Home Applications & Case Studies e-NABLE and GrabCAD Launch 3D Printed Modular Prosthetic Challenge

e-NABLE and GrabCAD Launch 3D Printed Modular Prosthetic Challenge

The Enable Community Foundation challenges the GrabCAD community to lend a hand and take part in a challenge to create a 3D printed terminal device for those with limb differences. The ECF and the e-NABLE community believe that limb differences should never serve as barriers towards living a fulfilling and extraordinary life.

The ECF and the e-NABLE community have demonstrated the potential of 3D printing as a distribution platform for highly customized low-cost prosthetic devices and now seeks to grow that work. This challenge is seeking to engage GrabCAD’s large
and diverse population of talented engineers to design a modular, low-cost, 3D-printable terminal device that is compatible with the International Committee for the Red Cross’s (ICRC) transradial prosthetics manufacturing guidelines.

ECF board member, Andreas Bastian, stated: “e-NABLE has taken great strides in showing the world what’s possible with 3D printing and an open source community. What we’re looking to do at the Enable Community Foundation is to take the powerful methods that the community has developed and begin to extend them to other limb differences that are far more prevalent than the congenital birth defects that have been the focus of e-NABLE’s work to date. We’re excited about engaging GrabCAD’s community of over one million engineers and designers to develop even more low-cost, 3D printed assistive devices for those with limb differences.”

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The challenge calls for devices that interface with the ICRC wrist unit, which is an international standard for low-cost prosthetics and is widely used. Currently, there are very few 3D printable terminal devices that are compatible with the wrist unit. The ECF is engaging this opportunity to build on the interface with 3D printing technology in order to open up the possibilities not afforded by traditional manufacturing, such as function-specific terminal devices, devices optimized for local aesthetics, and devices that can be further customised by the device user.

The challenge launched on GrabCAD.com on April 19, 2016 for their community and the public with $3400 in total prizes. The deadline for entries to be considered is on May 16, 2016. To participate in this challenge, visit the challenge page here.


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