design.

Bouricius was able to make a functional 3D printed prosthetic hand for the low cost of $15, and according to the maker, "The nice thing about 3D printing is that the price only has to do with the amount of plastic used, not the complexity of the piece. So even though my modified pieces are trickier shapes, since it's the same amount of plastic, it's the same amount of money,'' irishexaminer.com reported.

According to the student's supervisor, professor Michael 'Bodhi' Rogers, the 3D printed prosthetic even offered a number of advantages over electronic prostheses, which were expensive, very complicated to repair, and largely quite inaccessible. As against this, 3D printed prosthetic cost only $15 to manufacture and could be repaired by simply re-printing replacement parts. 

With the adapted  design, users are able to exert a better grip on different objects, including a coffee mug.

According to Bouricious, 3D-printed prosthetics – designed for those who still had the ability to move their wrists -- had benefits over electronic ones, which were usually made from metal.

He thinks the hand would be especially useful for children, who tended to outgrow theirs very quickly. He plans to team up with a non-profit organisation eNABLE, which finds recipients for printed hands.