Kevin writes, “Peyton Andry is a Cincinnati boy who was born with symbrachydactyly, a condition that caused the fingers of his right hand to be shorter or missing entirely.”
“Peyton is confident and self-assured, so symbrachydactyly doesn’t necessarily hold him back, but it does make some everyday things more challenging. An encounter in late 2015 with another boy who shared his condition would open new doors and give him a superhero boost of confidence.”
The 3D printed hands that Peyton and Luke Dennison use are part of the E-Nable project, which I’ve written about before. A related project, Open Hand, also allows people to print customized, easily modified prosthetic hands.
Printing a hand is a sophisticated 3D-printing project that involves time, labor and a little bit of love. The process starts with the selection of a design, which is made simpler through the e-NABLE organization. Next, there are steps to establish dimensional fit, prepare files for printing, print the numerous parts and assemble them. For Peyton’s hand, there are approximately 30 individual parts that must be precisely printed. Simplify3D Software offers many features that were invaluable for this task, such as best-in-class support structures and quality controls that guarantee dimensional accuracy and a smooth finish. Additional software settings helped achieve strength in the parts to help the withstand usage of a typical 10-year old. The material cost for a hand may be about $50, but the investment of time is far more significant. Nearly a dozen volunteers were involved in Peyton’s project, and all of them felt felt deep satisfaction through the labor of love and an investment in changing lives.
3D Printed Hand Gives 10-yr-old Boy New Powers [Simplify 3D]