German Paralympian Cyclist Uses 3D Printed Prosthesis – Update: Denise Schindler Won Silver & Bronze Medal

When the Paralympics will come to Rio de Janeiro this September, the German Denise Schindler hopes to win cycling. Therefore she has worked together with Autodesk to create a perfect fitting 3D printed prosthesis.  

14. May 2016 – Prostheses for sport have to withstand high mechanical stresses but they also should be as light-weight as possible. These are no easy requirements and you need a good technique and specialists to manufacture such prostheses. Until now it was common that they ware made by hand. That was very time consuming and also pretty expensive. If you wanted changes or your prosthesis got broken or lost, the whole work hat to start from the beginning.

Denise Schindler has lost her left lower part of her leg in an accident when she was only two years old. Most of her life she has lived with a prosthesis and at some point she discovered cycling as her passion. Together with Autodesk she has now developed a perfect fitting prosthesis. Therefor her limb was 3D scanned and then a 3D model was created. The model was processed with Autodesk Fusion 360. The last step was to 3D print the model and post process it after printing.

My dream is to make better fitting performance prostheses accessible to all so I am really excited about the results of this project. Ultimately the number one most important thing about any prosthesis, and especially a sports prosthesis due to the amount of time spent training and competing in it, is comfort. Being able to develop a well-fitting prosthesis which doesn’t compromise on performance, in less time and for less money than traditional means is a real breakthrough

The so created prosthesis should cost up to 75% less than conventional created prosthetics. It’s also less time consuming and if it doesn’t fit perfectly anymore or gets damaged, only the 3D model has to be reworked. After that it can be printed and used again. If you are interested in Denise Schindler you can find more information about her on her website.

Update 19.09.2016: Denise Schindler won the silver and bronze medal

Actually Denise Schindler’s favourite discipline is the 3000 meter individual sprint. But in this discipline she was too long in the slipstream of her competitor Megan Gidlia and was disqualified therefore. But Denise Schindler hasn’t stop fighting and finally got a medal at another category, the 47.7km street race. She raced to the third place and had Jamie Whitmore (America) Zeng Sini (China) before her. In the time race discipline she even made it to the second place and the bronze medal. During all races she used the 3D printed prosthetic.