Psyonic is aiming to make an impact in the world of prosthetics using Formlabs 3D printing technology.

As of 2017, almost 60 million people around the world were living with limb amputation due to traumatic causes. For patients recovering from a medical emergency, entering the new world of prosthetics can be painful. Most want a return to normality, and to do things such as driving a car, going to the gym or even just tidying around the house. 

The majority of traditional prosthetics are expensive and fragile, with approximately 10% of the patients requiring an advanced prosthetic being able to afford one, according to Psyonic, the creator of the Ability Hand.

The Ability Hand is designed and manufactured in-house at Psyonic with hybrid manufacturing methods, including 3D printing, injection and silicone moulding, and CNC machines. Psyonic says that the Ability Hand is promising to restore life and mobility back to what it was for patients.

Using the Formlabs SLA 3D printers, Psyonic says that it was able to create an FDA-registered, medicare-covered, industry-defining upper-limb prosthesis from scratch. The machine also allows for collection of customer feedback followed by rapid prototyping in-house to improve design and functionality. 

Psyonic also said that deploying a true hybrid manufacturing production method helped to deliver the Ability Hand at an affordable price. According to Psyonic, the company was able to increase affordability and access from 10% to 75% of patients. 

The company also utilised new durable and impact-resistant 3D printing materials to create long-lasting end-use parts.

One of the first users of the ability hand was Sergeant Garrett Anderson, who was deployed in Iraq in 2005. His vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Anderson had mild traumatic brain injuries and a broken jaw as a result, as well as needing to have his right arm amputated below the elbow.

Anderson attempted to return to normal life upon his arrival home, obtaining an undergraduate and Master's degree at Illinois State University. Anderson met Psyonic CEO Aadeel Akhtar when he was a Ph.D. student, and the two were both dissatisfied with the current state of prosthetics at the time.  

“Mixing and matching manufacturing methods is extremely important, I think, to startups in general, but especially to Psyonic. There’s no way we could have competed with other prosthetics companies at our size if we had to abide by purely traditional manufacturing,” said Lead Mechanical Engineer James Austin. “Things like CNC machining, and injection moulding, the initial costs, especially for trying to prototype things with multiple iterations, would’ve just been far too astronomical for us to do.”

3D printed moulds for manufacturing carbon fibre parts can reduce costs and lower lead times. Engineers can directly print the mould at low costs and within a few hours without having to hand carve it or deal with CNC equipment. High temp resin and Rigid 10K resin allows medical device firms such as Psyonic to achieve complicated mould shapes with fine details that would be difficult to manufacture with traditional methods.

Austin explained: “In the early iterations of the carbon fibre mould, SLA 3D printing was actually quite important. We didn’t have the resources to produce moulds for the carbon fibre, for example, by machining. So, what we did instead was we would produce moulds using High Temp Resin. This was fragile, but heat resistant, which allowed us to press the carbon fibre sheets into the exact shape we wanted, put them in an oven for high temperature to cure them, and then adhere them to our hand.”

The team initially used 3D printing for every part of the Ability Hand, including the fingers, in an attempt to reduce costs. After feedback from customers about the fingers snapping and breaking, the switch to 3D printing moulds for the fingers was made.

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printers were also used to create moulds. 

Austin said: “We’ve gotten many, many uses out of these moulds. You can use them over and over again, probably dozens and dozens of times. The only limitation with the clear resin is that they do get worn down over time, mostly just by handling. But even when that happens, it’s easy enough to just stick another run on the printer, and within 24 hours, because of the high resolution we print them at, we’ve got another mould and we’re ready to go moulding some more fingers.”

The highest resolution possible was used when printing with the Form 3 for both the end-use parts and moulds. This is so that the parts fit together precisely, and have a tight fit inside the hand and around the motors and gears. Psyonic said that any variation or tolerance in this could cause the gears to grind or the parts not fit.

Growing Psyonic as a business has pushed CEO Aadeel Akhtar Ph.D and his team to require modern hybrid manufacturing techniques and innovative engineering solutions. The next step for the company is to scale and bring the product to users all over the world.

Want to discuss? Join the conversation on the Additive Manufacturing Global Community Discord.  

Get your FREE print subscription to TCT Magazine.

Part of Rapid News Group

© Rapid News Publications Ltd. A Rapid News Group Company. All Rights Reserved