Skip to main content

3D printing used to create prosthetic hand for an 8-year-old boy

We may be years away from 3D printing being used to bioprint full organs which can be used in transplants to save lives, but make no mistake about it: additive manufacturing is already helping people.

This month, an eight-year-old British boy named William Joyner, who was born without a left hand, received a 3D-printed robotic prosthesis that lets him grip objects and even hold a pen.

Recommended Videos

“Within a few minutes of having it on his hand, William had picked up a marker and was drawing a picture and signing his name,” Professor David Jazani, a senior lecturer at University of Bedfordshire — who helped create the prosthesis — told Digital Trends. “While he was doing this I glanced across at his mom, and her eyes were full of tears. That’s when we realized just how worthwhile this work is.”

According to Professor Jazani, William’s mother first got in touch with the university after reading a story online about a 3D-printed prosthesis, and believing that similar technology could transform her son’s life. Professor Jazani worked with technician Mark Hooper to build the piece.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

An initial prototype was first developed earlier this year, although it was only this week that a more robust final model was completed and presented to William. “[The first prototype] worked, but it was also extremely fragile,” Jazani said. “Some of the plastic parts in it were just 1mm thick. Its material, ABS plastic, has a lot of benefits, but it also has downsides — such as the fact that when it’s exposed to sunlight it starts to erode and becomes a lot more brittle. In all likelihood, [the first prototype] would have broken in a matter of hours. We needed a way to make it more robust.”

Not only did the final version of the prosthesis meet this criteria, but Jazani and Hooper even 3D-printed it in the blue and white colors of William’s favorite soccer team. It should be usable by William until he is in his teenage years.

“One of the most important things about 3D printing is that it lends itself so well to rapid prototyping,” Jazani concluded. “Previously to make a part, we’d have had to create a mold and do injection molding. It was a lengthy and very, very expensive process. With 3D printing all of that changes. It’s very exciting.”

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Fighting football injuries with 3D-printed, hyper-personalized pads
The Protect3d 3D scanning process.

If you’ve ever watched a movie about sports, you’ve seen it. It's that moment that occurs two-thirds of the way into the story, when the protagonists’ inevitable victory suddenly seems a lot less certain. Maybe the inspirational mentor winds up in the ER, muttering motivational slogans from a hospital bed. Perhaps the unorthodox coach wins over the team, only to be fired by management for thinking too far outside the box. Possibly the star lacrosse player has a crisis of faith and realizes he wants to be an acapella singer rather than a jock.

For the three co-founders of Protect3D, a real-life version of that moment took place between the second and fifth game of Duke University's football season several years ago, back when the company's founders were engineering students. The team’s starting quarterback was the recipient of a particularly tough sack during a game. He went down hard, and stayed down. Things looked bleak.

Read more
AMD’s 3D-stacked Ryzen 7 5800X3D is ‘world’s fastest gaming processor’
AMD CEO presenting new CPU.

The first processor to use a 3D V-Cache technology was announced at the big AMD CES 2022 keynote. The tech was first announced at Computex 2021, and fans have been eagerly awaiting a processor that will put it to use.

That processor is the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which seems like a strange place to start a new range of processors. AMD has its Ryzen 9 chips, after all. That's because the new Ryzen 7 can outclass AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X while gaming, despite using the same architecture.

Read more
Need a last-minute Halloween costume? Check out these 3D-printable getups
3D printed Halloween costumes

Still not sure what to dress up as for Halloween this year? Well, instead of frantically scrambling around town looking for the right shop with the right stuff, have you considered 3D printing your Halloween costume? Check out our list of 3D-printable masks and costume pieces to get all geared up for this year's spooking, then fire up that printer.

If you've already finished your costume and want to get started on your scary movie watchlist, we've put together a list of the best horror movies on Netflix.
Squid Game soldier mask

Read more